USDA backs rewarding schools serving healthy food

Schools that serve more fruits, vegetables and whole grains to pupils should see higher federal support rates than those serving less-healthier meals loaded with high fats and sugar, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Tuesday.

Child nutrition programs, which include school lunch and breakfast, are due for an overhaul but Congress is not expected to act before 2010. The government has targeted improving the nutritional quality and access to school meals amid rising child obesity rates. Vilscak did not suggest how large the bonus should be.

Schools get $2.88 in cash and Agriculture Department-provided food for each lunch meal served for free to poor children this school year. School meal programs provide an estimated 40 million meals daily and more than half the student's food intake during the school day. Students can receive free or subsidized meals if their family's income is low enough. Some $16.9 billion was allotted for child nutrition in the fiscal year that opened on October 1, up $1.9 million from fiscal 2008.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln told Vilsack she was willing to pay more to serve healthier foods. "I'm certainly sympathetic to the concept of higher reimbursement rates. Common sense does tell us that as we improve that quality it also increases the cost," she said.

Steve - as sad is it is to say, this may be the one incentive that will work. However, nothing positive will happen unless the USDA greatly improves the quality of its own food that it provides as part of the school lunch program. However, if enough requests come from schools to spur demand, the USDA must react, and thus, will allocate more money to provide more fruits and vegetables as staple foodstuffs.