INSTITUTE BRIEF
Volume 19, Number 36 December 2012
The Overregulation of School Lunches
by Jennifer L. Crull
If you haven’t taken the time recently to search on YouTube about the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of
2010, then you may have missed a video that was posted a couple of months ago called “We Are Hungry.”1 This satirical look at the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act gives all of us a laugh or two, but when
you take a closer look at the legislation, the provisions placed upon the schools, child-care providers, and
adult-care providers are overreaching and intrusive and at some levels discriminating towards all kids not
obese. Part of the chorus of this parody is “Tonight, we are hungry; set the policy on fire.” This is exactly
what needs to happen.2
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states, “In 2008, more than one third of children and
adolescents were overweight or obese.”3 While this is a very alarming number of children that are overweight in our country, the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 is not the solution to this problem. I
understand why Michelle Obama has taken on this as her project, and I think most people supported her
“Let’s Move” program. This legislation covers many different components, but for this BRIEF we are
going to look at the most publicized part of the legislation, which is the school-lunch program. While I think most of us support healthier meals at school for our children, we also need to take into consideration many different facts. This idea that one size of calorie intake fits all does not work. Currently
the calorie intake is broken down into three categories: grades K-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12. When
schools are preparing lunch for our students, grades K-5 are allowed to have a maximum of 650 calories,
for grades 6-8 the maximum is 700 calories, and for grades 9-12 the maximum is 850 calories.4 Now our
children are only allowed to have two ounces of meat a day, and only fat-free and low-fat milk are allowed to be served with this meal.5 Last time I checked, these are growing children. The Website HealthyChildren.org, which is run by the American Academy of Pediatrics, lists the following calorie intake for children for the day:
Children’s Age Categories
4 - 8 years old
9 - 13 (female) years old
9 - 13 (male) years old
14 - 18 (female) years old
Total Calorie
Intake for the
Day*
1,200 – 1,400
1,600
1,800
1,800
School Lunch Program % of Total
46.4 percent (on 1,400)
40.6 percent if in K-5, 43.7 percent if in 6-8
36.1 percent if in K-5, 38.8 percent if in 6-8
38.8 percent if in 6-8, 47.2 percent if in 9-12
14 - 18 (male) years old
2,200
31.8 percent if in 6-8, 38.6 percent if in 9-12
*For active children, calorie requirements may be greater6
I have to say I feel sorry for the teachers who have the middle school boys in class for the last couple periods of the day; they have to be crabby from being hungry. This Website also points out that by the time
children reach adolescence “as many as 20 to 30 percent of them have completely given up the morning
meal.”7
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Volume 19, Number 36 December 2012
So 20 to 30 percent of them are not eating breakfast, and now for boys’ lunch can dip to 31.8 percent of
their total calorie intake. Wow! No wonder they are hungry, and when teenagers are hungry they usually rush to junk food for it is easy to get. I am not sure what the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has accomplished other than decreasing our children’s energy levels. This is considering
normal children who will most likely have a meal for supper when they are home, but what about the
children who don’t have that hot meal waiting for them at home? Also what about the children who are
active in sports, who have practice after school and whose needs are even higher than those shared above? These students are also going to be distracted during the day by their hunger. So what is the solution to the overreaching regulations from the USDA? Congressman Steve King (R-IA)
and Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) have introduced H.R. 6418, No Hungry Kids Act.8 In a press
release from Congressman King’s office:
The bill was introduced in response to recently released school lunch standards from
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that have left children around the
nation hungry during their school day due to extreme calorie rationing. The “No Hungry Kids Act” repeals the USDA rule that created the new standards, prohibits the
USDA’s upper caloric limits, and will protect rights of parents to send their children
to school with the foods of their choice.9
Luckily, many children have parents who will fix lunches and send them to school with enough to eat, but
what about the parents who can’t afford to send a lunch every day with their child? While they may seem
minor, the regulations that have been put into effect here ignore children who have medical conditions
that require a certain calorie intake or hungry children. The real problem is that it is time for the government to stop being intrusive and regulating our personal lives. If Michelle Obama would have just gone
with her “Let’s Move” campaign I don’t think people would have been up in arms about what she was doing, but now telling my child what and how much they are allowed to eat is wrong. Last time I checked,
that was my job as a parent. I ask everyone to take the time to make your voices heard in Washington, D.C. Take the time to write
to the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack or the Undersecretary of Food and Nutrition Services Kevin
Concannon.10 Let’s hope that level heads can make some changes with this over-regulating USDA and
help our children get healthy meals, with the necessary calorie intake to be active and healthy.
(Endnotes)
1
“We Are Hungry,” Wallace County High School, September 2012, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IB7NDUSBOo> accessed on
November 1, 2012.
2
Ibid.
3
“Childhood Obesity Facts,” Center for Disease Control and Prevention, <http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm > accessed on
November 1, 2012.
4
“New Meal Pattern Requirements and Nutrition Standards,” USDA, p. 9, <http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/governance/legislation/LAC_03-0612.pdf> accessed on November 1, 2012. 5
Ibid., p. 22.
6
“Healthy Living,” American Academy of Pediatrics, <http://www.healthychildren.org/English/healthy-living/nutrition/pages/ChildhoodNutrition.aspx> accessed on November 1, 2012.
7
“The Case for Eating Breakfast,” American Academy of Pediatrics, <http://www.healthychildren.org/English/healthy-living/nutrition/pages/
The-Case-for-Eating-Breakfast.aspx> accessed on November 2, 2012.
8
H.R. 6418.IH, The Library of Congress, Thomas, <http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.6418.IH:> accessed on November 1, 2012.
9
Congressman Steve King, U.S. House of Representatives, September 14, 2012, <http://steveking.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&tas
k=view&id=4465&Itemid=300099> accessed on November 1, 2012.
10
The address for both the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Undersecretary of Food and Nutrition Services Kevin Concannon is 1400
Independence Ave., SW; Washington, D.C. 20250.
Jennifer L. Crull is an IT Specialist with Public Interest Institute, Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
Contact her at [email protected].
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The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and not necessarily those of
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