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Media Contact: foodcorps@sunshinesachs.com

July 20, 2022  – Today, the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor released the Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act, representing a major step in a long overdue process to update laws governing school meals and other child nutrition programs. Under the leadership of Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Civil Rights and Human Services Subcommittee Chair Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), the proposed legislation provides funding and resources for key priorities that help support healthy kids and schools.

FoodCorps applauds Chairman Scott and Chair Bonamici for recognizing critical priority issues that we advocate for, which will make a real difference in the lives of our nation’s students. This legislation is an important step in strengthening investments that make healthy, nourishing, and delicious food more accessible to all students, including:

  • Increasing access to free school meals
  • Higher lunch reimbursement rates
  • Expanding funding for the Farm to School Grant program
  • Establishing a new grant program to support scratch cooking in schools
  • Making it easier for schools to source local food
  • Reauthorizing school kitchen equipment grants
  • Supporting experiential nutrition education and other activities to reduce food waste in schools

While Congress is scheduled to review Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) every five years, the last reauthorization of these programs was in 2010. FoodCorps is committed to continuing our work with lawmakers and coalition partners to ensure the priorities included in this critical legislation are secured quickly. Our nation’s children, their families, and the school staff who support them deserve to start the new school year with certainty that every child has access to the nourishing food their bodies need to learn, grow, and thrive.

FoodCorps celebrates our lawmakers’ efforts and will continue working to advocate for programs that support nutritious school meals, hands-on food education, and equity and justice for children, schools, and communities everywhere.

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