Joint Committee on Health Care Financing Advances School Nutrition Bill - 10/25/2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – October 24, 2007
Contact: Kathleen Skarin
617-722-2130
kathleen.skarin@state.ma.us
BOSTON – Today the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing approved legislation authored by Representative Peter Koutoujian to promote better school nutrition.
The committee recommended favorable action on H. 4199, An Act to Promote Proper School Nutrition, which would ban the sale of unhealthy competitive foods and drinks in Massachusetts public schools. The legislation, which has been a top priority for Chairman Koutoujian since 2003, establishes nutrition standards as set by the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) April 2007 report, “Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools: Leading the Way Toward Healthier Youth”. This groundbreaking report was commissioned by Congress and was written in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in order to make recommendations for the appropriate nutritional content of competitive foods sold in schools.
The IOM report recommends and the bill advises that federally reimbursable school nutrition programs should be the primary source of foods and beverages offered at school. It also calls for limiting the sale of soda to high schools, only permitting them to be sold after the school day. Sports drinks would also be restricted, the report concludes, and only made available at the discretion of sports coaches for students engaged in vigorous activity lasting an hour or more.
H. 4199 is modeled after the recommendations of the IOM report, calling for a ban on unhealthy competitive foods and beverages that do not meet specific scientifically based nutritional standards. It would also require schools to sell non-fried foods and vegetables at any location where foods are sold.
Action taken by the Health Care Financing Committee comes a week after the CDC released a six year survey tracking nutritional performances in our nation’s schools. According to the report, more states across the country are incorporating some of the recommendations in H. 4199 in increasing numbers, creating a healthier environment for children at schools.
“Schools across the country have begun to take the first steps towards providing better nutrition and it is time that Massachusetts does the same to prioritize healthy weight for children,” Koutoujian said.
Other provisions of the bill include: continuing education of school nurses, nutrition and exercise instruction in schools, collection and reporting of obesity trends and the establishment of a farm to school program developed by the Departments of Education and Agricultural Resources.
“Today’s generation deserves the right to grow up healthy,” Koutoujian said. “This bill is a way of establishing healthy eating habits in children early with the goal that those practices remain throughout adulthood.”
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