POLICY :: School Food

This page was last updated on (August 09)

The Issue

The Child Nutrition Act is a federal law that comes up for reauthorization in Congress every four to five years. It governs the National School Lunch Program, which sets the standard for the food that more than 30 million children eat every school day.

In the last few decades, as school budgets have been cut, our nation's schools have struggled to serve children the real food they need. CAFF and other organizations have joined with Slow Food to advance reforms that would:

• Give schools just one dollar more per day for each child’s lunch.
• Establish strong standards for all food sold at school, including food from vending machines and school fast food.
• Fund grants for innovative Farm to School programs and school gardens.
• Establish financial incentives that encourage schools to buy food from local farms for all child nutrition programs.
• Train underemployed Americans to be the teachers, farmers, cooks, and administrators our school cafeterias need.

The deadline for reauthorizing the current Child Nutrition Act is September 2009. Unless we speak up this summer, “business as usual” on Capitol Hill will let Congress pass a Child Nutrition Act that continues to fail our children. On Labor Day, Monday, September 7, 2009, Slow Food’s Time for Lunch campaign is sponsoring a series of “Eat-Ins” (potlucks) around the country to promote a focus on improving food in our schools and to encourage people to contact their legislators about the need to improve school food.

Our Platform

CAFF has long supported greater linkages between sustainable farming and nutritious foods. That’s why we work around the state to promote Farm to School programs that bring fresh produce directly from local farmers to local schools: it’s good for our farmers and good for our kids.

Download Slow Food’s Time for Lunch Policy Platform

What You Can Do

• To stay up to date, join our Action Alert Network
• Contact your Legislators
• Join an Eat-In: CAFF is hosting or co-hosting the Eat-In's in:
  Sunnyvale-- contact Emma Hoag-- emma@caff.org
  Monterey-- contact Kathryn Spencer-- kathryn@caff.org
  Hollister-- contact Nants Foley-- nantsfoley@gmail.com
  Humboldt County--contact Michelle Wyler-- michelle@caff.org

Bills & Proposals

Our Advocacy History

• For second year, the Appropriations Committee refuses to pass bill to establish statewide Farm to School program... (Summer 2007)
• Farm to School efforts unsettled... (Summer 2006)
• Several legislative efforts to provide more nutritious foods at schools… (Spring 2006)
• Governor vetoes AB 826 (Nava) (Fall 2005)
• CAFF sponsors bill to create new Farm-to-School programs
  (Summer 2005)

Press Coverage

• "Stars Aligning on School Lunches" by Kim Severson, the New York Times, August 2009
• "No Lunch Left Behind" by Alice Waters and Katrina Heron, the New York Times, February 2009

Articles & Reports

Links to Relevant Sites

• Slow food USA
• Better School Food
• The Center for Ecoliteracy
• The National Farm to School Network
• Slow Food in Schools
• School Lunch Talk