l****z 发帖数: 29846 | 1 Federal Government Looking to Feed Public School Students 3 Meals Per Day
Year Round
By Penny Starr | September 4, 2015 | 1:48 PM EDT
(CNSNews.com) – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Tuesday that his
agency is looking for “creative ways” to give public school students
access to more meals, including a way to provide them breakfast, lunch and
dinner year round.
“We have focused on efforts to try to figure out ways in which we can
expand in those time periods when youngsters may not have access to school
meals,” Vilsack said in remarks at the liberal Center for American Progress
in Washington, D.C. That includes giving students access to meals “across
the school day, across the school year and across the calendar year,” he
said.
“We’ve looked for creative ways to potentially here in the D.C. area and
the state of Virginia an opportunity to take a look at what would happen if
all three meals were available for young people,” Vilsack said.
Vilsack spoke ahead of the Sept. 30 expiration date for federally funding
the Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act of 2010, which pays for USDA’s school
meal and child nutrition programs —including the Special Supplemental
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), the National School
Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and the Child and Adult Care
Food Program.
The programs are generally reauthorized for five-year periods, according to
the National Conference of State Legislators.
In April, the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) announced that the
number of summer meals provided to children increased by millions between
2012 and 2014.
“In 2013, FNS targeted efforts in five States to improve access to summer
meals and, as a result, FNS served seven million more meals than in summer
2012,” the announcement stated. “An additional six States were targeted in
summer 2014 and FNS met its goal of serving an additional 10 million meals
over summer 2013.” |