Wellness policies: a new way to expel marketers from school
Gary Ruskin
Last Wednesday, President Bush signed into law the Child Nutrition and
WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, which contained an amendment requiring
local school boards to adopt wellness policies to promote health and
reduce childhood obesity. The wellness policies must include nutrition
guidelines for foods and beverages sold or served to children at
school. School boards must adopt the wellness policies by the first day
of the 2006-7 school year.
This new law is a great opportunity to reduce junk food marketing and
sales in schools across the country.
*What you can do*
1) Tell your local school board members to adopt a wellness policy based
on the Childhood Obesity Prevention Agenda
(www.commercialalert.org/copa.pdf), to improve child health and reduce
the incidence of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes. At a minimum,
any school wellness policy should include a ban on junk food marketing
and sales in schools, and a ban on Channel One, which advertises for
junk food and soda pop.
The Childhood Obesity Prevention Agenda has been endorsed by leading
authors, scientists and obesity experts from Harvard, Johns Hopkins,
Stanford, and Yale, along with the American College of Preventive
Medicine, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Eagle Forum, Green
Party of the United States, Organic Consumers Association, and the Yale
Prevention Research Center. Other endorsers include: Lawrence Cheskin
(Director, Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center); Greg Critser
(author, Fat Land); Frances Moore Lappe (author, Diet for a Small
Planet); Marion Nestle (author, Food Politics); Peggy O'Mara (Publisher,
Mothering Magazine); Alvin Poussaint (Harvard Medical School); Raffi
(children's troubadour); Ellen Ruppel Shell (author, The Hungry Gene);
Walter Willett (Harvard School of Public Health)
2) Thank U.S. Senator Tom Harkin for winning the school wellness policy
amendment. You can email Sen. Harkin's staffer, Derek Miller, at
Derek_...@agriculture.senate.gov.
*Background*
Following is the text of the new law (Sec. 204 of S. 2507):
http://www.commercialalert.org/wellnesslaw.pdf
SEC. 204. LOCAL WELLNESS POLICY.
(a) IN GENERAL- Not later than the first day of the school year
beginning after June 30, 2006, each local educational agency
participating in a program authorized by the Richard B. Russell National
School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) or the Child Nutrition Act of
1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 et seq.) shall establish a local school wellness
policy for schools under the local educational agency that, at a minimum--
(1) includes goals for nutrition education, physical activity, and
other school-based activities that are designed to promote student
wellness in a manner that the local educational agency determines is
appropriate;
(2) includes nutrition guidelines selected by the local educational
agency for all foods available on each school campus under the local
educational agency during the school day with the objectives of
promoting student health and reducing childhood obesity;
(3) provides an assurance that guidelines for reimbursable school meals
shall not be less restrictive than regulations and guidance issued by
the Secretary of Agriculture pursuant to subsections (a) and (b) of
section 10 of the Child Nutrition Act (42 U.S.C. 1779) and sections
9(f)(1) and 17(a) of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act
(42 U.S.C. 1758(f)(1), 1766(a)), as those regulations and guidance apply
to schools;
(4) establishes a plan for measuring implementation of the local
wellness policy, including designation of 1 or more persons within the
local educational agency or at each school, as appropriate, charged with
operational responsibility for ensuring that the school meets the local
wellness policy; and
(5) involves parents, students, representatives of the school food
authority, the school board, school administrators, and the public in
the development of the school wellness policy.
(b) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND BEST PRACTICES-
(1) IN GENERAL- The Secretary, in coordination with the Secretary of
Education and in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human
Services, acting through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
shall make available to local educational agencies, school food
authorities, and State educational agencies, on request, information and
technical assistance for use in--
(A) establishing healthy school nutrition environments;
(B) reducing childhood obesity; and
(C) preventing diet-related chronic diseases.
(2) CONTENT- Technical assistance provided by the Secretary under this
subsection shall--
(A) include relevant and applicable examples of schools and local
educational agencies that have taken steps to offer healthy options for
foods sold or served in schools;
(B) include such other technical assistance as is required to carry out
the goals of promoting sound nutrition and establishing healthy school
nutrition environments that are consistent with this section;
(C) be provided in such a manner as to be consistent with the specific
needs and requirements of local educational agencies; and
(D) be for guidance purposes only and not be construed as binding or as
a mandate to schools, local educational agencies, school food
authorities, or State educational agencies.
(3) FUNDING-
(A) IN GENERAL- On July 1, 2006, out of any funds in the Treasury not
otherwise appropriated, the Secretary of the Treasury shall transfer to
the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out this subsection $4,000,000, to
remain available until September 30, 2009.
(B) RECEIPT AND ACCEPTANCE- The Secretary shall be entitled to receive,
shall accept, and shall use to carry out this subsection the funds
transferred under subparagraph (A), without further appropriation.
<-------------law ends here----------->
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