The White House and USDA Announce School Wellness Standards

26 Feb 2014 --- First Lady Michelle Obama has joined U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to announce proposed guidelines for local school wellness policies. The bipartisan Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 mandated that the USDA set guidelines for what needed to be included in local school wellness policies in areas such as setting goals for nutrition education and physical activity, informing parents about content of the policy and implementation, and periodically assessing progress and sharing updates as appropriate.

As part of local school wellness policies, the proposed guidelines would ensure that foods and beverages marketed to children in schools are consistent with the recently-released Smart Snacks in School standards. Ensuring that unhealthy food is not marketed to children is one of the First Lady's top priorities; that is why it is so important for schools to reinforce the importance of healthy choices and eliminate marketing of unhealthy products.

"The idea here is simple—our classrooms should be healthy places where kids aren't bombarded with ads for junk food," said First Lady Michelle Obama. "Because when parents are working hard to teach their kids healthy habits at home, their work shouldn't be undone by unhealthy messages at school."

This action comes after the White House Summit on Food Marketing to Children last fall where Mrs. Obama called on the country to ensure children's health was not undermined by marketing of unhealthy food.

"The food marketing and local wellness standards proposed today support better health for our kids and echo the good work already taking place at home and in schools across the country. The new standards ensure that schools remain a safe place where kids can learn and where the school environment promotes healthy choices. USDA is committed to working closely with students, parents, school stakeholders and the food and beverage industries to implement the new guidelines and make the healthy choice, the easy choice for America's young people," Secretary Vilsack said.

To help schools with the implementation of the school wellness policies, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched a new "School Nutrition Environment and Wellness Resources" website, which includes sample wellness policy language for school districts and a dedicated page of resources for food marketing practices on the school campus.

These new resources will complement a second announcement which highlights the nationwide expansion of a successful program that was piloted in 11 states with the goal of ensuring children who are in need of nutritious meals are receiving them. Beginning July 1, 2014, more than 22,000 schools across the country—which serve primarily low-income students—will be eligible to serve healthy free lunches and breakfasts to all students. This will help as many as 9 million American children eat healthy meals at school, especially breakfast, which can have profound impacts on educational achievement. Research shows that kids who eat breakfast in the classroom preform over 17% better on math tests and have fewer disciplinary problems.

The consumer lobby group CSPI welcomed the move. "Given the high rates of childhood obesity and children's poor diets, it doesn't make sense to advertise and market unhealthy food to children at all, much less in schools," said Center for Science in the Public Interest nutrition policy director Margo G. Wootan. "Parents know from experience, and studies show, that food marketing affects kids' food preferences, food choices, and health."

In 2012, 70 percent of elementary and middle school students and 90 percent of high school students attended schools with in-school food marketing, most of which is for unhealthy food. According to the Federal Trade Commission, candy and snack food manufacturers, beverage companies, and fast-food restaurants are the heaviest marketers. Companies market to children in schools through posters, scoreboards, products promoted on the fronts of vending machines, promoting pizza by giving students coupons for reading books, commercials on in-school television programs, and branded educational materials and curricula.

Yet only 20 percent of school districts have food-marketing policies and less than 10 percent of states do. Although some companies have voluntarily agreed to limits on food marketing in schools through the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, CFBAI's school marketing guidelines exclude middle and high schools, and don't apply to many forms of marketing in elementary schools, including vending-machine exteriors, menu boards, display racks, branded food reward programs, branded materials for staff, and fundraisers.

The financial impact on schools of limiting food marketing should be minimal. A 2012 study by Public Citizen found that two-thirds of schools with advertising got no income at all from it, and less than half of one percent of schools earned more than $50,000 from school marketing. Under the new rule, schools could still allow food and beverage marketing for healthy foods.

"Local wellness policies are an important and low-cost approach for school districts to implement the national school lunch and Smart Snack guidelines, as well as address other school foods and physical activity," said Wootan.

America’s non-alcoholic beverage industry applauded First Lady Michelle Obama’s “common-sense” efforts to strengthen school wellness policies, including support for aligning food and beverage signage in schools to reflect what is allowed under U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations.

“Mrs. Obama's efforts to continue to strengthen school wellness make sense for the well-being of our schoolchildren,” said ABA President and CEO Susan Neely. “Our industry helped lead the way with our voluntary national School Beverage Guidelines, which removed full-calorie soft drinks, cut beverage calories in schools nationwide by 90 percent, and set the stage for the USDA’s regulations that take effect in schools this July. Now, we look forward to working with the USDA on their proposed rule to align food and beverage signage in schools with the new regulations as the logical next step.”

The beverage industry – whose leading companies include The Coca-Cola Company, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and PepsiCo – has long been committed to the health and wellness of Americans. These efforts are having a real and lasting impact:
•    School Beverage Guidelines: America’s beverage companies successfully implemented voluntary national School Beverage Guidelines, removing full-calorie soft drinks from all schools and replacing them with more lower-calorie, smaller-portion options. Developed with the William J. Clinton Foundation and its Alliance for a Healthier Generation, these guidelines helped form the basis for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s interim final rule on competitive foods and beverages sold in schools.
•    Clear on Calories: In 2010, in support of the First Lady’s launch of her “Let’s Move!” campaign, America’s beverage companies announced the Clear on Calories initiative – a voluntary commitment to place easy-to-use calorie labels on the front of every bottle, can and pack they produce. By placing total calories on the front of all bottles and cans up to and including 20 ounces, consumers know exactly how many calories are in the beverage before making a purchase. For packaging larger than 20 ounces, the labels provide calories per serving. The calorie labels put this information right at the fingertips of consumers so they can make a choice that’s right for them.
•    Drink Up: In 2013, America’s beverage companies teamed up with the First Lady and the Partnership for a Healthier America in supporting “Drink Up” Building upon previous industry initiatives, companies supported this effort by placing the water drop logo on bottled water, company trucks, on their websites or in their advertisements.