The Child Nutrition Act originally passed into law in 1966.  Its goal was to provide children with a balanced diet that fulfills all of their nutrient needs without excessive caloric intake.  The act established the School Breakfast Program, which now feeds more than 10 million children each day, as well as the School Lunch Program, which feeds over 30 million students each day.

The act was last renewed in 2004, and is normally re-worked and reauthorized every five years.  However, last year the renewal was pushed back to September, 2010.  Meetings are due to commence on July 1 regarding the Reauthorization.  In preparation for these meetings, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree hosted a forum yesterday to discuss the goals of the Child Nutrition Act.  Below is a video with various excerpts from the forum.

The video discusses some interesting points—including that children’s brains may not develop properly if they do not get the calories and nutrients they need during critical periods of growth.  This means that when kids don’t get enough healthy food, they may not only lack focus and attention in school on that particular day, but they may actually do long-term damage by denying their brains the food it needs to grow to its full potential.

Government funding can certainly help kids by providing lunch and breakfast to students who would otherwise go without; but their jurisdiction over the specific food that is served is limited.

Schools can help, too, by placing vending machines with healthy, nourishing snacks for kids around campus.  And schools can do this for free!  It may not be a solution for all students; some may suffer from malnutrition because of a complete lack of funds.  But having healthy vending machines in school would make a difference to those who can afford to buy food on campus, but don’t have access to the nourishing foods they need to help their brains grow strong.