[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4958 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4958

To amend section 204 of the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act 
of 2004 (42 U.S.C. 1751 note) to require 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.) to include under the 
  local wellness policy established by the agency a requirement that 
  students receive 50 hours of school nutrition education per school 
                                 year.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 25, 2010

Mr. Baca (for himself, Mr. Sires, Mr. Towns, and Ms. Norton) introduced 
 the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education 
                               and Labor

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend section 204 of the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act 
of 2004 (42 U.S.C. 1751 note) to require 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.) to include under the 
  local wellness policy established by the agency a requirement that 
  students receive 50 hours of school nutrition education per school 
                                 year.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Healthy Children Through School 
Nutrition Education Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress findings the following:
            (1) The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 
        (42 U.S.C. 1751 note) requires all local educational agencies 
        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.) to establish a 
        local school wellness policy for schools under the local 
        educational agency that include nutrition education goals. 
        However, there are no specific requirements regarding the 
        amount of time or type of classes that school children have to 
        spend or take in nutrition education.
            (2) Some schools include in their health education classes 
        some general information about nutrition, but there are no 
        specific guidelines of what the minimum requirements should be. 
        The mean number of hours spent on nutrition education in the 
        first 4 years of school is only 13 hours per year. A minimum of 
        50 hours per year are thought to be necessary to influence 
        behavior.
            (3) 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.) should have a minimum 
        requirement for amount of time per year students should spend 
        on nutrition education and the type of instruction that should 
        be provided as part of such education.

SEC. 3. SCHOOL NUTRITION EDUCATION REQUIREMENT.

    (a) Amendments.--Section 204(a) of the Child Nutrition and WIC 
Reauthorization Act of 2004 (42 U.S.C. 1751 note) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ``nutrition education, 
        physical activity,'' and inserting ``physical activity'';
            (2) by redesignating paragraphs (2) through (5) as 
        paragraphs (3) through (6), respectively; and
            (3) by inserting after paragraph (1), the following:
            ``(2) includes a requirement for 50 hours a school year of 
        school nutrition education per student that includes 
        instruction that--
                    ``(A) is consistent with the rules promulgated by 
                the Secretary under section 9(a)(4)(B) of the Richard 
                B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 
                1758(a)(4)(B)) based on the most recent Dietary 
                Guidelines for Americans published under section 310 of 
                the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research 
                Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 5341);
                    ``(B) is offered at each grade level as part of a 
                sequential, comprehensive, standards-based program 
                designed to provide students with the knowledge and 
                skills necessary to promote and protect their health;
                    ``(C) is part of not only health education classes, 
                but is also encouraged to be incorporated into 
                classroom instruction in subjects such as math, 
                science, language arts, social sciences, and elective 
                subjects;
                    ``(D) includes enjoyable, developmentally 
                appropriate, culturally relevant, participatory 
                activities, such as contests, promotions, taste 
                testing, farm visits, and school gardens;
                    ``(E) promotes fruits, vegetables, whole grain 
                products, low-fat and fat-free dairy products, healthy 
                food preparation methods, and health-enhancing 
                nutrition practices;
                    ``(F) emphasizes caloric balance between food 
                intake and energy expenditure;
                    ``(G) coordinates with school meal programs, other 
                school foods programs, and nutrition-related community 
                services;
                    ``(H) teaches media literacy with an emphasis on 
                food marketing;
                    ``(I) provides training for teachers and other 
                staff in nutrition education; and
                    ``(J) establishes a process to evaluate the 
                effectiveness of the requirements of school nutrition 
                education described in subparagraphs (A) through 
                (I);''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall 
take effect at the beginning of the school year following the date of 
the enactment of this Act, but not earlier than 3 months after the date 
of the enactment of this Act.
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