Activists Save D.C.'s Healthy School Food

Washington, D.C. students enjoy some of the healthiest school fare in the country. While many kids dine on tater tots and greasy burgers in cafeterias, D.C.'s youngsters get honey-glazed chicken with homemade corn bread and locally grown broccoli. Thanks to some effective organizing by local non-profits, the District's kids can keep eating those healthy vittles in the future.

As Change.org reported previously, D.C.'s Mayor Adrian Fenty recently proposed cutting funds for the Healthy Schools Act, legislation passed earlier this year that boosted the nutritional quality of cafeteria meals. The $5 million cut came as one of Fenty's measures to close the city's $188 million budget gap. If the City Council approved the cut, it would not only seriously diminish the quality of D.C. students' breakfasts and lunches, it would undermine a huge coalition of non-profits' work to get the Healthy Schools Act passed.

The coalition of organizations that worked to get the Healthy Schools Act passed in the first place was instrumental in saving it from a budget-cut death. "We saw that the Healthy Schools Act was on the chopping block, so a bunch of us core organizations came together on a couple of conference calls and mapped out our strategy to restore the funding," said Andrea Northup, coordinator of the D.C. Farm to School Network, a group that led the charge to save the Act. That strategy included a call-in day, an online petition, and a letter to D.C.'s Council members.

The campaigning worked: On December 7th, the City Council secured funding for the Healthy Schools Act for the 2011 fiscal year, ensuring the improved lunch program's future throughout the city's schools.

Many folks question why the Healthy Schools Act was ever under attack in the first place because the plan has a funding mechanism built right into the legislation. When lawmakers passed the Healthy Schools Act this May, it included a six percent tax on soda sold in D.C. That tax was designed to fund the improved school meal program. However, according to Northup, the tax was dedicated to the Healthy Schools Act in theory more than in practice: Instead of sending all that tax revenue directly to school cafeterias, the money went into a general city fund. Hence, the Healthy Schools Act — despite its built-in funding — still wound up on Fenty's execution list.

The Healthy Schools Act will not only benefit D.C.'s students, it can serve as a model lunch program that other American school districts can follow. The plan outlines nutritional standards that school meals must meet, like including a whole grain, different kinds of produce, and a certain percentage of dark green vegetables every day. The program also helps schools source locally produced foods like farm-fresh broccoli, collards, and apples.

While the recently passed Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act aims to boost school lunches across the nation, D.C.'s Healthy Schools Act raises the bar even higher. Let's hope that other schools districts in America take a page from the effective organizing of the D.C. Farm to School Network and its partners and campaign for improved school food for their students.

Photo credit: DC Central Kitchen via Flickr