The bill, a priority for the president and first lady Michelle Obama, would boost spending
on child nutrition $ 4.5 billion over 10 years and raise federal reimbursements for school lunches more than the inflation rate for the first time since 1973.
Not exact matches
DTN Political Correspondent Jerry Hagstrom reported yesterday (link requires subscription) that, «Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln
on Wednesday unveiled a bill to reauthorize the
child nutrition programs that would increase funding for school lunch and other programs by
$ 4.5 billion over 10 years, with some of the money coming from the budget for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
Food
$ ense CHANGE Curriculum [external link] Created by WSU King County Extension, FoodSense CHANGE curriculum integrates
nutrition education with reading, writing, math and science studies, while providing hands -
on learning in cooking and gardening for elementary aged
children.
About
$ 250 million (# 125 million) is spent
on nutrition aid annually compared to
$ 3 billion combating HIV / Aids, despite malnutrition being responsible for five times more
child deaths than Aids.
At a hearing last week
on legislation to reauthorize
child -
nutrition programs, officials from the Agriculture Department, the agency that administers the school - lunch program, said that such overcounts could cost the government as much as
$ 200 million each year.
• Bright Star Schools, which will use a
$ 250,000 grant to give teachers up to four weeks of paid maternity or paternity leave, a
child care subsidy,
on - campus fitness classes, and
nutrition counseling.
The average pay for
child care teachers is barely more than
$ 10 per hour, lower than for most other jobs, including parking lot attendants and dog walkers.26 These low wages contribute to economic insecurity among the
child care and early education workforce, with one in seven living in families with incomes below the federal poverty level.27 Currently, about half of people working in the
child care sector rely
on public benefit programs such as Medicaid and
nutrition assistance.28 Low pay contributes to high turnover rates, which can threaten quality in early childhood programs during
children's critical developmental period.