Obama to Vilsack: “I want our children to have more nutritious food.”

Upon accepting a position as Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack heard a clear directive from his new boss, President Obama:

“I want our children to have more nutritious food.”

With the upcoming reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, Vilsack is pursuing numerous initiatives to address the President’s request.  Today, at the Healthy Kids, Healthy Future conference, he announced several priorities:

Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)

• Additional funding: Ask Congress for an increase in WIC funding from $6.9 billion to $7.7 billion to meet expanded demand for the program, which reaches 49% of children.
• Electronic benefit redemption: $3 million in new grants to allow a number of states to implement systems that will allow WIC recipients to buy food with a card or similar device.
• Computer system upgrades: $5 million for states to make necessary upgrades that will ensure the integrity of the program.

National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program

• Expand access: Simplify the ways people qualify for participation.
• Reduce stigma: No child should be tagged as a recipient of subsidized food.
• Improve standards: Implement nutrition standards consistent with the food pyramid.
• Increase activity: Focus on increasing the physical activity that children receive in schools.
• Focus on vending: Make a concerted effort to focus on nutritional value of what’s available in vending machines.

All of this requires investment, Vilsack explained.  But he also emphasized that there is a return on investments in WIC: school nutrition and obesity prevention impacts other parts of the budget favorably.  For every dollar invested in WIC, three dollars are saved from the Medicaid program.  As Vilsack noted to a knowing laugh from the crowd, not many programs in Washington see that kind of return on investment.

Vilsack concluded his talk with a positive outlook on environment for making the changes that President Obama asked for when invited Vilsack to join the USDA.

“The country is ready for this,” Vilsack said.  “There’s a growing sense among folks that this is something we need to be taking far more seriously than we have been.”

Update: The official USDA press release is now available at usda.gov.

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1. Healthy Kids, Healthy Future » A Chat with Bill Dietz — September 24, 2009 @ 4:04 pm

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