Nutrition Education Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 5892 To amend section 9A of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to require that local school wellness policies include a requirement that students receive 50 hours of school nutrition education per school year. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 13, 2020 Mr. CARTWRIGHT (for himself, Mr. YOHO, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. SWALWELL of California, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. MOORE, Ms. NORTON, Mr. VARGAS, and Mr. PETERS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor A BILL To amend section 9A of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to require that local school wellness policies include a requirement that students receive 50 hours of school nutrition education per school year. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Nutrition Education 4 Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress finds the following: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:54 Feb 20, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5892.IH H5892 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 5892 IH (1) Section 9A of the Richard B. Russell Na- 1 tional School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758b) requires 2 all local educational agencies participating in a pro- 3 gram authorized by the Richard B. Russell National 4 School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) or the 5 Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 et 6 seq.) to establish a local school wellness policy for 7 schools under the jurisdiction of local educational 8 agencies that include nutrition promotion and edu- 9 cation. However, there are no specific requirements 10 regarding the amount of time or type of classes that 11 school children have to spend or take in nutrition 12 education. 13 (2) Some schools include in their health edu- 14 cation classes some general information about nutri- 15 tion, but there are no specific guidelines of what the 16 minimum requirements should be. The mean number 17 of hours spent on nutrition education in the first 4 18 years of school is only 13 hours per year. A min- 19 imum of 50 hours per year are thought to be nec- 20 essary to influence behavior. 21 (3) Each local educational agency participating 22 in a program authorized by the Richard B. Russell 23 National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) 24 or the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:54 Feb 20, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5892.IH H5892 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 5892 IH et seq.) should have a minimum requirement for 1 amount of time per year students should spend on 2 nutrition education and the type of instruction that 3 should be provided as part of such education. 4 SEC. 3. SCHOOL NUTRITION EDUCATION REQUIREMENT. 5 (a) AMENDMENTS.—Section 9A(b) of the Richard B. 6 Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758b(b)) 7 is amended— 8 (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘nutrition 9 promotion and education, physical activity,’’ and in- 10 serting ‘‘physical activity’’; 11 (2) by redesignating paragraphs (2) through 12 (5) as paragraphs (3) through (6), respectively; and 13 (3) by inserting after paragraph (1), the fol- 14 lowing: 15 ‘‘(2) a requirement for 50 hours of school nutri- 16 tion education during a school year for each student 17 at a school under the jurisdiction of the local edu- 18 cational agency, which includes instruction that— 19 ‘‘(A) is consistent with sections 9 and 17 20 of this Act, and sections 4 and 10 of the Child 21 Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773, 1779); 22 ‘‘(B) is offered at each grade level as part 23 of a sequential, comprehensive, standards-based 24 program designed to provide students with the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:54 Feb 20, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5892.IH H5892 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 5892 IH knowledge and skills necessary to promote and 1 protect their health; 2 ‘‘(C) is part of not only health education 3 classes, but is also encouraged to be incor- 4 porated into classroom instruction in subjects 5 such as math, science, language arts, social 6 sciences, and elective subjects; 7 ‘‘(D) includes enjoyable, developmentally 8 appropriate, culturally relevant, participatory 9 activities, such as contests, promotions, taste 10 testing, farm visits, and school gardens; 11 ‘‘(E) promotes fruits, vegetables, whole 12 grain products, low-fat and fat-free dairy prod- 13 ucts, healthy food preparation methods, and 14 health-enhancing nutrition practices; 15 ‘‘(F) emphasizes caloric balance between 16 food intake and energy expenditure; 17 ‘‘(G) coordinates with school meal pro- 18 grams, other school foods programs, and nutri- 19 tion-related community services; 20 ‘‘(H) teaches media literacy with an em- 21 phasis on food marketing; 22 ‘‘(I) provides training for teachers and 23 other staff in nutrition education; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:54 Feb 20, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5892.IH H5892 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 5892 IH ‘‘(J) establishes a process to evaluate the 1 effectiveness of the requirements of school nu- 2 trition education described in subparagraphs 3 (A) through (I);’’. 4 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 5 subsection (a) shall take effect at the beginning of the 6 school year following the date of the enactment of this Act, 7 but not earlier than 3 months after the date of the enact- 8 ment of this Act. 9 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:54 Feb 20, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5892.IH H5892 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS