See the inspiring stories Come meet us Time to legalize weed?
OPINION
Michelle Obama

Couric: GOP takes bite out of healthy meals

Katie Couric
A school lunch from the documentary “Fed Up,” which looks at obesity in America. Executive producer Katie Couric narrates.

A few years ago, I took a group of kids to a farmers market in New York City. It was an eye-opening experience. Most of them had never seen, much less tasted, many of the vegetables on display. One 11-year-old mentioned it was her first time eating a raw carrot. That experience made me realize the sorry state of our food environment.

The most obvious place to roll up our sleeves and start making improvements would be in schools. But sadly, a congressional panel just severely weakened a nutrition overhaul to the school lunch program, which taxpayers fund to the tune of $11 billion a year.

In Fed Up, a newly released documentary I narrated and executive produced, we followed five overweight kids from across the country. They all told us their schools have made it impossible for them to eat healthy. We saw the evidence firsthand when our cameras followed one girl into her middle school, where she was served McDonald's, Chick-fil-A and Arby's for lunch. Junk food was everywhere.

As Kelly Brownell, dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, told me, "Some schools have become 7-Elevens with books."

This all started in 1981, when President Reagan cut $1.46 billion from the child nutrition budget. Many schools got rid of their cooking equipment and turned to processed foods, which they simply heat and serve.

Obesity crisis

Thirty years later, we find ourselves facing a staggering public health crisis, with one in three children now overweight or obese. More than a quarter of potential military recruits are too fat to serve. Our global competitiveness is suffering. Saddest of all, this is the first generation of children expected to lead shorter lives than their parents.

In Fed Up, President Clinton told me, "We could cure literally 80% of the problem for children in schools if we went back to school cafeterias where they prepared the food."

First lady Michelle Obama understood this when she championed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act back in 2010. The law set new standards for school menus, including doubling the fruits and vegetables offered and adding more whole grains.

We are already seeing very positive results. A Harvard study found that, under the upgraded standards, kids are eating 16% more veggies and 23% more fruit at lunch. Yet, by a party line vote last month, the House Appropriations Committee would allow school districts to opt out of the federal standards if they decide it's too expensive to comply, despite an Agriculture Department analysis suggesting the new standards are demonstrably not a financial burden.

More brown-bagging?

Critics of the initiative cite a decrease in schools participating in the meal program, with more kids brown-bagging it. But one of the nation's largest districts, Los Angeles Unified, reports a 14% increase in participation, and the USDA expects participation will keep climbing.

Some schools have argued how unhappy students are with the lunch makeover. Lyman Graham, the food service director in Roswell, N.M., contends families there won't accept whole grain tortillas, despite science proving they are far healthier than refined grains. Graham said, "We simply cannot afford to feed our trash cans." Well, I respectfully disagree — what we really can't afford is to feed our children trash.

House Republicans have aligned themselves with the ironically named School Nutrition Association, a powerful coalition of school officials and food companies that sell highly processed products to schools. Association members include Pizza Hut, Tyson Foods, Coca-Cola and Schwan's Food Service, the largest supplier of frozen school pizzas. Let's be clear: This is really about Big Food throwing around its big lobbying dollars to protect its bottom line, just as it did three years ago when it persuaded Congress to declare pizza sauce a vegetable. It's tragic that just when we seem to be at a tipping point — literally and figuratively — Congress is taking a big bite out of this common-sense policy.

I challenge these politicians to eat the same school lunch they ask America's kids to eat, five days a week, for the next 200 days. Or better yet, have their own kids and grandkids eat it. This is one food fight we can't afford to lose.

Katie Couric is Yahoo News global anchor, host of Katie and a New York Times best-selling author.

In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more columns like this, go to the opinion front page or follow us on twitter @USATopinion or Facebook.

Featured Weekly Ad