Chicago Sun-Times: Uphold school nutrition standards

The following article appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times on June 2, 2014. A link to the article can be found here.

By Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Chicago

Uphold school nutrition standards

When it comes to our children's health, the Sun-Times is right that Congress shouldn't abandon the healthier nutrition standards we instituted for school lunch programs in 2010. Much like eating your peas, providing kids with healthier school lunches may be less palatable, but the long-term benefits of good nutrition far outweigh the cheaper pizza and chicken nugget status quo.

Childhood obesity rates are on the rise, more than doubling in the past 30 years. With more than one third of U.S. children overweight or obese and more children relying on school lunch programs for the majority of their daily meals than ever before, how can we in good conscience continue to serve up sodium and fat-laden foods that jeopardize our children's health?

Though implementing higher nutrition standards may cost more in the short term, failing to implement them will certainly cost America even more later. We spend tens of billions of dollars annually in obesity-related medical costs. That's in addition to the hundreds of billions we spend on the indirect costs of obesity, like increased food consumption, absenteeism and lost productivity in the work force, and increased fuel and infrastructure related needs.

Congress should uphold the standards we know will help ensure our students —and our country — grow up to be healthy and strong. It's time we add health and nutrition into the lesson plan alongside reading, writing and arithmetic. Our school lunch programs are the best place to start.