The United Fresh Produce Association and advocates for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children known as WIC are fighting against changes that appropriators are considering in the fiscal year 2015 Agriculture appropriations.

The School Nutrition Association, which represents school meal preparers, has urged Congress to make school meals programs more “flexible” while the National Potato Council has said that potato purchase should be allowed under the WIC program.

The proposals would roll back changes made under the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act and the rules for WIC purchases, which were based on scientific recommendations that young children were already eating enough white potatoes and that WIC money should be spent on the purchase of other vegetables. The changes would be made to way the Obama administration has managed the school meals program and the rules for WIC food purchases.

There have been rumors that the subcommittees will address those issues in the markups scheduled on Tuesday.
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Tom Stenzel
“Together with leaders of the public health community and moms and dads across America, we are appalled at the suggestion that somehow Congress should now intervene to block USDA’s commitment to children taking one-half cup of fruits and vegetables as a component of school lunch and breakfast, United Fresh President Tom Stenzel wrote both the House and Senate subcommittees on Friday.

“One-half cup? Really, that is too big a burden to support children’s health? How can anyone truly call it a ‘meal’ without at least one-half cup of a fruit or vegetable?”

Stenzel also questioned statements that children are refusing fruits and vegetables.

“Those who want to block even this minimal attempt to better serve our children say kids won’t take it. Balderdash!,” Stenzel added. “We have repeatedly seen the transformational impact of offering kids a fresh fruit and vegetable salad bar, and can assure you that there is no problem with kids enjoying a half-cup of any produce item when offered fresh, quality foods.”

“When members of Congress go to their own child’s PTA meeting, I would not want to stand in front of the other moms and dads and have to defend a policy that cannot even deliver a half-cup of fruits or vegetables in a school lunch,” Stenzel concluded.

Meanwhile, the National WIC Association and the American Public Health Association have launched a petition drive to discourage the appropriators from forcing USDA to allow the purchase of potatoes in the WIC program.

“The appropriate way to ensure that the WIC food package remains science-based is for USDA to engage the Institute of Medicine to conduct another review of the latest nutrition science, including consumption data,” the groups wrote their members.

“We fully expect members of both the House and Senate to propose amendments to the agriculture appropriations bills in their respective chambers mandating potatoes into the WIC food packages. This would set a bad precedent that jeopardizes the scientific integrity of the WIC food packages, allowing any member of Congress to convince enough of his/her colleagues that the food item produced in his/her district should be in the WIC food packages.

“And, we have been told that it will be very difficult for our champions to hold the line without other members hearing that the people in their states and districts oppose these actions.”

Marion Nestle, the New York University nutrition professor and food blogger, encouraged her readers over the weekend to sign on to the WIC letter and a letter on school meals organized by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

▪ United Fresh Letter to Senate Ag Appropriations Subcommittee ▪ United Fresh Letter to House Ag Appropriations Subcommittee ▪ National WIC Association ▪ — Protect the WIC Food Packages ▪ American Public Health Association ▪ School Nutrition Association position paper ▪ National Potato Council