Tomorrow President Trump will deliver his State of the Union address in front of Congress, outlining his policy priorities and executive vision for the country.
Over the past three years, President Trump has spoken to a domestic agenda focusing on health care, education, farmers and the working class. It’s worth recognizing, however, that his Administration’s proposals have failed to meet, and many times even undermined the health, education, and well-being of our nation’s families and children.
At
FoodCorps
, we believe that a healthy, prosperous future relies on a strong education system — and that the students that education system serves must be fueled with healthy food. In the last year alone, the President
has sought to dismantle SNAP
(formerly known as food stamps) impacting millions of families’ food budgets, while also jeopardizing school meal access for an estimated one million children, limit healthier options on our kids’ trays, and dissuade immigrant communities from seeking support to feed their families.
As the President prepares to address the nation, amid perhaps the most polarizing moment of his executive tenure, we strongly urge a dialogue — from him and others — that considers our top domestic policy issues as reflections of how we invest in schoolchildren.
For instance:
Role of Food in Children’s Health
: in a political climate that is fueled by debates about health care costs and preventable diet-related diseases, we should channel the old wisdom that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and increase investment in school meals, which ~30 million kids eat every day.
Fighting for Family Farmers
: with continued conversations on how to lift up farmers and rural communities, a clear answer is to connect them with local schools for market development. The
Farm to School Act of 2019
would not only create new revenue streams for local producers, but would help bring more farm-fresh foods into our schools—prioritizing high-need student populations.
Education = Equity
: Children who lack a quality diet are more likely to face a lifetime of challenges: they score lower on tests, miss more days of school, advance less in their careers, and raise children who are likely to repeat the same cycle. Will President Trump lay out a plan to level the playing field so that all kids—regardless of race, place, or class—are well-nourished and ready to thrive at school and beyond?
A Hidden Infrastructure Need
:
Infrastructure is back in the news.
It’s not just bridges and highways that are falling apart: many school cafeterias haven’t been updated in decades, limiting their capacity to serve meals made from scratch with fresh produce. The
School Food Modernization Act
would provide critical investment in school kitchen equipment to ensure they can effectively and efficiently serve healthy school lunches [link to op-ed].
We believe that a strong State of the Union would include healthy school meals for all children and call on both the White House and Congress to protect and strengthen investments in school meals.
Interested in hearing more on school food policies? We can connect you with FoodCorps Policy Director Kumar Chandran who can speak to current introduced legislation, including the Bills mentioned above, and other policies that would equip school nutrition staff with the best possible tools to serve students on a daily basis.
All the best,
Casey
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About FoodCorps
Together with communities, FoodCorps connects kids to healthy food in school so that every child—regardless of race, place, or class—gets the nourishment they need to thrive. Our AmeriCorps leaders transform schools into places where all students learn what healthy food is, fall in love with it, and eat it every day. Building on this foundation of direct impact, FoodCorps develops leaders, forges networks, and pursues policy reforms that in time have the potential to improve all of our nation’s 100,000 schools. To learn more about FoodCorps’ work across the country, visit
.