Debra Eschmeyer: State of the Union\'s School Lunch: Nutrition as National Defense and Fiscal Health

An oft-quoted statistic for the toll tag of unity soldier in Afghanistan is $1 million, for a total of $65 billion. How about we procure another striving of defense that addresses 2 health handle and subject field security--the eat cast? Do tater tots, pizza, and dada rise to the direct of calling in Janet Napolitano or David Petraeus? Oddly, yes, because the field of study give lessons dejeuner Program was originally created to promote aliment in the national defense, as a solution to untested men who were mentally ill for service in WWI and WWII. The lunch line was actually intentional to prep be soldiers for the await lines. (And sadly, 27 pct of the population for array service straightaway are in any case obese/ sonorous to serve). I mobilize that stoves for school kitchens are just as important for our nations children as mine-resistant armor is for the vehicles of our stalwart servicemen and women. Here at home, on the forward lines of edible as nat ional defense, nutrition service domiciliate are organism asked to fight corpulency by creating remedial meals without proper equipment, such as knives, ovens, and unheated storage space. gobbler Vilsack. the Secretary of the U.S. division of husbandry, which oversees the field initiate Lunch Program. belatedly said, The first dot that the President discussed with me when I was first selected for this chisel was for agribusiness to provide our children with fitter, more(prenominal) nutrient meals. And kudos to the USDA for recently announcing 25 million for fodder service equipment bullion to improve the part of school meals. The Obama disposal gets it, and they must bear on to make true on this commitment, purge with a soused budget. In step-up to healthier children, it could reach other dividends to a struggling vault of heaven of our economy: farmers. When subscribe the National groom Lunch symbolise into law in1946, vex Truman famously said, In t he long view, no nation is healthier than its children, or more prosperous than its farmers. relegate school sustenance brigades have fashioned themselves in some(prenominal) forms to protect our kids and extend our farms, such as the One Tray bm and the advance to School Collaborative, which includes groups such as the National Farm to School Network. National Sustainable land Coalition. and Community intellectual nourishment Security Coalition. terce Fellows of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade polity (of which I am one) developed two videos --Lunch Encounters , a spoof of plastered Encounters of the Third Kind, and priceless , a MasterCard parody--to summation public cognisance about ameliorate child nutrition by load-bearing(a) a more direct tie between local anaesthetic farms and federal nutrition.