Burchett / 6 Senator Philippou

S.R_____
A BILL

To improve public school lunch food quality standards.

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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Philippou School Nutrition Act of 2015.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) Good nutrition is an important part of a healthy lifestyle.
2) A diet that is full of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and whole grains can help you
lose, maintain or control your weight.
3) In the 2004-05 school year. , 93-94% of meals failed to meet all nutritional standards,
primarily due to not meeting standards for fat, saturated fat, or calories.
4) Processed foods that are high in fat, sugar, and salt have become a mainstay of lunches in schools across America.
5) There were vending machines in 17%, 82%, and 97% of elementary, middle, and high
schools, respectively, and a la carte items were sold in 71%, 92%, and 93% of schools,
respectively.
6) As children move to higher grade-levels, their school food environments become less
healthy.
7) Snack items are 200 calories or less per portion as packaged and a la carte entre items
do not exceed calorie limits on comparable National School Lunch Program items.
8) Snack items meet a sodium content limit of 200 mg or less per portion as packaged or 480 mg or less per entre
portion as served a la carte.
9) Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs requires most schools to meet the
nutrition needs if school children within their calorie requirements.
10) Many children consume at least half of their meals at school, and for many children, food served at school may be
the only food they regularly eat.
11) Cutting down on all fats from fatty and fried foods, butter, cream, margarine and oils is agreed on by nutritionists
the world over as a way of making the modern diet healthier and reducing weight.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) All public schools shall be serving students full lunch meals which must have less than 400 calories and less than
500 milligrams of sodium. Each meal must have at least one of the following beverages: 100% or 2% milk, 100%
real fruit juice, or water. The meal must also include at least one serving of fruit or one serving of vegetables.
Each daily menu should have three or more different choices for students to choose from. The meals should all be
different, but must all include a source of grain and/or a source of meat.
B) This law should be enforced and upheld by the Department of Agriculture. It shall be added to the National
School Lunches Program. Funding for the meals will come from each schools budget and aid from the United
States Federal Government.
C) Any state, which fails to adopt school lunch nutritional standards, at least as vigorous as stated above, shall
henceforth forego any more federal education funding until they have done so. This law shall go effective in
January 2016.