I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3800 

To amend section 9A of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch 

Act to require that local school wellness policies include a requirement 

that students receive 50 hours of school nutrition education per school 

year. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 22, 2015 

Mr. CARTWRIGHT (for himself, Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, Ms. BROWN of 

Florida, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, Mr. COHEN, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. DELANEY, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. FATTAH, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. 

HASTINGS, Mr. HINOJOSA, Mr. HONDA, Mr. LYNCH, Mr. MCGOVERN, 

Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. NOLAN, Ms. NORTON, Mr. O’ROURKE, Mr. 

PAYNE, Mr. POCAN, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. VARGAS, Mr. VELA, 

Mr. YOHO, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. SWALWELL of California, Ms. CLARKE

of New York, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. ESHOO, and Mr. PETERS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 

A BILL 

To amend section 9A of the Richard B. Russell National 

School Lunch Act to require that local school wellness 

policies include a requirement that students receive 50 

hours of school nutrition education per school year. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Nutrition Education 

3 Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

5 Congress finds the following: 

6 (1) Section 9A of the Richard B. Russell Na7 tional School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758b) requires 

8 all local educational agencies participating in a pro9 gram authorized by the Richard B. Russell National 

10 School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) or the 

11 Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 et 

12 seq.) to establish a local school wellness policy for 

13 schools under the jurisdiction of local educational 

14 agencies that include nutrition promotion and edu15 cation. However, there are no specific requirements 

16 regarding the amount of time or type of classes that 

17 school children have to spend or take in nutrition 

18 education. 

19 (2) Some schools include in their health edu20 cation classes some general information about nutri21 tion, but there are no specific guidelines of what the 

22 minimum requirements should be. The mean number 

23 of hours spent on nutrition education in the first 4 

24 years of school is only 13 hours per year. A min25 imum of 50 hours per year are thought to be nec26 essary to influence behavior. 


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1 (3) Each local educational agency participating 

2 in a program authorized by the Richard B. Russell 

3 National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) 

4 or the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 

5 et seq.) should have a minimum requirement for 

6 amount of time per year students should spend on 

7 nutrition education and the type of instruction that 

8 should be provided as part of such education. 

9 SEC. 3. SCHOOL NUTRITION EDUCATION REQUIREMENT. 

10 (a) AMENDMENTS.—Section 9A(b) of the Richard B. 

11 Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758b(b)) 

12 is amended— 

13 (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘nutrition 

14 promotion and education, physical activity,’’ and in15 serting ‘‘physical activity’’; 

16 (2) by redesignating paragraphs (2) through 

17 (5) as paragraphs (3) through (6), respectively; and 

18 (3) by inserting after paragraph (1), the fol19 lowing: 

20 ‘‘(2) a requirement for 50 hours of school nutri21 tion education during a school year for each student 

22 at a school under the jurisdiction of the local edu23 cational agency, which includes instruction that— 


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1 ‘‘(A) is consistent with sections 9 and 17 

2 of this Act, and sections 4 and 10 of the Child 

3 Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773, 1779); 

4 ‘‘(B) is offered at each grade level as part 

5 of a sequential, comprehensive, standards-based 

6 program designed to provide students with the 

7 knowledge and skills necessary to promote and 

8 protect their health; 

9 ‘‘(C) is part of not only health education 

10 classes, but is also encouraged to be incor11 porated into classroom instruction in subjects 

12 such as math, science, language arts, social 

13 sciences, and elective subjects; 

14 ‘‘(D) includes enjoyable, developmentally 

15 appropriate, culturally relevant, participatory 

16 activities, such as contests, promotions, taste 

17 testing, farm visits, and school gardens; 

18 ‘‘(E) promotes fruits, vegetables, whole 

19 grain products, low-fat and fat-free dairy prod20 ucts, healthy food preparation methods, and 

21 health-enhancing nutrition practices; 

22 ‘‘(F) emphasizes caloric balance between 

23 food intake and energy expenditure; 


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1 ‘‘(G) coordinates with school meal pro2 grams, other school foods programs, and nutri3 tion-related community services; 

4 ‘‘(H) teaches media literacy with an em5 phasis on food marketing; 

6 ‘‘(I) provides training for teachers and 

7 other staff in nutrition education; and 

8 ‘‘(J) establishes a process to evaluate the 

9 effectiveness of the requirements of school nu10 trition education described in subparagraphs 

11 (A) through (I);’’. 

12 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

13 subsection (a) shall take effect at the beginning of the 

14 school year following the date of the enactment of this Act, 

15 but not earlier than 3 months after the date of the enact16 ment of this Act. 

Æ 


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