I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1500 

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 

APRIL 11, 2013 

Mr. CARTWRIGHT (for himself, Ms. NORTON, Mr. RANGEL, Ms. JACKSON

LEE, Ms. CLARKE, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mrs. NEGRETE

MCLEOD, Ms. BROWN of Florida, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. O’ROURKE, Mrs. 

CHRISTENSEN, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. DELANEY, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. VARGAS, 

Mr. FATTAH, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, Mr. NOLAN, 

Mr. VELA, Mr. MCINTYRE, Mr. HINOJOSA, and Mr. YOHO) 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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

5 Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) Section 9A of the Richard B. Russell Na4 tional School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758b) requires 

5 all local educational agencies participating in a pro6 gram authorized by the Richard B. Russell National 

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

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

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

10 schools under the jurisdiction of local educational 

11 agency that include nutrition promotion and edu12 cation. However, there are no specific requirements 

13 regarding the amount of time or type of classes that 

14 school children have to spend or take in nutrition 

15 education. 

16 (2) Some schools include in their health edu17 cation classes some general information about nutri18 tion, but there are no specific guidelines of what the 

19 minimum requirements should be. The mean number 

20 of hours spent on nutrition education in the first 4 

21 years of school is only 13 hours per year. A min22 imum of 50 hours per year are thought to be nec23 essary to influence behavior. 

24 (3) Each local educational agency participating 

25 in a program authorized by the Richard B. Russell 

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


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

2 et seq.) should have a minimum requirement for 

3 amount of time per year students should spend on 

4 nutrition education and the type of instruction that 

5 should be provided as part of such education. 

6 SEC. 3. SCHOOL NUTRITION EDUCATION REQUIREMENT. 

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

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

9 is amended— 

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

11 promotion and education, physical activity,’’ and in12 serting ‘‘physical activity’’; 

13 (2) by redesignating paragraphs (2) through 

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

15 (3) by inserting after paragraph (1), the fol16 lowing: 

17 ‘‘(2) includes a requirement for 50 hours of 

18 school nutrition education during a school year per 

19 student that includes instruction that— 

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

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

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

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

24 of a sequential, comprehensive, standards-based 

25 program designed to provide students with the 


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1 knowledge and skills necessary to promote and 

2 protect their health; 

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

4 classes, but is also encouraged to be incor5 porated into classroom instruction in subjects 

6 such as math, science, language arts, social 

7 sciences, and elective subjects; 

8 ‘‘(D) includes enjoyable, developmentally 

9 appropriate, culturally relevant, participatory 

10 activities, such as contests, promotions, taste 

11 testing, farm visits, and school gardens; 

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

13 grain products, low-fat and fat-free dairy prod14 ucts, healthy food preparation methods, and 

15 health-enhancing nutrition practices; 

16 ‘‘(F) emphasizes caloric balance between 

17 food intake and energy expenditure; 

18 ‘‘(G) coordinates with school meal pro19 grams, other school foods programs, and nutri20 tion-related community services; 

21 ‘‘(H) teaches media literacy with an em22 phasis on food marketing; 

23 ‘‘(I) provides training for teachers and 

24 other staff in nutrition education; and 


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

2 effectiveness of the requirements of school nu3 trition education described in subparagraphs 

4 (A) through (I);’’. 

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

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

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

8 but not earlier than 3 months after the date of the enact9 ment of this Act. 

Æ 


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