I 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4958 

To amend section 204 of the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization 

Act of 2004 (42 U.S.C. 1751 note) to require each local educational 

agency participating in a program authorized by the Richard B. Russell 

National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) or the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 et seq.) to include under the local 

wellness policy established by the agency a requirement that students 

receive 50 hours of school nutrition education per school year. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 25, 2010 

Mr. BACA (for himself, Mr. SIRES, Mr. TOWNS, and Ms. NORTON) introduced 

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 

Labor 

A BILL 

To amend section 204 of the Child Nutrition and WIC 

Reauthorization Act of 2004 (42 U.S.C. 1751 note) to 

require each local educational agency participating in 

a program authorized by the Richard B. Russell National 

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

Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 et seq.) to include under the local wellness policy established by the 

agency 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 ‘‘Healthy Children 

3 Through School Nutrition Education Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

5 Congress findings the following: 

6 (1) The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthoriza7 tion Act of 2004 (42 U.S.C. 1751 note) requires all 

8 local educational agencies participating in a program 

9 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 local educational agency that in14 clude nutrition education goals. However, there are 

15 no specific requirements regarding the amount of 

16 time or type of classes that school children have to 

17 spend or take in nutrition education. 

18 (2) Some schools include in their health edu19 cation classes some general information about nutri20 tion, but there are no specific guidelines of what the 

21 minimum requirements should be. The mean number 

22 of hours spent on nutrition education in the first 4 

23 years of school is only 13 hours per year. A min24 imum of 50 hours per year are thought to be nec25 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 204(a) of the Child Nu11 trition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 (42 U.S.C. 

12 1751 note) is amended— 

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

14 education, physical activity,’’ and inserting ‘‘physical 

15 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) includes a requirement for 50 hours a 

21 school year of school nutrition education per student 

22 that includes instruction that— 

23 ‘‘(A) is consistent with the rules promul24 gated by the Secretary under section 9(a)(4)(B) 

25 of the Richard B. Russell National School 


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1 Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(a)(4)(B)) based on 

2 the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Ameri3 cans published under section 310 of the Na4 tional Nutrition Monitoring and Related Re5 search Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 5341); 

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

7 of a sequential, comprehensive, standards-based 

8 program designed to provide students with the 

9 knowledge and skills necessary to promote and 

10 protect their health; 

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

12 classes, but is also encouraged to be incor13 porated into classroom instruction in subjects 

14 such as math, science, language arts, social 

15 sciences, and elective subjects; 

16 ‘‘(D) includes enjoyable, developmentally 

17 appropriate, culturally relevant, participatory 

18 activities, such as contests, promotions, taste 

19 testing, farm visits, and school gardens; 

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

21 grain products, low-fat and fat-free dairy prod22 ucts, healthy food preparation methods, and 

23 health-enhancing nutrition practices; 

24 ‘‘(F) emphasizes caloric balance between 

25 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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