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 Nutri-
tion 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 in-
clude under the local wellness policy established by the 
agency a requirement that students receive 50 hours 
of school nutrition education per school year. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Healthy Children 
Through School Nutrition Education Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress findings the following: 
(1) The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthoriza-
tion Act of 2004 (42 U.S.C. 1751 note) requires all 
local educational agencies 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 establish a local school wellness policy for 
schools under the local educational agency that in-
clude nutrition education goals. However, there are 
no specific requirements regarding the amount of 
time or type of classes that school children have to 
spend or take in nutrition education. 
(2) Some schools include in their health edu-
cation classes some general information about nutri-
tion, but there are no specific guidelines of what the 
minimum requirements should be. The mean number 
of hours spent on nutrition education in the first 4 
years of school is only 13 hours per year. A min-
imum of 50 hours per year are thought to be nec-
essary to influence behavior. 
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(3) 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.) should have a minimum requirement for 
amount of time per year students should spend on 
nutrition education and the type of instruction that 
should be provided as part of such education. 
SEC. 3. SCHOOL NUTRITION EDUCATION REQUIREMENT. 
(a) AMENDMENTS.—Section 204(a) of the Child Nu-
trition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 (42 U.S.C. 
1751 note) is amended— 
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘nutrition 
education, physical activity,’’ and inserting ‘‘physical 
activity’’; 
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (2) through 
(5) as paragraphs (3) through (6), respectively; and 
(3) by inserting after paragraph (1), the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(2) includes a requirement for 50 hours a 
school year of school nutrition education per student 
that includes instruction that— 
‘‘(A) is consistent with the rules promul-
gated by the Secretary under section 9(a)(4)(B) 
of the Richard B. Russell National School 
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Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(a)(4)(B)) based on 
the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Ameri-
cans published under section 310 of the Na-
tional Nutrition Monitoring and Related Re-
search Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 5341); 
‘‘(B) is offered at each grade level as part 
of a sequential, comprehensive, standards-based 
program designed to provide students with the 
knowledge and skills necessary to promote and 
protect their health; 
‘‘(C) is part of not only health education 
classes, but is also encouraged to be incor-
porated into classroom instruction in subjects 
such as math, science, language arts, social 
sciences, and elective subjects; 
‘‘(D) includes enjoyable, developmentally 
appropriate, culturally relevant, participatory 
activities, such as contests, promotions, taste 
testing, farm visits, and school gardens; 
‘‘(E) promotes fruits, vegetables, whole 
grain products, low-fat and fat-free dairy prod-
ucts, healthy food preparation methods, and 
health-enhancing nutrition practices; 
‘‘(F) emphasizes caloric balance between 
food intake and energy expenditure; 
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