Nutrition Education Act
Bill: H.R.5308 | Sponsor: Rep. Cartwright, Matt (D-PA)
Policy area: Agriculture and Food

Summary:
Nutrition Education Act
This bill requires a local educational agency that participates in a school lunch or breakfast program to require each student to receive 50 hours of nutrition education per school year. Such instruction must be consistent with applicable school meal program requirements as well as meet certain other standards with respect to content and delivery.

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.

    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 ``Nutrition Education Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Section 9A of the Richard B. Russell National School 
        Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758b) 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 
        jurisdiction of local educational agencies that include 
        nutrition promotion and education. 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 education classes 
        some general information about nutrition, 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 minimum of 
        50 hours per year are thought to be necessary to influence 
        behavior.
            (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 9A(b) of the Richard B. Russell National 
School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758b(b)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ``nutrition promotion and 
        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 following:
            ``(2) a requirement for 50 hours of school nutrition 
        education during a school year for each student at a school 
        under the jurisdiction of the local educational agency, which 
        includes instruction that--
                    ``(A) is consistent with sections 9 and 17 of this 
                Act, and sections 4 and 10 of the Child Nutrition Act 
                of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773, 1779);
                    ``(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 incorporated 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 products, healthy 
                food preparation methods, and health-enhancing 
                nutrition practices;
                    ``(F) emphasizes caloric balance between food 
                intake and energy expenditure;
                    ``(G) coordinates with school meal programs, other 
                school foods programs, and nutrition-related community 
                services;
                    ``(H) teaches media literacy with an emphasis on 
                food marketing;
                    ``(I) provides training for teachers and other 
                staff in nutrition education; and
                    ``(J) establishes a process to evaluate the 
                effectiveness of the requirements of school nutrition 
                education described in subparagraphs (A) through 
                (I);''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall 
take effect at the beginning of the school year following the date of 
the enactment of this Act, but not earlier than 3 months after the date 
of the enactment of this Act.
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