Wyden, Jayapal, Welch, Bennet Reintroduce Legislation to Improve Child Nutrition

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., today reintroduced legislation that would improve child nutrition by expanding access to locally-grown, unprocessed fruits and vegetables for school meal programs.

"It's not rocket science: healthy foods at school set up kids to be successful in and outside of the classroom," Wyden said. "That's why I am working to bring fresh foods grown from local farms to school cafeterias in Oregon and across America. This bill ensures that every child - no matter their zip code - has a school lunch that fuels their brains."

"As costs skyrocket for poor and working families thanks to Trump's reckless tariffs and cuts to nutrition assistance and health care, it could not be a more critical time to invest in school meal programs to provide our kids with the nutritious food they need to thrive," Jayapal said. "The pilot program this legislation would extend has been a major success for both students and local farmers in my home state of Washington, and I'm proud to support this effort, expanding it to more communities nationwide. Nutritious meals should be available for our kids - regardless of zip code."

"Healthy, nutritious foods are essential for the wellbeing of our kids and the future of our communities," Welch said. "This bill will help more kids access locally grown fruits and vegetables and connect our farmers with new markets in their communities. That's a win for Vermont kids and for our farms. I'm proud to join my colleagues to introduce this important and much-needed legislation."

"Access to healthy, local foods is good for both students and farmers," Bennet said. "The Local School Foods Expansion Act will build on the already successful pilot program and allow more states to participate."

Wyden and then-U.S. Representative Welch secured in the 2014 Farm Bill a pilot program that helped schools buy and serve a wider variety of fresh produce, while ensuring schools in participating states have more flexibility to source fresh foods from local vendors. However, the current program is limited to eight states, including California, Connecticut, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The Local School Foods Expansion Act would expand on this pilot program and make it permanent, giving more states and school food authorities the flexibility to expand nutritious food access in school lunches and develop new relationships with local farmers, growers, and producers. Specifically, the bill would direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to create a program for at least 14 participating states and school food authorities to buy locally-grown, fresh fruits and vegetables with existing National School Lunch Program funds.

"The Local School Foods Expansion Act will maximize federal dollars so that school nutrition professionals have options to get kids the freshest options in a time of rising costs, and help small family farmers get a better return on their hard work," said Karen Spangler, Policy Director at National Farm to School Network.

"Efforts by school nutrition professionals to expand student access to locally grown and raised foods were hard hit by USDA's recent elimination of the Local Food for Schools program. The Local School Foods Expansion Act takes a critical first step in bolstering local sourcing efforts by helping to build relationships between schools and produce growers to increase the amount of fresh, local fruits and vegetables on students' breakfast and lunch trays," said Stephanie Dillard, President at School Nutrition Association, MS, SNS.

The text of the bill is here.

###