
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 9, 1995                   TAG: 9503090048
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PAULINE HOLLOWAY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CHILDREN'S NUTRITION ISN'T WELFARE

THIS MONTH, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to begin consideration of the Personal Responsibility Act. The welfare-reform section of Contract With America, the act would combine 10 federal nutrition programs into block grants that would be given directly to states, and would shift responsibility for America's poor from the federal government to states. The potential negative impacts of block granting child-nutrition programs as proposed are staggering.

As food-service supervisor for Roanoke County Schools, I oppose the attempts to use this legislation to lump funding for education programs such as the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs together with welfare block grants. Child-nutrition programs aren't, and have never been, welfare programs. Established in 1946, the National School Lunch Act was created by lawmakers concerned about young American men's health and readiness in time of war. Today, the program is designed to help keep all of America's children healthy and ready to learn by providing nutritious meals to children of all ages and income groups.

If the legislation is enacted in its current form, the American School Food Service Association estimates that roughly 10 million children could be dropped from the program because school administrators find the program too expensive to be run on a local level, or because children can no longer afford the higher-priced meals likely to be a result of the legislation.

Ironically, the Personal Responsibility Act, which aims to increase local flexibility, adds more paper-work burden to local school lunch and breakfast programs.

Even more troublesome, federal funding levels under the legislation are capped with no guaranteed allocation beyond 1996. This means that children eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunches under the new rules may still have to be turned away if state funds run out. What's more, the act sets no dietary guidelines, and provides for no minimal nutrition standards.

While proposed cuts in child-nutrition programs will save the federal government less than 0.1 percent of total federal spending from 1996-1999, the impact on America's schoolchildren will be enormous. Studies show that children who suffer from hunger - more than 12 million in America - are more often sick, absent from school and have a much harder time concentrating in class.

Never in the history of the nutrition programs has such potentially dangerous legislation been proposed. The American people may want welfare reform, but surely not at the expense of our children's health and education.

I strongly urge lawmakers to completely eliminate child-nutrition program block grants from the welfare-reform bill. Child-nutrition programs aren't welfare programs - they're education-support programs aimed at building healthy children, ready to learn.

Pauline Holloway is supervisor for the Roanoke County Food Services in the Roanoke County schools.

by CNB