Yolanda Dickerson: Lunches a big part of education

As a parent and former educator, I was appalled by the Oct. 13 letter “Hungry for power,” which grossly misrepresented the National School Lunch Program.

School lunches began under the Truman administration when the military realized there was a national security crisis – many recruits were too malnourished to fight in World War II.

Since its inception, the school lunch program has enjoyed bipartisan support, has always been a federal program and has always had nutrition standards. In fact, the most recent update to the standards started in 2004 when the Bush administration asked the Institute of Medicine to examine the science and recommend how to update the nutrition standards. These recommendations became the base for the 2010 bipartisan bill that Congress passed that updated the standards under the Obama administration.

Ultimately, this program is a $15 billion federal taxpayer investment in our children’s health and academic success. Shouldn’t it be used wisely on nutritious foods and not on foods that are going to make our kids sick and further contribute to our chronic disease burden? All children are worth the investment.

This story was originally published October 18, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Yolanda Dickerson: Lunches a big part of education."