NEWS RELEASE

 

June 7, 2000

U.S. Department of Agriculture

 

 

Glickman Announces New Partnership to Promote Healthy Eating in Schools

 

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is joining a new national partnership to promote healthy eating by children in schools.

 

“The link between good nutrition and good education is clearly demonstrated by higher test scores, better attendance and fewer behavior problems in school,” said Glickman.

 

The American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Dietetic Association, the National Medical Association and the National Hispanic Medical Association have committed their memberships to work with schools and communities to recognize the health and educational benefits of balanced eating and the importance of making it a priority in every school.

 

Ten key principles are outlined to assist each school community in writing its own prescription for change.  The “Ten Keys” address the challenges that children increasingly face in school such as not having enough time to eat; meals that are not scheduled in the middle of the school day; and, food choices that do not meet nutritional standards.

 

Recent research indicates that students across the country are flunking healthy eating.  Some of the most troubling indicators reveal that:

 

•  Only 2% of youth meet all the recommendations of the Food Guide Pyramid; 16% do not meet any recommendations.

 

•  Less than 15% of school children eat the recommended servings of fruit, less than 20% eat the recommended servings of vegetables; about 25% eat the recommended servings of grains and only 30% consume the recommended milk group servings on any given day.

 

• Only 16% of school children meet the guideline for saturated fat on any given day.

 

• Teenagers today drink twice as much carbonated soda as milk and only 19% of girls ages 9-19 meet the recommended intakes of calcium.

 

The partnership, signed today by Shirley Watkins, Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services at USDA, is one of the steps USDA is undertaking to promote nutrition and good health, following last week’s release of the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans at the National Nutrition Summit.

 

Additional information can be found on website: www.fns.usda.gov/fns/