Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has signaled his strong support for, and impending action toward, increasing the amount of healthy fruits and vegetables served in American schools. The secretary made his comments during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Agriculture on the reauthorization of the country's child nutrition programs earlier this week.

The Senate Agriculture Committee, led by new Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, has jurisdiction over the child nutrition bill and interest in the topic was reflected by a large turnout among committee members. Testifying before the committee, Secretary Vilsack detailed the Obama Administration's two highest priorities for child nutrition reauthorization: Improving students' access to healthy foods and enhancing the quality and health of the foods available in schools. These two efforts remain consistent with United's child nutrition priorities and are in many ways a reflection of United's years of leadership on child nutrition issues.

"Our young people are eating far less dark green and dark orange vegetables than they need, far fewer fruits than they need, far more refined grains and far too few whole grains, and far too much high-fat dairy products and too few low fat or non-fat dairy products," said the secretary.

Additionally, on the heels of the recently-released Institute of Medicine report recommending significant increases in both the amount and the variety of vegetables and fruits offered at school, Secretary Vilsack touted the need for USDA to establish improved nutrition standards for schools meals.

"We will pay close attention to the performance of school districts," continued Vilsack, "including a reduction in eligibility certification errors and tying higher reimbursement rates to meal patterns that include more fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, less added sugar, fat and sodium and more low fat dairy products."

The Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) comes up before Congress every five years and sets standards for foods provided through the National School Lunch Program, school breakfast, WIC and other government feeding programs. According to Secretary Vilsack's testimony, 100,000 schools offer school lunch, feeding nearly 31 million children daily, but only 88,000 schools offer breakfast to 11 million children who choose to eat, a number USDA hopes to improve.  The previous child nutrition bill expired in September and has since been extended, but with healthcare still dominating the congressional calendar, movement on the new CNR has been pushed back.

For more on United's progress on child nutrition, please visit www.unitedfresh.org.