Tell Your Members of Congress to oppose any efforts to weaken school lunch and breakfast standards
Action Alert from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)
June 2014

ACTION

Congress needs to hear from you. Please take a minute to tell your Representative and Senators to oppose any efforts to weaken school lunch and breakfast standards so that we can move forward, not backward.

Sign this online petition

And/or better yet, make direct contact:

Find and contact your U.S. Senators
http://www.senate.gov/

Find and contact your U.S. Representative
http://www.house.gov/

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

Do you have a child in the school lunch and/or breakfast program or take issue with what your school is serving students? Do you work at a school or work with children? Are you a health care professional, or do you specialize in nutrition? Do you have a problem with how long it has taken and will continue to take for schools to begin offering vegetarian and vegan entrees and sides, and ultimately ditch the worst items of them all: processed meat and dairy products?

The House Agriculture Appropriations bill (H.R. 4800) proposes to require the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a process for local school districts to waive all the federal school meal standards if their school food program experienced a net loss for a consecutive six-month period. Representative Sam Farr introduced an amendment to strike the waiver. PCRM supports Rep. Farr’s amendment.

The Senate version (S. 2389) includes a bipartisan compromise that directs USDA to further study and address sodium, whole grains, plate waste, and participation to help schools meet the school nutrition standards. PCRM supports the Senate bill.

Congress needs to hear from you. Please take a minute to tell your Representative and Senators to oppose any efforts to weaken school lunch and breakfast standards so that we can move forward, not backward.

We have provided some text for you, but we encourage you to personalize your message to make it stand out, especially if the school lunch program personally impacts you. If you decide to write your own email, please be polite and encouraging. Here are some talking points:

  • I am writing as a constituent to urge you to oppose any efforts to weaken school lunch and breakfast standards.
  • 90 percent of schools are in compliance, and we should be focusing on how we can go further rather than roll back the standards.
  • Schools that are struggling should be given more support, not less through a waiver.
  • Thanks to the new standards, fruit and vegetable consumption has gone up, and plate waste has not increased.
  • The new nutrition standards are the beginning, not the end.
  • Our kids still eat high amounts of processed meat and dairy products – cheesy pizza, cheeseburgers, hotdogs, bacon, sausages, meatballs, chicken nuggets, and fried foods loaded with fat.
  • According to the Dietary Guidelines, the primary sources of saturated fat in children’s diets are dairy products, and processed meat and dairy products are major sources of cholesterol, sodium, and calories. Studies show diets high in meat and dairy lead to obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even some cancers.
  • We have a public health crisis. One in three children is overweight or obese, will have type 2 diabetes, and is at risk of heart disease.
  • More and more schools are choosing to exceed the federal standards.
  • I urge you to oppose any efforts to weaken the standards so that we move forward, not backward. 

Thank you for everything you do for animals!

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