Meeting Public Comments

Kaitlyn Scheuermann

Thank you representatives/senators for bringing forth these bills. I am a Registered Dietitian working in school nutrition. Our district has a thriving Farm to School program and has been working to integrate food, nutrition, and agriculture education into our classrooms and cafeteria for the last 7 years.I would like to provide some comments and questions related to the bill. Please let me know these answers, and please use me as a resource.I am excited to see an emphasis on nutrition education in schools. For too long, this has been ignored or set to the side when schools and teachers only have so many hours in a day with students. As a dietitian who oversees our districts local wellness policy compliance, I applaud this addition into the required curriculum. However, I have a couple of questions and thoughts to consider: I would encourage you to speak with school officials and administrators to learn more about the feasibility of adding another requirement for teachers to cover in classrooms. I dont know if this would incur additional costs for districts. In our Farm to School work, I always emphasize that food, nutrition and agriculture can be a lens through which we teach science, math, reading, social studies, and more. I think guidance for teachers, administrators, and school districts for how to weave together these standards will be needed. I would emphasize a need for districts to be using unbiased, evidencebased nutrition curriculum. With the flood of nutrition information in the world and on social media, much of which is not based on solid nutrition science, I would want to ensure that educators are delivering nutrition education that is positive, evidencebased, and antifood shaming. All foods can fit in a balanced diet. With that, I would encourage that the term animalbased protein be replaced with lean and nutritious protein choices. We know there are a variety of ways people can meet their protein needs, and I would want to ensure that children do not feel ashamed for making choices that meet their unique nutrition and lifestyle needs. More and more schools are using school gardens, hydroponics, greenhouses and more to teach students about food, nutrition, and agriculture. This is important for connected and engaged learning around food, nutrition, and agriculture, but does often require funding through grants and other sources. A grant program or permanent appropriation to encourage this work may be a consideration to start and/or sustain these programs.Being a school nutrition professional for 8 years, I do have some questions and thoughts around the school meals waiver language. Again, I am glad there is consideration of what we are serving in cafeterias as we know that Farm to School education works best when students are getting experiences in the classroom, the cafeteria, and growing spaces, like school gardens. In the bill, it mentions that corn, pork and dairy are not adequately referenced in the federal guidance. I would say that we are utilizing all of those products on a frequent basis in our programs already, and they do not need additional emphasis. I would encourage in the list of stakeholders to add the following groups: registered dietitians (possibly in place of experts in nutrition), child nutrition program operators (meaning foodservice directors or managers who actually operate these programs in school districts), and local and regional food supply chain experts, as specified categories of folks who will be consulted in the process of creating Iowas meal pattern. I applaud your effort to also include local farmers, as their voices are often underrepresented in local food systems work. I applaud additional flexibilities to make school meals more appealing to children. I believe it is important as new guidelines are developed to ensure that we are working to strike a balance between the strict federal guidance and maintaining alignment with healthy dietary patterns to ensure we are working to expose children to nutritious foods and building the foundation for lifelong health and a positive relationship to food. I would like to have more information on what is considered Iowas dietary recommendations or cultural food practices. Many Iowans do not consume enough fruits and vegetables, and often consume more protein foods and grainbased foods than what is needed for a balanced diet. In my experience, we see incredible diversity among all students in our districts where dietary needs are met in different ways. I firmly believe that food should not be a source of shame for anyone. Food is a connector of people and where shared experiences around the table build community. It can be a way that we bring people together, for better. I do have concerns with page 6, line 14 where it states to prioritize food groups in a particular order. In our programs, we already heavily use protein items and dairy products to meet our standards. It is also important that there is a reasonable amount of grains and carbohydrates in meals. Carbohydrates are the brains primary fuel source, which is critical for students to be ready to learn in the classroom. I believe there does not need to be an order to how food groups are emphasized in our meal programs. I believe it is sufficient to require that each food group (protein, grain, fruits, vegetables, and dairy in no particular order) be represented as part of the new meal pattern that is developed. If we truly want this bill to help our local farmers, schools need to have additional funding to make local food purchases that allow us to purchase food produced closer to our schools and connect students with our local food system. We want to ensure farmers are paid a fair, livable wage for the items they produce, which almost always costs more than produce from California or beef from largescale ranches. I would encourage legislators to consider an appropriation specifically for the purchase of local foods, potentially through continued and increased funding for the Choose Iowa Food Purchasing Program as that fund is already created.I look forward to a continued dialogue about this bill and am happy to be a resource to you and your colleagues.