Retired General: School Lunches are a National Security Issue

In an opinion piece published by the international news wire Reuters on April 15, Retired Lieutenant General Samuel E. Ebbeson strongly endorses the Child Nutrition Act of 2010. Reauthorizing the act  is the subject of  Feed Our Children, Bread for the World's 2015 Offering of Letters. According to Gen. Ebbeson, providing nutritious meals for our children is a matter of national security. Here is an excerpt

"Students served healthier foods ate nearly 20 percent more of their entrees and 40 percent more of the vegetables they chose, according to a Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity study published in the journal Childhood Obesity. Which means they threw away less food. The study also showed that more than 20 percent more children chose fruit.

For these reasons and more, hundreds of retired admirals and generals joined Mission: Readiness to show strong support for the 2010 Child Nutrition Act, which seeks to improve school meals and snacks. Thanks to bipartisan leadership in Congress and can-do school food-service professionals, school foods are no longer laden with fat, sugar and sodium. Instead, schools serve more fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

We should continue to support schools that are having a tougher time. But like our armed forces, we should not stop when the going gets tough — especially when so many signs of progress abound.

The last thing we need to do now for our children’s health and our national security is to sound retreat from healthy school meals."

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