By Lynn Hatter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-958478.mp3
Tallahassee, FL –
State Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam may be seeing one of his top legislative agenda items going down. The plan calls for the School Lunch program to move from the Department of Education to the Department of Agriculture. But as Lynn Hatter reports, the proposal has been getting pushback all week from lawmakers, the department of education, and the state board of education.
Putnam says it only makes sense to shift the school lunch program to the Agriculture Department because that's how the program is operated at the federal level. And he says his department is better able to administer the program because of the relationship they have with growers. Earlier in the week he made a formal pitch to the state board of education, stressing the importance of getting healthier food options on the plates of students.
"In a state that produces so much, and a society that becomes so picky, we throw away thousands of tons of produce every year that's perfectly healthy and wholesome, but it's a little too small or a little too large, and doesn't meet that perfect grade standard. We can get more of that into food banks, we can get more of that into public feeding programs, and I think we can get more of that into the school system."
The issue of school nutrition is something the Board has been looking at for a while now, but not much progress has been made in getting calorie packed snacks and sodas out of schools. Putnam says he wants those things out. And that has supporters, like Board Member John Padget who compares the sugar and calorie contents on two types of drinks sold in public schools.
"Our present rules in our schools permit the sales of sodas, candies, candy coated popcorn and carbonated beverages. There are no limits on sweeteners, sugars, calories, caffine, sodium or fat."
But the other part of Putnam's pitch, which involves moving the school lunch program away from the Department of Education, and out from under the Board's control, is getting plenty of resistance, most of it from Board Member Roberto Martinez, who told Putnam he doesn't support moving the program.
"Your own press release, you issued stated that it is the mission of the department to protect the agriculture industry. It's the mission of the department of education to protect children. Now the two intersect from time to time but inherent in your bill is a conflict because you're going to foremost be trying to protect the interest of the agriculture industry."
The loss of oversight of the program makes the Board and Department of Education uncomfortable, but Putnam says he's not interested in making people feel good, he's more interested in getting healthier foods to kids.
"School lunches are fed in their facilities, they're responsible for those kids 180-days of the year. This isn't about whose sandbox this is in, it's about who can put the best, most nutritious meal on the table and leverage existing dollars into better foods, healthier foods, better foods that our kids can eat."
Putnam's school lunch shift proposal is being sponsored in the Senate by Orlando Democrat Gary Siplin, but it isn't getting much traction either. In an Education Budget Meeting earlier in the week, lawmakers took up the issue, only to find there are federal roadblocks to moving the program as well, as DOE's Deputy Finance Commissioner Linda Champion points out.
"Federal regulations require that program be housed and administered by the Department of Education within each state. It requires that a waiver to that requirement be provided if its moved from the education agency."
But only two states, Texas and New Jersey, have gotten that waiver. And as the State Board's Roberto Martinez points out, it was for less than stellar handling of the program.
Martinez: "Neither Texas nor New Jersey, the two states that got the waiver, wanted to administer the program, so it's a--"
Putnam: "You know, I called the comptroller of Texas, who was the Commissioner of Agriculture at the time of the transfer, and she and Governor Rick Perry actually wrested control of this because they were failing so miserably to put the nutritional needs of the kids first."
Putanam says when the program went to the departments of agriculture in those states, they became top priorities. But During a meeting later in the week of the Senate's Education Budget Subcommittee, Chairman David Simmons seemed to put the issue down for good.
"Shifting it over into the Department of Agriculture as far as I am aware, at least will not happen in the very near future."
Next year the budget for the school lunch program is increasing, due to the federal government putting more money into the nutritional side of the issue. And that's a place where the state Board and the Department of Agriculture have indicated they are willing to work together.