(b) These disbursements shall be made by the department at least monthly and may be made not earlier than 10 days before the beginning of each month of operations. Periodic adjustments in the amounts of funds disbursed shall be made to conform with the provisions of federal law. Sec. 14.52.090. Nonfood Assistance. (a) On recommendation of the advisory commission the commissioner shall formulate and carry out a program to supply schools, school districts and service institutions with equipment, other than land or buildings, for the storage, preparation and transportation, and serving of food to enable these schools to establish or expand food service programs for children. (b) For the first five years of operation under this chapter the commissioner shall apportion 50 percent of funds appropriated for the purposes of this section among the schools, school districts and service institutions without a food service. Sec. 14.52.100. Nutrition Education. (a) The commissioner, in cooperation with the Office of Education of the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and on recommendation of the advisory commission, is authorized to formulate the basic elements of a nutrition education program for children to be extended on a voluntary basis through the department to schools school districts and service institutions participating in programs authorized under this chapter. The program shall include, without limitation, the preparation of course outlines, based on the advice of experts in the field of child nutrition, classroom teaching aids, visual materials, the training of school food service personnel, and the training of teachers to conduct courses in child nutrition. (b) For the first fiscal year of operations under this chapter, grants, other than grants made under sec. 70 of this chapter, for the conduct of nutrition education programs for children shall be based on a rate of 50 cents for each child enrolled in schools or service institutions within the state and, for each fiscal year thereafter, grants will be based on a rate of $1 for each child so enrolled. Enrollment data used will be the latest available as certified by the department to the Office of Education of the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Sec. 14.52.110. State Plans of Operation. The commissioner shall submit to the Secretary of the State plans of operation under the Federal Child Nutrition Act of 1971 at least three months before the first fiscal year of operations under this chapter. These plans shall include, without limitation, the following: (1) proposed state and local funding; (2) plans to extend food service to all eligible schools; (3) plans for a nutrition education program to be conducted in schools and service institutions; (4) the types and kinds of food service to be offered to children attending participating schools and service institutions, and procedures and methods to be employed to assure high quality, nutritious and appetizing meals for participating children; (5) plans for supervision and audit of program operations; the plans of operation must be approved by the commissioner before disbursement of funds to participating schools, school districts and service institutions; (6) plans for conducting training programs for school food service personnel; (7) plans for conducting experimental or demonstration projects. Sec. 14.52.120. State, Local Administrative, Supervision Expenses, Costs. (a) The commissioner may utilize federal funds granted under the Child Nutrition Act of 1971 for use for its administration expenses in supervising and giving technical assistance to the schools, school districts or service institutions in their conduct of programs under this chapter. These funds shall be utilized only in amounts and to the extent determined necessary by the commissioner to assist these schools, school districts or service institutions in the administration of additional activities undertaken by them under this chapter. Any employee paid in whole or in part with federal funds provided under the Child Nutrition Act of 1971 shall be included under either a merit, civil service, or tenure system covering employees of the department or school district. (b) The commissioner may accept and disburse out of the federal grants for the purposes of this chapter funds to assist in the supervision of local program operations. The grants to each school, school district or service institution is to be determined on the basis of federal law and regulations promulgated under it. Sec. 14.52.130. Assistance to Nonprofit Private Schools. (a) Federal assistance for food service to nonprofit private schools shall be provided by the department either in the form of direct payments or by payments made through the school district in which the nonprofit private school is geographically located. (b) If the department is precluded by law from making direct or indirect payments to these schools, the commissioner shall withhold funds from the apportionments to the schools or districts for the purpose of making direct payments to these schools. Withholding of these funds shall be based on the rate of federal assistance per child per year for the schools or districts as determined by federal law or regulation and the number of children attending nonprofit private schools in the state. Sec. 14.52.140. Pilot Operations. In cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture during the first full fiscal year following the passage of the federal Child Nutrition Act of 1971 and this chapter, the commissioner shall begin pilot operations in schools, school districts or service institutions he selects on recommendation of the advisory commission, utilizing available federal, state and local funds to test and develop the most effective techniques and procedures for effectuating the provisions of this chapter and for the purpose of developing appropriate estimates of participation and costs. Sec. 14.52.150. Accounts, Records and Reports. (a) The department, schools, school districts, and service institutions participating in programs under this chapter and the federal Child Nutrition Act of 1971 shall keep whatever accounts and records may be necessary to enable the secretary and the commissioner to determine whether there has been compliance under federal law, this chapter and the regulations promulgated under them. The accounts and records shall at all times be available for inspection and audit by representatives of the secretary and the department and shall be preserved for three years. (b) The department shall provide periodic reports on expenditures of federal funds, program participation, program costs, and other required data on the form the secretary prescribes. Sec. 14.52.160. Evaluation. The commission and the advisory commission shall carefully and systematically evaluate the programs conducted under this chapter, directly or by contracting for independent evaluations, with a view to measuring specific benefits, as far as practicable, and providing information needed to assess the effectiveness of program procedures, policies and methods of operation. Sec. 14.52.170. Advisory Commission. (a) There is in the department an advisory commission to be known as the Advisory Commission on Child Nutrition which shall be composed of not less than 13 members appointed by the commissioner. Membership shall include a school administrator, a person engaged in child welfare, a person engaged in vocational education, a nutrition expert, school food service management experts (one each from a rural and urban school), a school governing board member, one representative each from the division of agriculture of the Department of Natural Resources and from the Department of Health and Welfare specially qualified to serve on the commission because of their education, training, experience and knowledge in matters relating to child nutrition, and active members of parent-teacher organizations or parents who have children attending schools or service institutions participating in programs under this chapter. Women and minority group representatives shall be included among the membership. (b) Members appointed outside the Departments of Education, Natural Resources and Health and Welfare shall be appointed for staggered, four-year terms determined by lot. Members appointed from the Departments of Education, Natural Resources and Health and Welfare serve at the pleasure of the commissioners appointing them. (c) The commissioner shall designate one of the members to serve as chairman, and one to serve as vice chairman of the commission. (d) The commission shall meet at the call of the chairman but shall meet at least twice a year. (e) A majority of the members shall constitute a quorum and a vacancy on the commission shall not affect its powers. (f) In addition to its other duties set out in this chapter, the commission shall make a continuing study of the operation of programs carried out under this chapter with a view to determining how the programs may be improved. Annually, the commission shall submit to the commissioner, the governor and the legislature a written report of the results of its study together with the recommendations for administrative and legislative changes it considers appropriate. (g) The commissioner shall provide the commission with the technical and other assistance, including secretarial and clerical services that may be required to carry out its functions under this chapter. (h) Members of the commission receive no salary but are entitled to the same travel and per diem provided for other boards and commissions. Sec. 14.52.180. Definitions. In this chapter (1) "advisory commission" means the Advisory Commission on Child Nutrition established by sec. 170 of this chapter; (2) "commissioner" means the commissioner of education; (3) "department" means the Department of Education; (4) "nonprofit private school" means any private school exempt from income tax under sec. 501 (e) (3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended; (5) "operating costs" means the cost of food and nutrition services administration and supervision, labor, supplies, acquisition, storage, preparation and service of food used in the feed service program, utilities, mainte nance, repair, and replacement of equipment; this term does not include the cost or value of land or acquisition, construction, or alternation of buildings, nor does it include any part of the general administrative and maintenance expenses for the total school program ; (6) "secretary" means the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture; (7) "service institution" means private, nonprofit institutions or public institutions which provide day care or other child care services for children or handicapped children; (8) "school" or "school district" means the governing body which is responsible for the administration of one or more attendance units and which has the legal authority to operate a food service program; the term includes any public or nonprofit private primary, elementary or secondary school through grade 12, and kindergarten and preschool programs operated by these schools; (9) "universal food service and nutrition education program” means a program designed and operated to offer all children in group situations away from home at least one meal a day which meets at least one-third of the child's daily nutritional requirements; additional meals or supplemental food services may be offcered to all children in attendance based on economic or nutritional needs; all food service programs conducted under this chapter will operate without charge to the child; the children to be covered under this chapter include those attending preschool, kindergarter, primary, elementary and secondary schools through grade 12 and children in service institutions as defined in this chapter; the term also includes a broad program of nutrition education to teach all children basic principles of good nutrition and the importance of good nutrition to health. Sec. 14.52.190. Short Title. This chapter may be cited as the Alaska Child Nutrition Act. PREPARED STATEMENT BY EDWARD F. GAIDZIK, DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL LUNCH OF THE CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS Mr. Chairman and members of the committee: I am Edward F. Gaidzik, director of school lunch, representing the Chicago Public Schools in the State of Illinois. I have been asked to appear before your honorable body in that capacity, however, in the absence of sufficient time for individual presentations at the scheduled hearing of June 22, we are making this presentation in the attached formal document. Dr. John Perryman, executive director of the American School Food Service Association, is representing the position of major city directors, which is in part substantiated by the philosophies herein contained. The attached statements are substantiated by the Illinois School Food Service Association, and are meant to lend support to the proposed legislation incorporated in the newly proposed amendments to the National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1971. We in Chicago, are deeply interested in any legislation which specifically aids the needy children who attend our public schools. The National School Lunch Act has enabled school lunch administrators throughout the country to better serve the needs of all children, and this is commendable, but it is only recently that the voices of large city directors and school administrators are being heard in reference to malnutrition and hunger in the poverty pockets of our urban centers. In Chicago, we have always recognized that there are large numbers of needy children who require the benefits of nutrition meeting the standards of the National School Lunch Act, and we have recognized the need for free meals in increasing numbers over the years, as the attached schedule so well illustrates. With the introduction of the new guidelines which were provided through the Department of Agriculture proceedings in the fall of 1969, our board of education has adopted and applied the new criteria. In the calendar year of 1968, we served an average of 8,000 free meals daily. At the conclusion of business on April 30, 1971, our free meals have increased to nearly 170,000 daily. This great increase in participation in the free lunch program indicates that Chicago school administrators have embraced the intent of the new regulations, and in most part, fully accepted their increased responsibilities. It is our contention that matching State fund requirements are necessary to alleviate the inequities of cash distribution within the nation, and Illinois has responded generously with a per meal assistance for breakfast and lunch to the needy child. Federal funding has enabled Chicago to respond with compassion and has committed our board of education to the proposition that no child shall go hungry. Nonetheless, we feel that certain more meaningful criteria must be established for the issuance of free meals, in order that school administrators and other agencies be guided with a formula which is realistic and functional; to be specific, a universal free meal program. In our school system, ever increasing burdens on our present central system as it concerns purchasing, warehousing, trucking, and food preparation kitchens. are dramatically tied in with capital investments, as also is the problems of serving and seating space within most of our schools. We operate a hot food service based upon the Type "A" meal specifications in approximately 328 high and elementary schools. We further serve 38 satellite schools from central kitchens, using identical hot food menus. In addition to this, we operate a central kitchen, producing 31,000 cold pack type "A" meals for 137 schools, and are now embarking upon a new concept of total use of prepared foods where cooking equipment will be of minor importance. These programs are inaugurated to constantly fulfill the needs of the children who are served in gymnasiums, classrooms, auditoriums, basement areas, and even in hallways where permissible. The great national interest in the problem of hunger existing in every area of this nation has placed great pressures on congressional bodies to provide funds and formula to benefit the children of our nation in the attainment of better physical and mental health. This has resulted in a labyrinth of Federal and State laws which are overlapping and complex. To mention a few, we might specifically speak of OEO, Head Start, Wingspread, ESEA and its many facets, State Aid to Crippled Children, as well as the Mentally and Physically Handicapped, Special Milk, Child Nutrition, Model Cities, State Vocational Acts, and others. Appropriations on both Federal and State levels find their way into many agencies of municipal government, and nutrition programs eventually become the responsibility of local State lunch directors, who seemingly are the professional group capable of bringing these together into meaningful services to the child. The problems arising from this complexity results in numerous kinds of interpretation, which has caused school administrators insurmountable problems. To make matters worse, much of the original monies proposed for feeding are now being curtailed and these programs fall back upon the National School Lunch Act for support. We feel that these problems, along with such others as anonymity, collection of cash, cost of equipment, deliveries, warehousing, and administration costs should be carefully assessed and specific appropriations made possible on a per meal basis in which the respective school boards can bring all of these problems together through a Universal School Lunch Act. The National School Lunch Act in its present form is cumbersome, and is interpretated in many ways in many > states and communities. We suggest that all of the appropriations for feeding the indigent child be stricken from the existing pieces of legislation and placed solely in the National School Lunch Act, other than those affecting the aged or adult population. We further feel that each school board should decide how the type "A" meal should be presented to the child, especially at the high school level without prohibition and enjoinments, thereby, nullifying the fact that high school children are adults. We feel that freedom of choice is the democratic privilege of the high school student, and that nutrition really starts at the elementary level, and further, that if the child has not received his nutrition education at an early age, he cannot be forced into this pattern at the secondary level. Our President has pledged that all efforts will be made to improve the health of the youth of this Nation, and that funds must be provided to make this possible. It is not enough to feed just the needy, and it is a well known fact that dietary deficiences also exist among students coming from more affluent backgrounds. Thus the burden of responsibility for a Universal School Lunch Act will fall upon each individual school board, and rightfully so. Financing for this kind of project can be accomplished with an all encompassing bill, which envisions a cooperative effort on the part of the states with the Federal Government. Present school lunch appropriations of over a billion dollars must initially be increased to $5 billion, and must include provisions for added school lunch supervision at the local level, as well as moneys to be appropriated for space and equipment. School boards throughout the Nation are strapped for funds, and while they are attempting to meet the challenge of recent school lunch legislation, find that they are implementing a food service which is, in many instances, somewhat less than desirable. I wish to express my appreciation in behalf of the Chicago Board of Education and the American School Food Service Association to have been afforded the opportunity to testify before your honorable body. CALIFORNIA DIETETIC ASSOCIATION, Congressman ROMAN C. PUCINSKI, Washington, D.C. DEAR CONGRESSMAN PUCINSKI: I am writing as a representative of the Sacramento District Dietetic Association to let you know that our association supports bill H.R. 5291. The free lunch program provided for selected children is a good idea, however, as you know, it has not been an adequate program. The dietetic association hopes that you and the committee members of the General Subcommittee on Education will endorse bill H.R. 5291. Sincerely, Mrs. KAY BEAVO, Secretary. Hon. CARL D. PERKINS, Chairman, Education and Labor Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. STATE OF CALIFORNIA, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Sacramento, Calif., June 21, 1971. DEAR CONGRESSMAN PERKINS: I wish to express my support for H.R. 5291, which would establish a universal food service and nutrition education program for the Nation's children. For simple humanitarian reasons no child should sit in class hungry and, in the learning process, adequate nutrition is essential. Dropout rates, discipline problems, and low performance can be traced directly to malnutrition. An empty stomach makes a sham of academic education. What good is a textbook and a teacher if a child does not have the energy to learn? The term "food for thought" is more literal than we think. Because of my beliefs on this subject of school nutrition I have appointed a task force in the Department of Education which has been charged with the |