Assemblyman Leland Yee: What Is Your Child Eating?

Do you know what your child is eating?

Today, nearly one quarter of Californians between the ages of 12 and 17 are overweight or at risk of being overweight. Despite the state's and parents' best efforts to encourage their children to eat healthful and nutritious meals, our children are still consuming an unprecedented amount of sugar, salt and fat as part of their daily diets. 

Although there are state instituted guidelines to ensure that school lunches meet approved standards for nutrition, there are several other sources of food on school campuses that do not meet these same requirements and are high in saturated fat and cholesterol. It is all too easy for children to access sodas, candy bars, potato chips and other unhealthy snacks, which are sold around campus by clubs and organizations for fundraising purposes. 

The sale of snack foods on campus often competes with the state approved and nutritionally complete school lunch program. Our school meal and nutrition programs help protect the health of our children. When we allow non-nutritional foods to be sold in competition with these programs, our students often choose high-fat and high-calorie foods, jeopardizing their health and performance in school.

To address this growing concern, I have introduced legislation to limit the sale of foods with minimal nutritional value on school campuses. Assembly Bill (AB) 443, which passed the Assembly in May with a 60-8 bipartisan vote, will restrict certain food products from being sold during the school day. 

The legislation does recognize the need for student organizations to raise money, however, by allowing for the sale of food products after school and during certain days of the school year.  Additionally, there are ways that campus organizations can form partnerships with the school board so students are supplied with nutritious food and the organization receives fundraising money, while not threatening the school's national school lunch program.

The link between nutrition and learning is well documented. Healthy eating patterns are essential for students to achieve their full academic potential, full physical and mental growth and lifelong health and well-being.

Sadly, the consumption of high-fat, high-calorie foods in our schools has created a health epidemic for California's children. According to the Prevention Institute, school-age children increasingly show signs of diet-related chronic disease, including Type II diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. A correlation has been found between the diets of adolescents and depression, lowered self-esteem, social withdrawal and poor performance in school (Center for Health Improvement).

By allowing the sale of junk food on our school campuses, we are essentially contributing to the unhealthy obesity problem that exists in children and adolescents. We need to encourage fundraising through the sale of nutritious foods, guaranteeing that profits are not at the expense of our children's health.

Assembly Bill 443, which is supported by the California Teachers Association, California School Employees Association and California School Food Service Association, now heads to the state Senate before going to the governor's desk to be signed into law.

Leland Yee is the speaker pro tempore at the California Assembly.