April 2023 Meeting Notes
Facilitator: Haley Holeton
Agenda:
School Feeding
We will begin looking into what proposed changes are and how this affects Louisiana students
Need to get insight from schools- what could this look like?
Free breakfast and lunch to Louisiana public school students https://legis.la.gov/legis/BillDocs.aspx?i=244162&t=text
CEP changes: decrease eligibility from 40% to 25% https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/03/23/2023-05624/child-nutrition-programs-community-eligibility-provision-increasing-options-for-schools
Nutrition standard changes: this is national https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/proposed-updates-school-nutrition-standards
Public Comment
Has been extended to May 10th
Please make any suggestions in the document here
Do you have current advocacy needs?
Updates
Notes:
In attendance: Chelsea Morgan; Rosalind Santos; Robin Gruenfeld; Emilia Clement; Jahana Deadmon; Megan Knapp; Emily Slazer; Elisa Munoz; Haley Holton; Marie Louise Ryan
FAWG discussion on contacts to reach out to schools to get feedback regarding LA school meal bill to make breakfast & lunch free for all public school students (HB 282; Link below).
Jahana has contact information for the Child Nutrition Director across Nola Public Schools and has met with them previously; she is setting up a follow-up meeting to better summarize data.
Elisa will reach out to State Dept of Health regarding advocacy.
Megan suggests reaching out to Healthy School Food Collaborative and provided contact info for individuals there:
Van Cao, MBA COO The Healthy School Food Collaborative Office: 504-322-1188, Ext. 2103 Mobile: 504-655-1104 Fax: 504-324-0507
Elisa provided brief update on Farm Bill work and plans to host another FPAC webinar in the future.
Emily: Feeding America has been having meetings regarding Farm bill and Food banks.
Jahana (and Chelsea) provided an update on a new-ish initiative to increase healthy food & produce in Dollar Generals in Baton Rouge, and possibly elsewhere in the state. Anyone interested in participating should reach out to her. Leadership of DG may have changed, or otherwise they are newly open to increasing these initiatives despite strong resistance in the past. Three of eleven DGs in Nola already have some produce and they are looking at how they can expand this.
Link to info on HB 282: http://www.legis.la.gov/Legis/BillInfo.aspx?s=23RS&b=HB282&sbi=y
Action Items/ Next week:
April 23: Feedback from FAWG members on Comment for School Nutrition (federal level) due
April 28: Revisions to comment will be made and sent out to FAWG members for final approval
May 5: Submission of comment
