In a series of high-profile events over the past few weeks, first lady Michelle Obama highlighted the problem of childhood obesity in the United States and called on families, schools, communities and policymakers to promote healthier eating and more physical activity among our children. Yet many worry that another part of the federal government, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, may be undermining these efforts through its food assistance programs that subsidize or provide food to low-income children and sometimes their families. We examined this possibility in a recent study, published this week in the national policy journal Health Affairs, and found that federal food programs were more likely to be part of a solution to the childhood obesity epidemic than to serve as a source of the problem.

Although it is counterintuitive that increasing access to school food is a way to prevent obesity, we found that young, low-income children who participate in the National School Lunch or Child and Adult Care Food programs have a reduced risk of obesity at age 5. And we know that early-childhood weight problems are a key predictor of obesity later in childhood. Of course, school meals will do the most to prevent obesity when they consist of healthy foods of high nutritional value and when they are available to the children who need them most.

Here in Texas, the Legislature and Department of Agriculture have taken significant steps to promote access to healthy meals for our young children, including limiting junk food and encouraging farm-school partnerships to promote access to fruits and vegetables in the 2.5 million school meals served across the state every day.

The Houston Independent School District has also taken action to combat child obesity for our city. For example, beginning this fall, all elementary and middle schools will participate in the First Class Breakfast program, which offers breakfast in the classroom during the first few minutes of each school day. The program is free, and all students may participate, so every student will have the chance to begin the school day with a full belly.

We commend the state of Texas and HISD for their work promoting greater access to healthy meals, which we suspect, based on our research, will help prevent child obesity while also addressing hunger and food insecurity in these hard economic times. We encourage them to continue these efforts, which will be easier if federal policymakers focus on obesity prevention as a central goal for the Child Nutrition Act, a long-standing piece of federal legislation scheduled for reauthorization this year. This goal was highlighted by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who called on Congress to raise the reimbursement rate for school meals, as well as link those increases to a requirement that the meals served to children must meet higher nutritional standards. In addition, the administration has proposed a historic increase of $10 billion over the next decade to help schools pay for higher-quality foods, to expand the program to more children and to give local schools the resources they need to upgrade their kitchens, train school food workers and otherwise enhance nutrition and food quality.

We call on our local members of Congress to support these proposals promoting healthy development among their youngest (and future) constituents.

Kimbro is an assistant professor of sociology and a Rice Scholar at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University; Rigby is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Houston. Their joint paper, Federal Food Policy and Childhood Obesity: A Solution or Part of the Problem?, was published this week in the national policy journal Health Affairs.

By RACHEL TOLBERT KIMBRO and ELIZABETH RIGBY
HOUSTON CHRONCLE