WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY | Debate Heating Up Over School Food Bill

Debate Heating Up Over School Food Bill

(FRANKFORT, Ky.) -- School food service directors and workers are opposing a Senate bill that backers say would bring healthier diets to students.

Administrators and school boards also are lining up against the so-called "junk-food" measure. Last week, both chambers voted to limit the sales of sweet soft drinks, candy bars and chips in school vending machines and cafeterias.

But now provisions in a Senate bill that are more specific and require more from school systems and their employees than those in the House version are triggering an unanticipated outburst of objections.

School officials and employees, particularly food service directors from around the state, are complaining to House members about a requirement for 30 minutes of supervised exercise each day for elementary school students and a ban on "deep-fried food" in cafeterias in the Senate bill now under consideration.

None of the groups has challenged a key provision in both bills that bans elementary schools from offering soda in vending machines during school days and that requires middle and high schools to offer more "school-day-approved" beverages, such as water, milk and 100 percent juice in their machines.

"We have worked tirelessly to try to change our products so they're not only nutritious but acceptable to kids," said Janie Thornton, Hardin County Schools' food service director and vice president of the national School Nutrition Association. "If kids won't eat it, we haven't accomplished a thing."

Thornton is concerned that the "deep-fried food" provision would wreak havoc on food service directors' menu planning by preventing them from serving food that is "flash fried" by distributors, such as chicken nuggets.

The Kentucky Association of School Administrators and the School Board Association, meanwhile, are balking at the exercise provision in the Senate bill, saying that it levies an unfunded mandate on schools.

Wayne Young of the administrators' association said that by specifically requiring a physical education teacher or specialist to "coordinate" students' physical activities, schools might have to hire more staff.

"Does that mean hands on, in person? There are a lot of unanswered questions," he said.

The Kentucky Education Association's board has yet to take a position on the Senate bill, which was authored by Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr, R-Lexington.

Advocates say they're still hopeful that a bill can pass this session, despite the opposition.

Rep. Tim Feeley, R-Crestwood, said he hopes to quell the exercise requirement controversy by adding an amendment to the Senate bill that pushes back its implementation until the 2008-09 school year.

"To me, the kids are what's important," said Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, one of the authors of the House version of the bill.   "I've worked on it for about five years. This better be the year."

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