News-Gazette Photo/Andrew Sullivan   Janey Thornton, United States Department of Agriculture deputy under secretary of food, nutrition and consumer services, conducted a round-table discussion with local school and Osceola County School Board officials. Above, Thornton visits with fifth-graders Mirian Avelar, left, and Jaylin Guillot during a tour of Central Avenue Elementary School.

By Brian McBride
Associate Editor

With the growing problem of child obesity in the nation, if youngsters don’t start changing the way they eat, they won’t outlive their parents.

That was the sobering message Janey Thornton, U.S. Department of Agriculture deputy under secretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, tried to emphasize Thursday during a visit to Central Avenue Elementary School in Kissimmee.Thornton toured the school and then held a round-table discussion at the school with food service, education and state government officials in an attempt to reap ideas for improvements to the Child Nutrition Act, which authorizes the national school lunch and breakfast programs. Every five years, Congress considers improvements to the act, which is currently up for a makeover on Capitol Hill.

According to USDA statistics, about one-third of the children in America are obese or overweight.

“Knowing that these children will not outlive their parents is shocking to me,” said Thornton, who was appointed under secretary by President Barack Obama in 2009. “But it is a fact.”

Scientific studies show there needs to be more whole grains and less sodium, fats and sugar in a child’s diet, Thornton said. The USDA wants to ban soda and junk food from schools.

“We need to have fun foods for the kids,” Thornton said. “(Healthy) food kids will eat.”

A strong reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act is the legislative centerpiece for First Lady Michelle Obama’s recently-announced Let’s Move! campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation. To achieve that, the USDA is hosting school nutrition events in regions throughout the country, where participants will include food service workers, school officials, community and advocacy members, federal, state and local officials, parents and students.

By the end of this year, the USDA will have collected research, conducted dialogue with the industry, consumers and experts, and completed guidance for retailers and manufacturers to adopt new nutritionally sound and consumer-friendly front-of-package labeling. The path will lead toward 65 million parents in America having easy access to the information needed to make healthy choices for their children, USDA officials said.

“We want to find out what people think of child nutrition and how we can improve programs through reauthorization,” Thornton said.

Some of the USDA’s priorities include improving nutrition standards, train people who prepare school meals, establish standards for foods sold in schools and provide schools with better equipment needed to produce healthy, attractive meals.

The rise in the rates of children who are overweight or obese is a direct result of poor diets, a lack of physical activity and insufficient nutrition education, USDA officials said.

What were methods mentioned at Central Elementary School to help improve nutrition? Some were more widespread and easily accessible nutrition training for teachers; better monitoring of school budget cuts for programs essential to help with nutrition; and cooking classes for young students.

But the main problem, Osceola County School Board Chairman John McKay said, was that the message wasn’t reaching the home from the classroom. He proposed devising a campaign, such as the anti-drug TV spots that have run.

“There has got to be at the national level a campaign, and it has to be a serious campaign,” he said.

The Central Avenue Elementary School stop was chosen by USDA officials because it’s only one of the four elementary school in the district that holds a silver level distinction in the national Healthier U.S. Schools Challenge Program. The program establishes rigorous standards for schools’ food quality, participation in meal programs, physical activity and nutrition education.

The elementary school lunch menu includes a different vegetable every day of the week; a different fruit every day of the week; a whole grain food serving three or more days a week; and only low-fat or fat-free milk – and no junk food.

It wasn’t an overnight transition three years ago, but students eventually adapted, cafeteria manager Dee Palmer said. The students now snack on items such as yogurt and cheese sticks

“I think it was all in the education and incorporation,” she said of the new diet. “It’s all what you offer.”