Unless you have a child with Celiac Disease, you probably aren’t aware of the difficulty involved with helping a child to stay gluten-free while in school. This is especially true when lunch rolls around and all the other kids are enjoying their hot lunches.
Vanessa of Beyond Rice Cakes has been a vocal leader of sorts when it comes to this area and is leading a campaign urging people to tell the USDA to provide gluten-free options. This is a no-brainer for people who have children with Celiac Disease, but others may not think of it, so I wanted to draw everyone’s attention to Vanessa’s post.
According to Vanessa:
Currently the National School Lunch Program does not include any provisions for gluten-free food. The good news is that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is revising the Child Nutrition Act and wants to hear from you to help guide the revision process!
To give you a little background, the Child Nutrition Act includes legislation for the National School Lunch Program. This is the program that provides schools with federal assistance for school lunches. In 2009, the act will be reauthorized and, to help ensure the needs of all Americans are met, the USDA is accepting input on what needs to be changed to improve the program.
Please help improve the lives of children with celiac disease by sending your comments to the USDA. You can fax comments to 703-305-2879 or submit comments online.
The deadline for submission is October 15, 2008.
Vanessa goes on to provide some key points to remember as you submit your request to the USDA, so you’ll want to check out her post.
Remember, everyone with Celiac Disease needs to stick together and someone needs to speak up for the children who are going through school without gluten-free options. Here is your chance!
EXCEPT that Vanessa is NOT the first, the American Celiac Disease Alliance (ACDA) has been working on GF lunches for students for years!!!!!!!! They conducted a detailed survey this past summer which got 1000 responses in less than a week and 2200 + overall. That research was used when the ACDA was asked to testify before Congress about school lunches.
Maybe Vanessa is working with the ACDA on this important issue but if so, haven’t seen any mention of it.
Jen
@ Jen – Thanks for the comment!
That is great news about the ACDA, they do a lot of great work. Unfortunately, I fail to see how it really matters who was first or who gets the credit for it. If Vanessa gets a bunch of people to send letters, that will ultimately help the ACDA.
No matter who gets the credit, in the end, the winners will be the children!
I agree with the earlier note. It is interesting that someone blasts a note across the internet touting their leadership on an issue they know nothing about. I have read the NFCA website about lunches, and found MANY errors. Commpletely wrong.
Honestly, NFCA is becoming the next CSA. What next – They were responsible for the food labeling law? OOOooops, they take credit for that too, and had nothing to do with it.
When it comes to issues like this having groups saying the same thing makes a HUGE difference. If one group doesn’t know what the other is doing, and is asking the USDA for different things, we look like we don’t know what we want. That is a big problem!!
I’d like to know what Vanessa is doing to work the Alliance on school lunches.
@ D Douros & Jen – I have spoken to Beth Hillson, who I believe is the ACDA President, about getting notified when you have updates or news. That way I can pass it along to our readers!
I know there are a number of different groups all working for a positive change and improving the lives of people with Celiac Disease in the United States.
This site is a neutral party, but we will be happy to give everyone equal coverage. If you can let me know when there are ACDA updates, we’ll be happy to give it more exposure on this site!