In a rare move, Congress has used a one-year extension of child nutrition programs as a down payment on future program enhancements. Two thousand nine was to be the year that key programs under the Child Nutrition Act – school lunch, school breakfast, WIC, child care feeding and more – would be reauthorized. But then came the ongoing debate over health care that pushed other congressional business aside and child nutrition reauthorization was side-tracked until 2010.

The delay, until September 30, 2010, was written into the fiscal year 2010 agriculture appropriations bill that passed earlier this month. As part of that package, House Education and Labor Committee chair George Miller (D-CA) and newly-installed Senate Agriculture Committee chair Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) jointly developed a $150 million set of child nutrition “investments” with savings from temporary extensions of expiring provisions.

Included in the legislative mix are:

• $85 million to improve children’s access to meals during the summer;
• $25 million to help schools purchase cafeteria equipment;
• $25 million to help automatically enroll children in the School Lunch Program;
• $8 million in grants to improve health and nutrition in child care settings; and
• $5 million in performance bonuses for increasing WIC agencies’ breastfeeding rates.