The Ellington Board of Education is making one request of Connecticut legislators this year: reform the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).
At its meeting on Jan. 29, the Board voted unanimously to request the federal representatives from the state work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services to review the impact of the lunches being served at school on the health, academic performance and social development of students.
The Board sent a letter to each of the federal Senators and Representatives from the state asking them to “explore regulatory reforms to simplify compliance for schools and suppliers, potentially reducing costs and streamlining testing for contaminants… as well as for ultra-processed foods,” and “reevaluate federal subsidies to ensure they contribute to providing affordable, healthier school lunches.”
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that more than 40% of school-aged children have at least one chronic illness,” the letter states. “These chemicals may have detrimental effects on children’s health, contributing to chronic illness such as obesity, diabetes, and possibly, behavioral disorders.”
Forty percent of high school students suffered from “persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness” in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC). This is a slight decrease from 2021, when many COVID restrictions were still in place.
“I have seen in my 30 year career [in education], but certainly [as] a superintendent for 10 years, our children being deregulated in ways where their attention span, their behavior, their ability to be engaged, [to be] physically fit, [their] attendance, all of those things,” Ellington Superintendent Scott Nicols said. “The trend lines are going the wrong way. We know this is complex, and it’s not just one thing, certainly, but we certainly understand that something is not right with our food supply, we want to start talking about the why.”
In October, the CDC analyzed a study conducted in Canada that looked at the association between diet and exercise, and depression and anxiety. The CDC concluded that “greater consumption of vegetables and fruit is associated with better psychological well-being” in high school aged students.
“The Ellington Board of Education members are not experts in nutrition and children’s health. Yet, we collectively believe that fresh, chemical-free food that is not ultra-processed is essential to optimize academic learning and social development,” the letter stated.
The letter highlighted glyphosate, pesticides, heavy metals and veterinary hormones as a few examples of “contaminants” it wanted to be researched.
Despite his concerns about the NSLP, Nicols is happy with the school district’s food provider, Whitsons School Nutrition. He believes Whitsons do “creative, innovative things” to introduce fresh and healthy food, such as serve fish from off the coast of Maine within 24 hours of its catch.
Nicols says that everyone on the Board of Education, regardless of their political differences, is united in wanting to make the students in the school district healthier. The school district already has a program called “Ellington Unplugged” that promotes spending time away from phones and screens, having face-to-face conversations with people and cooking meals with fresh ingredients.
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