October Pulse Poll: Your Opinions on the Safe School Meals Act

We want to know what mothers think about Cory Booker's proposed bill restricting toxins from public school lunches.

One of the scariest things about being a mother is knowing that you can’t control everything your children are exposed to throughout the day. As soon as they walk out the door, so many things are out of your hands. At Count on Mothers, here’s what we say, “There are things we are powerless over, but policies that affect the lives of our kids should not be one of them.”

According to the School Nutrition Association, over 95,000 schools/institutions serve school lunches to 28.6 million students each day, while 90,000 schools serve school breakfast to almost 14.5 million students each day. The association estimates that approximately 60% of students eat food provided at school.

So when Moms Across America tested 43 public school lunches from 15 states for harmful toxics, the results of the sample were alarming. 95% of the items had detectable levels of glyphosate, which is a carcinogenic pesticide that has been linked to kidney, liver, hormonal, and gut disruption; 74% contained at least one other pesticide; and 100% tested positive for the presence of heavy metals.

In September, Senator Cory Booker introduced the Safe School Meals Act (SSMA). The goal of the bill is to protect school children by: 

• Directing the FDA to set safe limits for heavy metals in school meals. The limits would be based on a threshold of reasonable certainty of no harm to school-age children from aggregate exposure. If the agencies fail to set these limits within 2 years, the limits will automatically be set to non-detectable until the agencies can determine a safe level of exposure.

• Banning glyphosate, paraquat, and organophosphate pesticide residues in school meals. Certified organic farms would automatically meet this requirement.

• Banning PFAS, phthalates, lead, and bisphenols in food packaging in school meals.

• Directing FDA to reevaluate food additives with known carcinogenic, reproductive, or developmental health harms, such as artificial food dyes, and ban their use in school meals prior to the completion of FDA’s analysis. 

The Count On Mothers Pulse Poll in July asked mothers about the issues that matter most to them, and 77% responded that food access, cost, and nutrition are a major concern for their families. And in June, when we asked what their largest concerns are with big business, moms wanted to speak their minds to food and drug manufacturers more than any other industry.

One moderate mom from Ohio wanted to tell food manufacturers to “stop filling our foods with poison and bad ingredients,” while a mom from Oklahoma who identified as conservative said, “Stop poisoning our babies.” A liberal mother from California simply said, “We need clean food!” Clearly, mothers across the political spectrum are concerned with what is in the foods their families eat.

So this month, we want to know YOUR thoughts on this proposed bill. Do you think it’s time for the government to step in on a federal level to oversee limits on harmful ingredients in school meals? In your view, based on your firsthand experience, what should the standards be for a school-provided lunch? Click here to take the 2-minute October Pulse Poll — we send results to Cosponsors and Committee Members. Thank you!