Health Policy - Nutrition Standards for Foods and Beverages

Running Head: HEALTH POLICY
HEALTH POLICY MAKING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1HEALTH POLICY
Health policy making is the act of developing, planning, and implementation of programs
to improve the standard of health and eradicating the social determinants that obstructs quality in
healthcare. Healthy people 2020 initiative is an implementation done to increase awareness in
public regarding the determinants of health, disability, diseases and the chances for progression
in the healthcare aspect. It has objectives that focuses on the issues of the national, state and local
levels. All the objectives have certain aims that is beneficial for the target groups and laws
pertaining to it. The objective chosen for this essay is NWS-1 Increase the number of States with
nutrition standards for foods and beverages provided to preschool-aged children in child care
(Shi, 2018). This objective is for the national levels as it focuses on increasing the nutrition
levels in foods and beverages for the children in child care. The plan is to make action plans for
this objective and working towards enhancing the quality of food pre-school aged children are
getting in every child care of the country.
Groups and organizations have been working towards this objective such as Child and
Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to start
providing healthy meals in schools for preschool aged children. They promote wellness,
development of children, and health in people who are not getting these facilities. Child care
providers have the responsibility of instilling nutritious habits in children and making them
follow the dietary guidelines as suggested by the USDA and CACFP. USDA made major
changes in the nutrition standards of CACFP in April 2016. The nutrition standards were again
updated and went into action in October 2017, this helped them in protecting the lives of
children. The USDA provides resources, guidance, practice and training centers for CACPF
including day care homes, also supporting them in giving healthy and balanced food and
beverages to the preschool aged children in day cares (Fns.usda.gov, 2019). A number of laws

2HEALTH POLICY
and regulations are established for this objective such as National School Lunch program
(NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP), it provided for healthy meal plans for children in
schools. A legislation known as Child Nutrition Act is formed by the federal government that
ensures every federal school is authorized to child nutrition programs and healthy meals. In
every 5 years, Congress inspects the laws that governs this acts so that the programs are meeting
the nutritional needs of the preschool aged children. The meals planned will be meeting all the
criteria of the nutritional requirements of preschool aged children in child cares, the laws
mentioned works on improving the quality of calories such as protein, iron, calcium, vitamin A
and C, which are important for promoting growth and development. The Nutrition Standards
based on 1995 Dietary Guidelines for Americans looks after the recommended levels of dietary
fibers, cholesterol, sodium, saturated fats and total fats, which are found on the nutrition label of
food products. This helps the menu planners of the child care centres to include more of these
foods so that it can improve the dietary status of children.
The intervention planned will be at the national level as the objective focuses on
increasing the states with improved nutritional standards in foods and beverages for preschool
aged children. The baseline of this objective is to increase nutrition standards for foods and
beverages in 34 states for preschool aged children in child cares, as it is already present in 24
states. This plan will be implemented by organizing national programs, policies, laws and
regulations to meet the requirements of this objective (Healthypeople.gov, 2019).
The outlining of this proposal will be according to the financial, economical and policy
information of the objective and how it will be linked to the federal government. It will be
proposed to the national government by including the data of the health conditions of children in
the child cares and giving the appropriate reason to implement this plan. The budget has to be set

3HEALTH POLICY
in coordination with the economy of the country. The financing of the plan will be in concern to
the mobilization, collection and distribution of money to work on the health needs of the children
and improving the nutrition standards of food and beverages provided to them. The
representative of the federal government entity will guide in planning this proposal by
embedding the financial and economical policies in this objective such as the fiscal policy that is
used for altering the expenditure of the government and taxation. The economic policies of the
United States will be considered in this action plan. The policy of adopting childcare nutrition
programs that promotes increasing nutrition standards of food and beverages being provided to
them. It will ensure that all states of the country look into this policy so that children will have a
better health condition and not get affected by the lack of nutritional awareness amongst the
faculty of child care centers (Cdc.gov, 2019). The teachers, staff, coaches, administrators, food
service personnel and public health workers will be included in this plan so that it is successfully
implemented in the grass root levels. The administrator of the federal entity such as U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) will look after the data presented and the rationale of this plan,
so that the execution is done as early as possible. The policies will also involve the families of
the preschool aged children so that they are made aware about the daily requirements and
improved nutritional standards that needs to be followed for their health and welfare. The
CACFP meal patterns will also be introduced in the proposal so that the daily requirements are
met according to the protocol, and operators will be employed who have the required set of skills
and knowledge in the field of nutrition. It will plan to include more fruits and vegetables,
reducing sugar content and saturated fats, which is extremely unfavorable for preschool aged
children.

4HEALTH POLICY
Healthcare policy making involves the support of the government, public and the
financial scenario of the country. However, the cost might be high but the result of eradicating
health issues in the country is always more fruitful.

5HEALTH POLICY
References
Cdc.gov. (2019). Guidelines for School Health Programs to Promote Lifelong Healthy Eating.
Retrieved 16 December 2019, from
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00042446.htm
Fns.usda.gov. (2019). Nutrition Standards for CACFP Meals and Snacks | USDA-FNS.
Retrieved 16 December 2019, from https://www.fns.usda.gov/cacfp/meals-and-snacks
Healthypeople.gov. (2019). Nutrition and Weight Status | Healthy People 2020. Retrieved 16
December 2019, from
https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/Nutrition-and-Weight-
Status/objectives#4923
Shi, L. (2018). Introduction to health policy (2nd ed.). Chicago: Health Administration Press.