TO:
FROM: Sophie Lee
DATE: 27 March 2014
SUBJECT: Newer Policies for New Generations Emerging New Diet On The Table Slowly.

The policy acts similar to a law dealing with problems and concerns, but it is influenced by government and nonprofit organizations. Under the government and officials, the public policy is made; the nonprofit organizations advocate the policy making process. The three U.S. government branches, legislative, executive, and judicial, need to be involve and check the new policy before it is applied. The legislative are members of congress such as committee and subcommittee chairs; the bureaucracy players are mainly career bureaucrats such as agency heads and seniors; the interest groups will be the experts, such as powerful leaders in health, welfare, education and more. There are two traditional models, iron triangles and issue networks, which define how the government leaderships work together. The connection among the politicians, officials, and interest group helps how the public receives the supports. Mainly, interest groups have too much control and power on iron triangle. Starting from the electoral support from the interest group towards congress, funding and political support delivered to the bureaucracy, which provides facilities and special favors. On the other hand, the issue network uses much broader networking within the agencies, congressional committees, and interest groups. The model allows experts such as interest groups, members of congress, social media, professors in policy, foundations, public opinion and more, to share knowledge in various areas. In this model, the interest groups are less interested in politics but are focused on related to political issues. According to Hugh Heclo, "The iron triangle concept is not so much wrong as it is disastrously incomplete." (as cited as Stillman, p. 412). The difference between the two models are: * Motivation of the actors * Nature of the interaction * Decision-making * Visibility * Access Secondly, the executive leadership problems are that the administrators identify policy networks instead of the citizens. In addition, powerful interest groups are very vocal; instead, the iron triangle decision should be based on right and wrong. According to Heclo, the issue networks make democratic politics difficult because the networking is * Complex - Makes what is meant to be simple very complex * Fostering knowledge and consensus - need to agree becomes second to an understanding of the issue * Confident - policy politicians need to be well-versed in complex highly disputed issues so that the average citizen is confident * Pushing for debate - rewarding and weighing alternative courses of action.
(as cited as Stillman, p. 412) Laura Sims's case study "Reinventing School Lunch" shows the movement of transforming a food policy into a nutrition policy. The National School Lunch Program (NSLP), authorized in 1946; eventually led to the policy issues of "obesity" of the students, who ate more high-calorie food, by the secretary of USDA in 1991. The funding from the house and senate announced in 1993, according to the USDA School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children. Within 6 months, President Clinton signed the bill into the law and another 7 months later, the program was published. In the following year in May, Healthy Meals For Children Act was passed. The Federal should have considered the nutritious food even before they were discussing about the lunch program for children. In the mid-1940, the diet for the students were not as same as today, but lack of achieving and providing better nutrients was much focused. The history slightly went different approaches children consuming higher fat, which failed the official promise providing enough nutrients. Therefore, NSLP failed to follow the policy that created by the federal department. Another issue is the relationship with the local farmers in order to received cash subsidies to activate the NSLP. The school district had to donate from 15 to 20 percent of the outlay. The result was the short financial for the school lunch managers. In addition, the children could not follow the diet that they receive because they ate the familiar food. The USDA purchased lots of fish and vegetables, but the children refused to eat and looked for more fatty food as usual. It was a wasting food and money at the same time. In addition, the school lunch nutrition facts were not detailed but concentrating on the amount of fat. In order to have well balanced meal would be calculating well spread vitamin, minerals, and fat. The new policy was suggested in 4 ways * Eating for Health * Making food choices * Maximizing resources * Managing for the future Ellen Haas served as Undersecretary of Agriculture for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, and her supports helped to supply healthier meals to the children. "Ellen Haas had one of the most powerful jobs in the federal bureaucracy and control over nearly 60 percent of the entire USDA budget" (Sims, as cited as Stillman, p. 434). Before she stepped into the problem, about 12 years ago, the suggestion of the lunch meal improvement had not referenced. The Agriculture Department that resulted in unbalanced nutrition and high-fat contain school lunches cased and regulated many policies such as dietary guidelines. It is shame that someone who are expert in the food nutrition filed joined after the problem started. From the hospitality industry background, when food industry organizations and small groups want to develop better health life for the residents, they research on food consumption conditions and histories of the local's eating habits. Not only changing the lunch menu cannot improve children's healthy and well-balanced life, because their families might serve oily food for dinner. It is important involving local families to the issue, so they can support the school and their families as well. At the same time, the USDA should forecast the school district's ability to support their lunch program and farmers; the schools might agree to the program, but not yet ready to accept the program.