Alum channels passion into school-lunch program

‘Hungry and malnourished children can’t learn. It wasn’t until after lunch that many were able to focus,’ alum recalls

By Lara Herrington Watson

After 18 years as CEO of the School Nutrition Association, University of Colorado Boulder alumna Barbara S. Belmont retired in 2011.

Belmont attended CU in the early and mid-60s, earning a B.A. in social studies with an Education minor, and an M.A. in American history.

In a time before social media, CU’s community discussed and debated issues Belmont had never heard of. She says this culture made her aware of the state of the world and gave her a sense of responsibility for it.



“We all participated in the often heated discussions and thus took our first steps to participating in causes that we felt deeply about. I don’t know how anyone could have graduated from CU in the ‘60s or ‘70s without having greater awareness and a desire to do something to make the world a better place,” she recalls.

Belmont credits her professors with inspiring her and other CU students to do something for the less-fortunate. The physical environment of CU also gave her the feeling that she could achieve anything.

“Waking up each morning to a view of the majestic Rockies couldn’t help but lift your spirits and make one think of a world of possibilities,” Belmont says.

After earning her M.A., Belmont became a history and civics teacher. In a poor district outside St. Louis, she learned about the federal free and reduced-price lunch program for students whose families who fell below the poverty line.

“Hungry and malnourished children can’t learn. It wasn’t until after lunch that many were able to focus,” explains Belmont.

She couldn’t help developing a passion for programs that helped feed hungry children. In 1993, she became the CEO of what is now the School Nutrition Association, a non-profit association that ensures students have access to nutritious meals during the school day. Its 55,000 members educate the public, school administrators and others about the importance of school-lunch programs. They also lobby for more program funding and research.

The biggest challenge now is to get students to eat food being served under the new federal guidelines, when they are not eating that way at home.”As CEO, Belmont worked to build resources and bipartisan public and congressional support. Determined to change the poor public image of the school-lunch program—which she says manifested itself in jokes about lunch ladies and mystery lunch meat—Belmont ran a capital-raising campaign. She ultimately helped raise $3 million to inform the public about school-nutrition programs.

She also established and built strong grassroots support. Belmont boasts that today there are bipartisan members in every congressional district who are passionate about the school-lunch program.

According to Belmont, although the program was initially sponsored by legislators from farm states, its success has been due largely to a strong partnership with agriculture and bipartisan support on Capitol Hill.

“That relationship is very much a part of the social history of this country,” Belmont says.

During World War II, agricultural production was in overdrive, feeding the country and its armies, but after the war, excess food led to price drops. The 1946 National School Lunch Act utilized this overproduction to feed the nation’s children.

“Farmers have supported school [lunch] programs since the 1940s, which has been critical to their success,” Belmont notes. Ultimately, the relationship between agriculture and school-lunch programs needs to remain strong.” Today, numerous organizations are interested in the school-nutrition programs. They have strong opinions about how these programs should be managed and what food should be available to students.

Belmont contends that these demands create a big challenge for programs that feed around 50 million students a day on limited budgets.

The program was never intended to be a cure-all, she says, yet “because the federal government funds the school lunch program, everyone wants to make their voice heard.”

Belmont wants the public to recognize the program’s goals as well as its challenges and limitations.

“The biggest challenge now is to get students to eat food being served under the new federal guidelines, when they are not eating that way at home.”

SNA has had many legislative victories, but Belmont says one of the most important was its defeat of block grants to the states in 1995, which would have ended school nutrition as a permanently entitled federal program.

“This would have possibly allowed states to use the money for other projects and do away with nutritious meals for students,” she says.

After 18 years at the helm of the SNA, Belmont concludes, “It was an honor to serve...and support the wonderful cause of making sure that all children have access to nutritious meals.”

Lara Herrington Watson is a CU alumna (’07) and freelance writer who splits her time between Denver and Phoenix.

Feb. 27, 2015