THORNTON, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado senator is hitting a public-school cafeteria for lunch Tuesday.

And Sen. Michael Bennet is bringing a federal official along for lunch to promote a bill to get healthier foods on school lunch plates.

Bennet and Kevin Concannon of the U.S. Department of Agriculture are having lunch in a Thornton elementary school.

Bennet is among the Democrats in the Senate pushing for a bill to increase federal funding for school lunches. The bill would create a national nutrition standard for school cafeterias and increase funding for free- and reduced-price lunches for poor children.

That bill has passed the Senate Agriculture Committee and awaits a vote by the full Senate.

On the Net: Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010: http://ag.senate.gov/site/legislation.html

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