Government Changes That Affect School Lunches

A post by the New York Times describes how the secretary for the Department of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, does not agree with the past rules and regulations that were changed during the Obama administration. He says this about the school lunches, "your dedication and creativity was being stifled." "You were forced to focus your attention on strict, inflexible rules handed down from Washington."

Already some changes have been made to the federal school food rules. These changes to the Health, Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010 have been in three different categories. The first was about how much of the whole grain that is required in school lunches that the federal government will reimburse. Another change has to do with milk. In the Obama rules it was stated that milk had to be 1 percent fat, but flavored milk had to be non-fat. Mr. Perdue is changing it so that 1 percent flavored milk can be served. This is actually more difficult for the schools because most flavored milks are already made non-fat, and the children have become used to the taste of that milk, so this change is not significant. The third change is that the districts do not have to be as strict on their sodium reduction. This change has been supported by most of the districts.

Even though, these changes are being made. School lunches are headed in the right direction. Schools are getting more creative with how they are serving their lunches and making them more customizable. There are more school gardens and farms than ever before and even apps to make experimenting through ordering food even easier.

The moral of the story is that schools are relying less on the government to make changes that will actually improve school lunches. They are relying on local, public-private partnerships or foundations and nonprofit organizations to really make a difference for children that can not afford to eat, to come up with new and exciting ideas, and ways to educate food service directors on how to incorporate better nutrition into the school lunches. An example of this is in Manhattan, students have developed an app called "Food for Thought" which allows people to buy lunch for those who can not afford it. It is very exciting to see this movement take place.

LG

Severson, K. (2017, September 05). Will the Trump Era Transform the School Lunch? Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/dining/school-lunch-trump-obama.html






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Are All Sugars Created Equal?

Milk Mythbusters