OK, maybe school lunch by its very definition is never going to be great, but at least the new president is working to make school food edible again after eight years of Michelle Obama’s meddling.
The Trump administration has announced a loosening of regulations on the National School Lunch Program, regulations that have caused students nationwide to turn their noses up at lunches offered at their places of learning.
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced more “regulatory flexibility” to counter the strict nutritional standards imposed by Michelle and Barack Obama.
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Via The Hill:
Newly minted Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is expected to unveil a new rule Monday aimed at giving schools more flexibility in meeting federal nutrition standards for school lunches.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Friday that Perdue and Sen. [score]Pat Roberts[/score] (R-Kan.) will make the announcement at the Catoctin Elementary School in Leesburg, Va., where they are expected to eat lunch with the students.
Republicans have long been trying to dial back the standards that became a pillar of former first lady Michelle Obama ’s initiative to curb childhood obesity in the U.S.
“While Barack Obama was in office there were some big changes to school lunches,” Jazz Shaw at Hot Air writes.
The changes “were ostensibly intended to make them more nutritious, but actually wound up making them mostly inedible.”
Cafeteria workers, those who witnessed children tossing out their lunches, agreed.
The School Nutrition Association (SNA), a 57,000-member strong group that represents school cafeteria professionals, asked the Trump administration to limit restrictions on good-tasting foods that were squashed under Michelle Obama’s healthy lunch program.
They argued that “overly prescriptive regulations” imposed during the Obama administration had led to “reduced student lunch participation” and greater amounts of “food waste.”
Rep. [score]Mark Meadows[/score] (R-N.C.), who heads the House Freedom Caucus, has been leading the effort to repeal the former first lady’s “Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.”
“The federal government involving itself in what is served in school lunches is the epitome of government overreach,” he said.
