“Aiming a flamethrower at school nutrition”: USDA proposals to reverse Obama standards met with controversy

20 Jan 2020 --- In a highly controversial move, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced two proposals that would relax school food nutrition standards set out in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The plans include allowing anything that might be allowable as an entrée on any one school day to be served as an à la carte item every single day and reducing the amount of fruit served with some breakfasts. The USDA states that these changes will enable more flexibility for local school districts and help tackle food waste. However, the move has been criticized by many in the nutrition sphere, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which argues that this is the Trump Administration’s latest “assault” on school meals.

“The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act has been called one of the most important obesity-prevention policy achievements in recent decades, yet the Trump administration seems intent on sabotaging it. While there’s plenty of room to strengthen school nutrition further, these proposals instead are aiming a flamethrower at it,” says Colin Schwartz, Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs at CSPI. 

The USDA states that children would continue to receive wholesome meals, while offering increased flexibility for local school districts to serve children food they will want to eat, by:

• Allowing local schools to offer more vegetable varieties, while keeping plenty of vegetables in each meal.
• Making it easier for schools to offer school lunch entrées for à la carte purchase, thereby reducing food waste.
• Providing options to customize meal patterns to best serve children in different grades or smaller schools who eat together.
• Supporting a more customized school breakfast environment by letting schools adjust fruit servings and making it simpler to offer meat and meat alternatives, ultimately encouraging options outside the cafeteria so students can start their day with a healthy breakfast.
• Shifting to a performance-focused administrative review process that is less burdensome and time-consuming, which would increase collaboration with operators to improve program integrity.

The amount of fruit served with some breakfasts will be reduced.The USDA has also proposed another rule with customer-focused reforms to the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), which serves more than 2.6 million children during the summer months. This will also see giving operators more local control by:

• Providing more flexibility in choosing meal offerings, meal service times and allowing children to take certain non-perishable food items offsite.
• Granting flexibilities that make it easier for sponsors and sites to participate by reducing paperwork and streamlining the application process for operators.
• Implementing stronger monitoring to help sponsors maximize their resources.
• Clarifying performance standards and eligibility requirements for sites.

These changes will simplify operational requirements, increase efficiency and make it easier for state and local program operators to feed children, says the USDA.

“Schools and school districts tell us that there is still too much food waste and that more common-sense flexibility is needed to provide students nutritious and appetizing meals. We listened, and now we’re getting to work,” says Secretary Perdue. “Our proposed changes empower schools to give their best to children nationwide and have the potential to benefit nearly 100,000 schools and institutions that feed 30 million children each school day through USDA’s school meal programs.”

Critics flag “huge loopholes” in school nutrition guidelines
This move has seen the support of School Nutrition Association (SNA), with President Gay Anderson and CEO Patricia Montague joining US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue for a roundtable discussion on school nutrition issues. 

“Updated nutrition standards for school meals have been a tremendous success overall, but a few of the requirements contributed to reduced lunch participation, higher costs and food waste,” says Anderson. “USDA’s school meal flexibilities are helping us manage these challenges and prepare nutritious meals that appeal to diverse student tastes.”

Serving elements of entrées as an à la carte purchase may pave the way for children to choose unhealthy foods in place of balanced school meals. (Source: CSPI)She continues that SNA is eager to review the proposed changes, discuss them with its members and share their feedback with USDA.

However, CSPI flags that the move could lead to “huge loopholes in school nutrition guidelines.” Schwartz notes that the rule surrounding serving elements of entrées as an à la carte purchase may “pave the way for children to choose pizza, burgers, French fries and other foods high in calories, saturated fat or sodium in place of balanced school meals every day.”

CSPI also highlights the effect of limiting the variety of vegetables served at lunch, with Schwartz noting that “if past is prologue, lobbyists for the potato industry likely have replacements in mind.” 

This is also not the first time that the Trump administration has rolled back earlier school nutrition policy, which was championed by Michelle Obama. Two years ago, new legislation allowed white bread and low-fat, flavored milk to come back on the menu across US school cafeterias. This is now the subject of two ongoing lawsuits by CSPI and partners and by a group of state attorneys general. 

Last week, two studies revealed the success of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the Smart Snacks in School, both of which come under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The analysis of the NSLP found that school plate waste did not increase after the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act and that producing healthier meals was not associated with significantly increased costs. 

By Katherine Durrell