On Wednesday, two days after a federal court overturned a Trump administration regulation on school meals, an association of school food directors asked Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue for “quick action to restore school meal flexibilities.” The USDA has declined to comment on the ruling.
At issue is a 2018 USDA regulation that delayed a deadline for schools to reduce sodium in meals and said that only half of grain products served in a week — rather than all of them — had to be rich in whole grains. U.S. District Judge George Hazel vacated the rule on grounds it differed too much from the interim rule that preceded it. Hazel ruled in a lawsuit that contended the USDA had violated the government’s guidelines for rulemaking. Democracy Forward, which argued the case in court, said Hazel’s ruling “ensures that school lunches will be healthier for 30 million children.”
“SNA is requesting quick actions to restore school meal flexibilities,” the School Nutrition Association said in its letter to Perdue. “SNA supports maintaining robust federal nutrition standards to ensure all students receive healthy, well-balanced meals at school, and the flexibility provided under the final rule did not compromise ongoing efforts to improve school meals.”
The 2018 regulation blunted a drive begun with the 2010 child nutrition law to reduce salt, fat, and sugar in school meals and to serve more fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, and whole grains. The SNA said schools struggled to meet the sodium and whole grain targets due to factors that included “regional and cultural preferences for a few specific items like white rice, tortillas, or pasta.” Disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic will magnify the problems of buying foods that meet “highly specialized school nutrition standards,” the group said.
To read the SNA letter, click here.