Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts plans to eat lunch at Mill Valley High School in Shawnee, Kan, today to see “what works and what doesn’t” in the school food program. The trip to Mill Valley will be the first in a series of visits to see how the federally backed program can be improved or changed. The government spends $21 billion a year on child nutrition programs, with more than half of it going to school lunch. A top job for Congress this year is to reauthorize the programs.
In 2010, lawmakers enacted reforms that called for less salt, fat and sugar and more fruits, grains and vegetables in school meals. Some school districts say the reforms are unduly costly to implement and the food is not as popular as previous offerings.
“Mill Valley is an example of a school with a strong foodservice director with lots of resources, and even they have challenges in complying with these new rules. Imagine the challenges facing our rural schools, which have fewer resources,” Roberts said in a statement. “We need a policy that allows all schools to provide nutritious and fulfilling meals to our kids in an effective and efficient way.”
The School Nutrition Association, which represents school food directors, lists a 35-cent increase in the federal support rate for school breakfast and lunch as the first of seven goals for renewal of child nutrition programs. SNA says schools need more money to meet the current requirements to serve more nutritious meals. The group opposes reductions in salt content of food, wants to roll back a requirement to use only whole grains, asks for more leeway on a la carte foods, and says students should have a choice whether to take fruit and vegetables as part of their meals.