The Republican-backed proposal to give some schools a waiver from school lunch reforms “will probably be back on the table” in the lame duck session of Congress, write two pediatricians in the New England Journal of Medicine. “The possibility of such waivers remains real,” write Jennifer Baidal and Elsie Taveras. “Attempts to roll back the modernization and improvement of school-meal standards threaten future progress in reducing obesity and other chronic diseases that originate in early childhood.” The 2010 reforms, now taking effect, require schools to serve healthier meals. Previously, students ate more fat and salt than recommended and consumed “more than 500 excess calories from solid fats and added sugars per day.”
Baidal and Taveras say there are several factors behind a decline in school lunch participation, among them “the recession, price increases for full-price participants, students’ wariness of new foods, and negative media coverage of school-lunch content.” They say the number of children buying full-price meals has fallen by an average 5 percent a year since 2007-08 while the number of students qualifying for free meal has risen.