Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warned about weakening school food standards in the name of giving schools more leeway to satisfy requirements or to help them prune needless expenditures. “What we are concerned about is using ‘flexibility’ as … a way to roll back” the reforms made in 2010, Vilsack said during a teleconference. He responded to a question about suggestions that schools should offer fruits and vegetables rather than require students to take a serving at lunch and breakfast. Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts has said a “one size fits all” approach is out of sync with the great variation of school enrollments and finances.
The 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids law requires schools to serve more fruits, vegetables and whole grains and less sugar, salt and fat. Congress is due to reauthorize the federal child nutrition programs this year. School lunch is the largest of them.
The USDA announced $30 million in grants for school food programs: $25 million for new equipment to prepare and serve food, and $5.5 million for training and expert advice to schools on behavioral economics that encourage students to eat more nutritious meals. With the latest grants, USDA has provided $185 million since 2009 to help schools buy food service equipment.
A state-by-state list of equipment-assistance allocations is available here.