Michelle Obama

First Lady Michelle Obama told a gathering of middle school students at the White House, "I'm going to fight until the bitter end to make sure that every kid in this country continues to have the best nutrition that they can have in our schools."

First Lady Michelle Obama will fight for healthier school meals and the White House has made the issue a top priority, senior nutrition policy advisor Sam Kass told supporters, according to Obama Foodorama.

At a meeting with school nutrition leaders, First Lady Michelle Obama said proposals in Congress to scale back nutrition standards were "unacceptable to me, not just as First Lady, but also as a mother." The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote on Thursday on a USDA funding bill that would waive for one year the requirement for healthier meals if schools show they lost money on their food programs for six months.

First Lady Michelle Obama will stress the need "to protect and advance the tremendous progress that has been made" in school meals during a meeting this afternoon, according to the White House. School leaders and other experts have been invited to the White House to discuss school meals.

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted for flexibility in operating the school lunch program, a marked contrast to a House bill to allow waivers for some schools from the reforms written into a 2010 law. Conservatives say the reforms, which require more grains, fruits and vegetables in meals and less sugar, salt and fat, are too costly.

The House's spending bill for USDA in fiscal 2015 includes provisions sought by some farm groups and by GOP conservatives. The House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture is scheduled to vote on the bill this morning. The draft makes white potatoes part of the WIC food basket; USDA wanted to exclude them on grounds WIC recipients get enough starch.

The Obama administration proposed the first overhaul of the Nutrition Facts label since it came into use in the 1990s.

First Lady Michelle Obama and AgSec Vilsack announced new school food rules that would phase out advertising of junk foods and sodas in schools, a follow-on to provisions that require schools to serve healthier meals.

The administration may announce later this week the first update to the Nutrition Facts labels that appear on food packages, said Politico's Morning Ag newsletter.

Scheduled for Tuesday morning at the White House is an announcement by the First Lady and AgSec Vilsack "on school wellness and to highlight the incredible progress being made in school health environments across the country."