school lunch

While Congress wrangles over one-year school-lunch waiver for some schools, the Senate Agriculture Committee will hold its second hearing of the summer on child nutrition. Set for Wednesday, the hearing "will examine school meal programs across the country" with an eye for ways "to continue strengthening these programs to better support America's school children," says the hearing announcement.

The U.S. House may take up reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission this week. It is one of two major bills on the agenda; the other is the Defense Department appropriations bill for fiscal 2015.

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."

The Senate Agriculture Committee opened work on reauthorization of child nutrition programs, including school lunch, with a 90-minute hearing that hailed the role of good nutrition in academic success and long-term health.

The House won't vote until next week at the earliest on the headline issues for the Agriculture Department funding bill - a waiver of school lunch reforms for some schools and adding whilte potatoes to the WIC food basket.

The Obama administration announced the "Local Food, Local Places" project to provide expert advice to rural communities to use local food systems as an engine for economic growth.

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.

The Washington Post says, "At stake in the argument over lunch menus, beyond the natural tension between nutrition and children’s taste buds, are the profits of several large food companies that sell frozen pizzas, french fries and other prepared foods to schools." The story looks at how the new menu rules play out in schools around the nation.

A Republican proposal to give hard-pressed schools a one-year waiver from school lunch reforms is headed for a floor vote in the House with predictions of more turmoil to come. "This is poison," warned Sam Farr, a senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. "It will tie up the whole ag appropriations bill." Farr lost on a party-line vote, 29-22, when he tried to delete the waiver during a four-hour committee markup.

The Knoxville, Tenn, schools face an additional $900,000 in breakfast costs next year because of federal regulations to serve more produce, nutrition director Jonathan Dickl said ahead of a potentially key House Appropriations Committee meeting. Dickl spoke in favor of a proposed one-year waiver for some schools from requirements to serve more nutritious meals.

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.

Ahead of the Senate Appropriations Committee markup today, Ag Secretary Vilsack spoke strongly against expected proposals to change WIC and school lunch rules. "I, for one, find it outrageous to be taking a step back from the commitments we made in 2010," Vilsack said, referring to the reauthorization of child nutrition programs.

The House Appropriations Committee is likely to release today a draft of the FY15 USDA funding bill. It could include provisions, sought by conservative Republicans, to delay or overturn school lunch rules. On Tuesday, House and Senate subcommittees are scheduled to mark up the spending bills. "We expect they will act on Tuesday May 20 to gut nutrition standards through the appropriations process," says the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest in a on-line petition.

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.

Some House Republicans are "looking at including language in the fiscal 2015 spending bill to potentially halt key school nutrition regulations for increased whole-grain requirements and competitive foods restrictions, which are set to kick in this July," says Politico.

Eli Saslow's "unsettling and nuanced reporting on the prevalence of food stamps in post-recession America, forcing readers to grapple with issues of poverty and dependency," won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting.