school lunch
Low-income children now a majority in public schools-Study
"Low income students are now a majority of the schoolchildren attending the nation's public schools," said the Southern Education Foundation in a research bulletin. "In 40 of the 50 states, low income students comprised no less than 40 percent of all public schoolchildren. In 21 states, children eligible for free or reduced-price lunches were a majority of the students in 2013." The South and the West accounted for most of the states where low-income children were the majority of school enrollment.
Meal price, family income factors in school lunch participation
The antihunger Food Research and Action Center says recent declines in the number of children in the school lunch program is due to demographics and not changes in the menus to cut down on fat, salt and sugar.
USDA would ban food-frying for meals at day care centers
Day care operators would be barred from frying food for meals served to children and adults under rules proposed by USDA. The government says the proposal, published in the Federal Register, would align day-care meals with school lunch reforms.
New White House nutrition advisor must be ready to rumble
With the departure of nutrition policy advisor Sam Kass, who also was personal chef for the Obama family, the administration "is set to lose its behind-the-scenes food policy general at the end of the month, right as a Republican Congress plans an assault...
Schools in poor areas adopt free-meals-for-all option
Some 51.5 percent of schools in high-poverty areas offer free breakfast and lunch to all students through the so-called community eligibility provision of the 2010 school food law, said USDA.
Six big US school districts specify antibiotic-free chicken
The Urban School Food Alliance, composed of six of the largest U.S. school districts, announced its members want antibiotic-free chicken to serve in their cafeterias.
Omnibus bill relaxes whole grain, salt rules for school food
Congress would relax rules that call for schools to use more whole grains and to reduce salt in meals provided to students, according to provisions of a government-wide funding bill. Unveiled on Tuesday night, the bill also calls for USDA to study the nutritional content of vegetables available in the so-called WIC program before removing any of them from the program - a response to complaints that white potatoes were being singled out unfairly.
Is that a red light on your candy bar?
To help people choose healthier meals, some cafeterias are using "traffic light" labels on their food, writes Tove Danovich at Civil Eats. At Massachusetts General Hospital, which adopted the approach in 2009, sales of sodas and other beverages marked "red" fell significantly in two years.
School lunch, EPA scale-backs ride on gov’t funding bill
The government-wide funding bill being assembled in private on Capitol Hill would scale back school lunch reforms approved in 2010 and "curtail some clean-water regulations," says the New York Times.
Healthy meals a hard sell, no matter who makes them
Whether they bring food from home or buy food at school, children aren't eating healthy lunches, says a Bloomberg story about two small-scale studies.
School lunch vs brown bag, and visualizing 2,000 calories
Two studies suggest that school meals are more nutritious than meals packed at home, says the New York Times blog Well. The studies, conducted in urbanized Houston and in rural Virginia found the school food to be lower in fat and sugar than ...
Five top themes of 2014 and for the new year
The year-end holidays are a traditional time for summing up and for trying to forecast the future. Here is the Ag Insider list of five salient issues in food and agriculture policy likely to lead the headlines in the new year, as they did in the year now waning. The issues...
School lunch waivers “back on the table” after election day
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.
Electoral path clears for school lunch critic in House
House Agriculture Committee member Rodney Davis of Illinois, a critic of new school lunch rules, looks like a surer bet for a second term from central Illinois.
Parents strongly support school food standards, poll says
Retired military brass to work against school lunch waiver
Mission: Readiness, composed of retired military officers, plans to lobby lawmakers against a school lunch waiver when Congress re-convenes after Labor Day, says Politico.
Ban on school vending machines can backfire
A ban on vending machines in schools can lead to increased soda and fast-food consumption if its the only change in a school's food policy, say researchers at the UI-Chicago.
Senators see different school lunch needs – flexibility, funding
Republicans asked about local flexibility and Democrats focused on funding when the Senate Agriculture Committee sat down to hear about they sat down to talk about renewal of school lunch and child nutrition programs. Together the programs cost around $19 billion a year with school meals getting $14 billion. The programs are due for reauthorization in 2015.
Fewer students in the school lunch line
Over the decade ending in fiscal 2019, before the pandemic, student participation in the school lunch program fell by 7 percent, to an average of 29.6 million meals a day, said a USDA report on the program. In enrollment and cost, school lunch is the nation's second-largest public nutrition program, behind SNAP, and operates in around 100,000 schools.