WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on new nutrition standards for school lunches (all times local):
1 p.m.
Schools won’t have to cut the salt in kids’ meals just yet. And they can skip the whole grains and replace the non-fat milk with 1 percent. That’s the word from the Trump administration on Monday.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue traveled to a school in Leesburg, Virginia, to announce that the administration was rolling back some nutrition standards for federally subsidized school meals.
Former first lady Michelle Obama had pushed hard for her healthy eating initiative, but some schools complained that the Obama administration standards were too restrictive. And some students didn’t like the taste.
Perdue said, “If kids aren’t eating the food, and it’s ending up in the trash, they aren’t getting any nutrition — thus undermining the intent of the program.”
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10:40 a.m.
The Trump administration is preparing to roll back some nutrition standards for federally subsidized school meals, a key part of former first lady Michelle Obama’s legacy.
As his first major action in office, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is planning an announcement Monday afternoon at an elementary school in the Washington suburb of Leesburg, Virginia. The Agriculture Department said ahead of the announcement that a new rule would provide “regulatory flexibility.”
School nutrition directors have said many of the standards are unworkable. They have argued for changes to whole grain and sodium requirements, in particular, saying it’s hard to make foods that are high enough in whole grains and low enough in sodium that kids will eat.
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