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The Trump administration has yet another proposal that could disproportionately harm the most vulnerable Americans. Last-place Friday, the US Department of Agriculture introduced the standard rules that would allow the nation’s schools to shrivel the amount of healthy foods provided to children. The govern is just the latest in the administration’s attempt to dismantle the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010, an initiative designed championed by former First Lady Michelle Obama.
“While there’s plenty of room to strengthen school nutrition further, these proposals instead are basically aiming a flamethrower at it .”
The brand-new regulation would enable schools to reduce the amount of fruit included in breakfasts served as on-the-go from one cup to a half a beaker. Sweet tarts and granola saloons could fill the rest of the required calories. And for lunch, academies can serve potatoes as a vegetable. The rule would also allow them more flexibility in provide pizza, burgers, and french fries a la carte. In a press release on Friday, US Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue asserted that the rollback is necessary because” schools and school districts continue to tell us that there is still too much food waste and that more common-sense flexibility is needed to provide students nutritious and appetizing dinners .”
A study commissioned by Perdue’s own agency and liberated last-place April contradicts this claim. Comparing school years before and after the Obama reforms, it found that provide healthier meat did not result in significantly higher costs for cafeterias or increased food waste. After the reforms were implemented, lunches did get healthier, the researchers met: students ingested more whole grains, dark-greens, and beans, as well as fewer” empty calories( added sugar and solid flabs) and less sodium.
Advocates scoffed at Trump’s brand-new proposed agenda.” The Trump Administration’s assault on children’s health continues today under the guise of’ simplifying’ school meals ,” Colin Schwartz, the deputy legislative administrator of legislative liaisons at the Center for the Science in the Public Interest said in a statement.” While there’s plenty of room to strengthen school nutrition further, these proposals instead are basically aiming a flamethrower at it .”
Nearly 30 million children eat lunch at school a day, and 20 million of those qualify for free lunch.
If it goes into effect, the new regulation could have major implications for students across the country. Nearly 30 million children eat lunch at academy a period, and 20 million of those qualify for free lunch. These children rely on school-provided dinners for nearly half of their daily calorie needs and 40 percentage of their vegetable uptake, essentially building free school lunch a social safety net for low-income children.
In his press release, the USDA’s Perdue painted the changes as a response to overwhelming demand from academy cafeteria executives.” We listened and now we’re getting to work ,” he said. Meanwhile, advocates general from seven states and the District of Columbia are pursuing a lawsuit, filed last-place April, charging that the reversals were induced without public input and were “not based on tested nutritional research.”
Read more: motherjones.com
