Congress Pushes Back On Healthier School Lunches

WASHINGTON — Congress is unraveling the Obama administration's attempt to make school lunches healthier, pushing back against Agriculture Department efforts to limit french fries and pizzas, reduce sodium and boost whole grains on school lunch lines.

A spending bill released late Monday would force the department to drop an attempt to limit servings of potatoes per week, delay proposed limits on sodium and delay a requirement to boost whole grains. The department proposed the standards earlier this year.

The spending bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. The department's proposed guidelines would have attempted to prevent that.

The changes had been requested by food companies that produce frozen pizzas, the salt industry and potato growers.

Comments

[suthernbabe]

05:03 PM on 11/15/2011

with all the other things they have screwed up....now they need to have a say in school lunches.where are the parents ? i'm sure thats not an issue in the private schools their children attend.

[Clamdip LobsterClaws]

10:57 AM on 11/15/2011

Another thing most elementary schools could do to increase children's interest in food is having a lot of variety and choices. If lunchrooms were designed like Las Vegas buffets, children would be more apt to try different types of food. Why not serve brown rice California rolls at the Japanese sushi bar or Italian pasta bar? Allowing children to make lunch choices helps them later in life in forming independent decisions and being the captain of their own destiny. These changes could be made very inexpensively and very creatively and stations could be manned by culinary students. This could be part of a culinary student's mandatory curriculum. Students could be pre-screened and vetted. School cafeterias are a throw back to the 1950's. So much more could be accomplished with a little imagination and fun.

[I-US]

10:48 AM on 11/15/2011

"Wherefore it appears to me necessary to every physician to be skilled in nature, and strive to know, if he would wish to perform his duties, what man is in relation to the articles of food and drink, and to his other occupations, and what are the effects of each of them to every one."--Hippocrates

We are faced not only with national but also global epidemics of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. And, as Hippocrates pointed out so long ago, diet is a powerful contributor either to health or disease. It's deeply disturbing that the power to make positive changes for our children is being trumped by corporate greed and concerns for profit.

[Clamdip LobsterClaws]

10:25 AM on 11/15/2011

I wish they would just hire culinary students in school cafeterias as part of their practical graduating requirement. Pleasing kids can be challenging so its a good lab experiment. There is a trick though.
Most children can't resist artistically displayed finger foods. Children's minds are so creative that you can get them to at least try anything once if you present it in a fun way. The most successful lunches in school are the cute little Bento boxes, Japanese mothers lovingly and painstakingly make for their children. Most others end up in the trash bin.

[Treehuggindirtworshiper]

10:13 AM on 11/15/2011

My 2 kids have always taken their lunch and will continue to do so. The problem is that for some children school breakfast and lunch are the only meals they get. I love Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution". He's taking on the entire country one school system at a time. It's pretty sad that a Brit has to take on the school lunch system in the US. We need an American celebrity foodie to endorse him or even join him in the fight to feed our kids healthy meals.

[rich3324]

09:35 AM on 11/15/2011

Why does the gop hate kids? I know they love fetuses, but they seem to hate kids.

[progressivegreg]

09:19 AM on 11/15/2011

CONGRESS SUCKS!

[Food Review 101]

09:10 AM on 11/15/2011

http://www.foodreview101.com/ When I went to school I just took my lunch, is that not an option anymore?

[Larry Aleshire]

02:32 AM on 11/15/2011

i thought everyone knew tomatoes are a fruit? tsk... tsk...

[Chg9389]

01:54 AM on 11/15/2011

We're the Republican Party. We'll gladly sell your kid out to the potato industry, the pizza barons, and the Big Salt. What a bunch of disgusting politicians.

[progressivegreg]

09:21 AM on 11/15/2011

I think they have a cash register in the reception area of their office!

[mek0123]

01:23 AM on 11/15/2011

Much of the food produced for school lunches is prepared by.................get this...............jail inmates. Sounds even healthier now huh?

[Vendeen]

10:07 AM on 11/15/2011

Source? I'm skeptical of this claim.

[jrakansas]

01:21 AM on 11/16/2011

I think what he was thinking of the fact that some of the largest outside "food service providers" that schools contract with are the exact same firms used by prisons to feed them. See Sodexo (sp?), Chartwells, etc. So when some kids come home and talk about eating prison food, there's a reason. Not necessarily made by the inmates, but it's just a smaller portion of their food.