Special Interests Succeed in Weakening Nutritional Standards of School Meals

by Press Staff

Childhood obesity in America has become a national health crisis. The rate of obesity among children and adolescents has more than tripled over the past 30 years.

In an effort to help stem the obesity crisis, a Democratic-led Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act last year to improve nutritional standards for our nation’s school meals.  The law also provided additional funding for schools that meet the new standards. 

Unfortunately in November, at the behest of powerful lobbying groups, Congress inserted a special interest provision in a larger bill that would throw science out the window intended to improve the quality of school meals for students.

Here are three changes contained in a larger spending bill that rolled back the newly proposed healthier standards:

  • Blocked the limits of starchy vegetables to two servings a week. The rule was intended to cut down on french fries, which some schools serve daily.
  • Allowed two tablespoons of tomato paste as a vegetable. This means that pizza could be considered a vegetable.
  • Delayed long-term efforts to reduce sodium in school meals.

A group of retired generals weighed in to say that that this special interest lobbying would undermine national security.

“Given that the USDA has spent the past year finalizing science-based standards to limit salt, unhealthy fats, and calories and include more nutrient-rich vegetables, fruits, and whole grains as part of school cafeteria menus, you’d think we’d be off to the races and kids would soon be eating much healthier food at school.  Instead, we appear to be reliving the past battles over ketchup as a vegetable.  If schools — or industry lobbyists — want to count pizza as a vegetable, they should make a pizza that meets vegetable standards, not tamper with the standards to create a pizza loophole,” said Dawson Taggart.

It is unfortunate that the House majority politics before sound science and undermines steps to improve the health and well-being of our children. Pizza is NOT a vegetable and our children deserve better.