Schools Want to Ditch Michelle Obama’s ‘Healthy’ Lunch Regulations

The School Nutrition Association (SNA), a 57,000-member strong group that represents school cafeteria professionals, is fighting back against Michelle Obama’s outrageous lunch rules.

They’re asking the Trump administration to limit restrictions on good-tasting foods that were squashed under Michelle Obama’s healthy lunch program.

The group argues that “overly prescriptive regulations” imposed during the Obama administration have led to “reduced student lunch participation” and greater amounts of “food waste.”

The disagreeable menu options also lead to increased costs, as students simply decline to eat what the school is serving, and the food is thrown out.

Opting out of the federal program is an alternative, but leads to a cut in federal funds provided through the program.

Via the Washington Examiner:

Faced with students who won’t buy lunches low in salt and sugar and jacked up with bland-tasting grains, the nation’s 54,000 school cafeteria workers are urging Washington to junk health-focused rules pushed by former first lady Michelle Obama.

Feeling that they have an ally on their side in the Trump administration, their lobby group, the School Nutrition Association, plans to press for less-strict restrictions on ingredients that taste good.

The reason is simple: Studies show that public school students aren’t eating what cafeterias are serving, turning many operations into money-losers. While the school districts can opt out, doing so results in federal subsidy cuts for those programs.

During the Obama years, a school in upstate New York became one of the first to abandon Michelle Obama’s lunch program, citing a loss of $30,000 in one quarter alone.

Why? Here were the options being offered to kids:

Carrots. Apples. A slice of ham and a slice of cheese between two pieces of wheat bread.

That’s one lunch option.

The other is a salad of mixed greens dribbled with feta and steak sliced on the side.

Perhaps I’m a bit picky, but if I’m a kid in school and the lunch lady offers me a food product that is labeled as being “dribbled with” anything, I’m making my way to the nearest exit.

The main points of contention from the SNA are restrictions on salt – which would eliminate several options with naturally occurring levels – and the insistence that expensive whole grains be used in all products.

The fight to make school lunch great again for the kids is already before Congress, as Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), who heads the House Freedom Caucus, is leading the effort to repeal the former first lady’s “Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.”

“The federal government involving itself in what is served in school lunches is the epitome of government overreach,” he said.

Will the Trump administration roll back some of those regulations and overreach?

Comment: Do you agree that the federal government needs to loosen restrictions on lunch options for kids at school? Share your thoughts below.

Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox... More about Rusty Weiss

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