When former First Lady Michelle Obama put strict limits on school lunches, basically everyone – students, parents, teachers – pleaded with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to lift the restrictions. Obama’s plan regulated everything – calories, fat, sugar, sodium – you name it, creating a situation where students were being served flavorless meals few wanted to eat. The whole mess has cost taxpayers billions, and was based on shoddy science.
But now President Trump is changing all that.
“The Trump administration is scrapping the unnecessary bureaucracy altogether by making many of the changes permanent, effectively erasing rules that some believe unfairly targeted minorities and ignored cultural diversity,” the Education Action Group Foundation reports.
The Associated Press reports that Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association representing local cafeteria workers, explained the situation:
Whole-grain bread and buns generally aren’t a problem. But she said students complained about other items, in many cases because of cultural or regional preferences. Finding whole-grain biscuits and grits that students like are a challenge in the U.S. South, she said, while tortillas are a challenge in the Southwest.
The worst part is that reportedly nearly “2 million fewer kids are eating school lunch each day since Obama-inspired rules took effect.”
What the Trump changes mean is schools can now serve items once restricted – including chocolate milk – without having to ask the federal government for permission. Under the Obama rules, students could only get fat-free flavored milk. How unappealing does that sound? “Fat-free flavored milk?” It sounds terrible!
If you can stomach it, take a look at some of the “meals” that were being served to kids. It’s a nightmare.
That schools need to coordinate with the federal government over lunch menus is ridiculous to begin with. As if big government didn’t already mess up enough things in our lives, for the past few years they’ve been ruining students’ lunches.
Thankfully, President Trump is putting a stop to this nonsense, as chocolate milk-loving kids across America rejoice.