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From the Washington Post:

Michelle Obama’s school lunch agenda faces backlash from some school nutrition officials

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Michelle Obama speaks out against school lunch legislation

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The first lady told a roundtable of nutritionists hosted by the White House that Congress shouldn't "play politics with our kids’ health." (WhiteHouse.gov via YouTube)

In Georgia, kids resisted the loss of their beloved fried chicken. In New Mexico, whole-wheat tortillas went straight to the trash can. And in Tennessee, after schools replaced familiar flaky white biscuits with a whole-grain variety, one official reported a “severe amount of rejection.”

What began as an effort led by first lady Michelle Obama to serve more-healthful food to American schoolchildren has turned into a clash of cultures across the country — and, now, a high-profile Washington lobbying battle.

At stake in the argument over lunch menus, beyond the natural tension between nutrition and children’s taste buds, are the profits of several large food companies that sell frozen pizzas, french fries and other prepared foods to schools.

The dispute provides a fresh illustration of the ways special interests can assert power in Washington. In this case, food companies forged an alliance with a key lobbying group, the School Nutrition Association, and pushed it to shift its position from publicly supporting the Obama-backed standards to pressing Congress for relief.

On Thursday, a House committee voted for a Republican-backed measure that would allow school districts to temporarily opt out of the nutrition standards, which were passed in 2010 with the support of the White House and set mandates to reduce sodium and increase whole grains and servings of fresh fruits and vegetables.

A school lunch salad entree option at Mirror Lake Elementary School in Federal Way, Wash. (Ted S. Warren/AP)

The party-line vote served as a rebuke of sorts to the first lady, who has made curbing childhood obesity a priority and delivered a series of public pronouncements in recent days decrying the opt-out proposal as a full embrace of junk food.

The measure is expected to be considered later this summer when House and Senate members meet to negotiate spending bills.

Obama herself has emerged as a key factor in the schism stemming from the new standards.

Some school officials, particularly in rural communities, have complained about the White House seeking to impose costly food standards on districts that don’t want them. Several of these critics, speaking with reporters this week, complained about cafeteria garbage cans swelling with fruits, veggies and other healthful foods rejected by students.

“We can’t force students to eat something they don’t want,” said Lyman Graham, food service director for consolidated schools near Roswell, N.M. “Many families in the Southwest will not accept whole-grain tortillas.

“Schools can’t change cultural preferences,” Graham added. “And with sky-high produce costs, we simply cannot afford to feed our trash cans.”

Jonathan Dickl, school nutrition director in Knox County, Tenn., described anger over the demise of traditional biscuits, a food he called a “mainstay” in the South.

Dolores Sutterfield, child nutrition director in Harrisburg, Ark., described an act of rebellion by children served containers of applesauce. Instead of opening them, students piled them on trays in pyramid form before throwing them out, uneaten.

“Older students, especially, know what they want, and some days they simply don’t want a fruit or vegetable,” she said.

At a competing event this week, Michelle Obama gathered together other school nutrition officials with a different story. Advocates for the higher standards included school officials from New York, Los Angeles and Burke County, Ga., a rural district with a high proportion of students from low-income families.

They acknowledged that the mandatory fruit and vegetable portions produced complaints at first but said the initiative is now a success.

Donna Martin, the Burke County school nutrition director, said kids there happily eat salads and fresh fruits.

She admitted the transition was rocky.

“In the South, do you not think that taking fried chicken off the menu was dangerous?” she asked. “It was.

“But we have an herb-baked chicken that our children love. We bake our french fries, and we have whole-grain, locally grown grits we do for breakfast that are awesome.”

Helen Phillips, a nutrition official in the Norfolk schools and a past president of the School Nutrition Association when the group supported the White House approach, said that some school districts are struggling.

“Some of that struggle comes from not being prepared, and some of it comes from attitudes [such as], ‘I can’t,’ ‘I won’t’ or ‘This is hard,’ ” Phillips said. “Some people are having financial constraints. Some people have suffered a decrease in participation.”

The disconnect between school nutritionists from different parts of the country has been a major factor in the changing politics around school lunches.

A key change was the switch by the School Nutrition Association.

Obama, during her appearance this week, singled out the SNA’s role, noting that the group helped her and other advocates push for the standards in the first place.

“It is my understanding that this is the group that’s pushing to change the legislation,” she said. “If anyone can help me understand how we wound up here —”

The two sides offer competing story lines to explain the shift. But it is clear that bitter disagreements over the nutrition standards — in many cases pitting urban vs. rural schools, Republicans vs. Democrats and business backers vs. health-food advocates — prompted a civil war within the organization and the appointment of new leadership and new lobbyists.

Former presidents of the organization say the School Nutrition Association came under greater influence from the handful of large companies that dominate the multibillion-dollar school food industry.

Several former top SNA officials, requesting anonymity to discuss finances, said that corporate involvement grew over time, leading the organization to alter its stance.

Current leaders of the association say their new position reflects real concerns of their 55,000 members who represent school cafeterias across the country.

SNA spokeswoman Diane Pratt-Heavner called claims of excessive industry influence “wildly exaggerated” and designed to “overly politicize the debate.” She said Thursday that companies’ contributions of $5 million in fiscal 2013 represented 49 percent of the group’s revenue.

Former association leaders describe a more substantial corporate role in determining SNA’s agenda.

Corporate members, for instance, now make up about a third of the participation in the organization’s annual legislative conference, former officials say.

A key member is Minnesota-based Schwan Food, which says it provides pizzas to more than 75 percent of the country’s 96,000 K-12 schools.

At a 2012 SNA meeting, a Schwan executive and other industry advocates pushed for the group’s leadership to be more aggressive in asking for changes in the school lunch program, according to a person who witnessed the exchange but requested anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about it.

Schwan officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Working a year earlier through a group called the Coalition for Sustainable School Meals Programs, industry officials had succeeded in pushing Congress to designate pizza with tomato sauce as a vegetable.

The first lady has cited the pizza example in recent days. She poked fun at the change in a New York Times op-ed published Thursday.

“You don’t have to be a nutritionist to know that this doesn’t make much sense,” she wrote.

Alice Crites contributed to this report.

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from CBS News:

U.S. to relax healthy school lunch rules after student complaints

Infants eat lunch at the federally-funded Head Start school on September 20, 2012 in Woodbourne, New York.

John Moore/Getty Images

There may be some good news for kids complaining that their school lunches are unappetizing and leave them hungry.

U.S. regulators said on Thursday they were permanently relaxing school meal rules that were designed to combat childhood obesity by reining in calories and portion sizes.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture had initially loosened the rules in late 2012, suspending daily and weekly maximum amounts for grains and meat or meal alternatives. That allowed school districts to service larger portions without penalty.

"Earlier this school year, USDA made a commitment to school nutrition professionals that we would make the meat and grain flexibility permanent and provide needed stability for long-term planning. We have delivered on that promise," Kevin Concannon, USDA undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, said in a statement.

The announcement was welcomed by North Dakota Republican Senator John Hoeven, who had introduced a bill with Arkansas Democratic Senator Mark Pryor to make the changes permanent.

"Today, the USDA made the permanent changes we have been seeking to the School Lunch Program," Hoeven said in a statement. "A one-size-fits-all approach to school lunch left students hungry and school districts frustrated with the additional expense, paperwork and nutritional research necessary to meet federal requirements. These are exactly the changes included in our Sensible School Lunch Act."

Some 31 million children in the United States receive free or low-cost school lunches and more than 10 million get free or discounted breakfasts. Schools are an important focus because they provide meals to many low-income students, considered to be often the most at risk for being overweight or obese.

The healthy lunch rules had initially been adopted in 2012 as part of a law designed to improve school breakfasts and lunches, called the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. About $4.5 million was allocated in order to provide better food options at schools over the next decade.

The modifications were aimed at limiting fat and salt, reducing portion sizes and increasing fruit and vegetable servings. For kindergarteners through fifth graders, their meals were capped at 650 calories. Sixth through eighth graders were allowed 700 calories per meal, while high schoolers got 850.

However, some students complained that the meals weren’t filling, nor were they appetizing. Wallace County High School in Sharon Springs, Kan. created a video called “We Are Hungry,” which parodied Fun’s “We Are Young.” Students are seen pretending to faint from hunger and sneaking snacks to school in order not to starve during the day.

Other schools may have gone too far in lowering caloric content. The New York Times reported that New York City officials admitted that many of their meals were below the minimum calorie requirements, especially for older students.

Some schools announced in Aug. 2013 that they were leaving the National School Lunch Program, which pays schools for the meals they serve and sells them lower-priced items. They said many kids were opting not to skip lunch because they didn’t like the healthier options, leading to greater financial losses among other negative downsides.

"Some of the stuff we had to offer, they wouldn't eat," Catlin, Ill. Superintendent Gary Lewis told the Associated Press. "So you sit there and watch the kids, and you know they're hungry at the end of the day, and that led to some behavior and some lack of attentiveness."

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From MySuburbanLife.com

New lunch program popular at Troy schools

Published: Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015 12:10 a.m. CDT

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(photo provided)
By HERALD LIFE

SHOREWOOD – A new menu with more choices and food made fresh at each school is proving very popular with Troy District 30-C students.

Previously, lunches were made at an outside facility and delivered to the schools.

This year, with a new in-school vendor, students are enjoying the fresh, hot meals that include lasagna roll-ups with seasoned green beans, broccoli buds and orange halves; chicken fajitas with Spanish rice, salsa and applesauce; and toasted cheese sandwiches with mixed vegetables, tiny tomatoes and fresh oranges.

There also are several a la carte items available daily, such as fresh fruit and veggies and crispy chicken salad at the grade schools and a fruit and veggie bar and grab-n-go deli sandwiches and salads at William B. Orenic Intermediate School and Troy Middle School.

The number of students who buy hot lunches at Troy schools is up by 34 percent this year, according to the district’s Executive Director of Finance and Operations Elaine Colombo.

DMU Timestamp: September 23, 2015 19:27





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