COMMENTARY Education

Bad News for Kids: Huge New Spending Bill Doesn’t Include Much of a Reprieve From Harsh School Lunch Rules

Dec 10, 2014 3 min read

Daren Bakst

Former Senior Research Fellow

Bakst analyzed and wrote about regulatory policy, trade, environmental policy, and related issues.

The new spending bill, or as it’s been dubbed on Twitter, the #CRomnibus, doesn’t include even a temporary waiver provision to give some schools a reprieve from new and problematic federal school meal standards.

The USDA’s new school lunch and breakfast requirements, implementing the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, have been a disaster. The overly prescriptive federal standards are driving up costs and leading to massive plate waste.

The National School Boards Association explained in a recent press release, “…school boards cannot ignore the higher costs and operational issues created by the rigid mandates of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.”

The new meal standards try to micromanage every aspect of what’s served to children, including placing severe restrictions on calories, nutritional content and portion sizes. Some schools have left the program, willing to sacrifice its massive subsidies in exchange for freedom from its excessive restrictions and costs.

Students across the country are disgusted by the food. According to the Government Accountability Office, students in one district held a three-week boycott against school lunch. In a Pittsburgh suburb, students organized lunch strikes. As shown in this recent Daily Signal article, the food certainly does appear disgusting.

This entire issue, though, is really about the proper role of the federal government.

While Michelle Obama is pushing for rigid federal control of school meals through the new standards, the alternative is respecting parents who know their children’s needs better than anyone else, and respecting local school districts who are best positioned to meet the needs of their communities.

The House Agriculture Appropriations bill, passed by the full Appropriations Committee in June, included a provision that would grant waivers to school food authorities who are suffering financial losses due to operating food service programs. The waiver would be for those specific authorities for the 2014-15 school year only. It wouldn’t make any changes to the meal requirements—it merely gives a reprieve for some schools.

While there are two narrow provisions that were included in the CRomnibus addressing school meals, they make the very modest waiver included in the Agriculture Appropriations bill look like a major reform. One provision would block strict new sodium requirements “until the latest scientific research establishes the reduction is beneficial to children.” Another provision addresses the new and stringent whole grain requirements. However, it requires that school authorities demonstrate hardship in procuring whole grain products that comply with the law and are acceptable to the students.

These narrow changes don’t hide the fact that the CRomnibus couldn’t even include a reprieve from the school meal standards for some schools. Students, parents and schools will suffer as a result.

This piece originally appeared in The Daily Signal