In the U.S., National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs feed about 22 million low-income kids each day. In an effort to improve the quality of food served by the programs, the Obama administration implemented the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. However, the Trump administration rolled back the nutrition standards in an effort to quell complaints about the costs of the new guidelines. As a result, a coalition of states and advocacy organizations sued the Trump administration in early April, 2020 and were victorious in the ruling. (1, 2, 3)

School Meal Regulations Violated Law

According to the ruling, the Agriculture Department’s regulation violated regulatory law. “The court concludes that the rule is not inconsistent with federal law, it does not reflect unexplained and arbitrary decision making, it does not represent an unacknowledged and unexplained change in position, and the U.S.D.A. appropriately responded to public comments,” ruled U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel. “The court does find, however, that the final rule is not a logical outgrowth of the interim final rule, so it must be vacated.” (1)

School Meal Access

In light of the current COVID-19 crisis, the importance of school meal programs has become clear. School groups are struggling to get meals to children missing out on the programs during school closures. “What has become oh so clear in the context of this crisis is how important food access is and how important government policies are to ensuring that people across America have access to nutritious food,” says Karianne Jones, a lead litigator for Democracy Forward, which represented the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Healthy School Food Maryland in the fight against the 2018 rule. “But what the Trump administration has done time and again is to roll back federal policies that are designed to ensure that American children can access food.”  (1)

School Meal Sodium And Whole-Grain

The Obama administration implemented rules to steadily lower sodium levels to ensure they comply with 2010 dietary guidelines. New guidelines also ensured 50% of grain products included whole grains and that fruit and vegetables were served daily. The Trump administration first targeted the change to sodium and whole-grain standards, with further changes to limit the need to serve fruits and vegetables. (1, 2)

School Meals Expensive

The reasoning behind the changes to meal standards was that they allegedly placed undue financial burden on schools. The Trump administration provided an interim rule back in 2017 to give schools more time to address sodium issues. It also allowed states to grant waivers for the whole grain guidelines if they could prove it was due to hardship. (1)

According to the interim rule, the Agriculture Department states, “This interim final rule addresses significant challenges faced by local operators regarding milk, whole grains, and sodium requirements and their impact on food development and reformulation, menu planning, and school foodservice procurement and contract decisions.” (1)

School Meals And Waste

The Agriculture Department also says they were simply responding to requests made by those who serve the meals. “Schools and school districts continue to tell us that there is still too much food waste and that more common-sense flexibility is needed to provide students nutritious and appetizing meals,” says Sonny Perdue, the agriculture secretary, in a statement. (2)

However, Ms. Jones sees it differently. “By gutting nutrition standards, the administration is really putting these 22 million low-income kids who rely on this food at risk of all sorts of health problems. Heart disease, diabetes, things that come from establishing a bad diet at a young age,” she says. (1)

School Meal Discrepancies

The Agriculture Department “did not give the public proper notice of what it intended to do in rolling back the standards,” says Ms. Jones. “What it did was fully eliminate the need for schools to ever get to the targets.” In order for the administration to meet requirements Ms. Jones feels “they have to propose a rule that is transparent and give the public the ability to comment.” (1)

“For many of our students, the meals they receive at school are the only hot nutritious meals they eat during the day,” attorney general of New York, Letitia James said when the lawsuit was first announced. “And access to healthy and nutritious food should never be determined by your ZIP code or your socioeconomic status.” (3)