Donald Trump’s administration proposed new school lunch guidelines Friday that would undo several changes made by Michelle Obama to get more fruit and veggies on the menu: a move that comes on the former first lady’s birthday.
The Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Food and Nutrition Service, said it is proposing new rules ‘to simplify meal service and reduce food waste.’ That would include ‘increasing flexibility in the “vegetable subgroups” requirements for school lunches.’
But the changes would allow schools to cut the amount of vegetables and fruits required at lunch and breakfasts while giving them the ability to offer more pizza, burgers and fries instead.
It would also undo rules championed by Michelle Obama as part of her Let’s Move initiative and The Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010.
Friday is the former first lady’s 56th birthday.
Donald Trump’s administration announced new school lunch guidelines Friday that would undo several changes made by Michelle Obama
The Trump administration announced the changes of Michelle Obama’s birthday
Michelle Obama made healthy eating a signature issue during her time in the White House.
‘I am determined to work with folks across this country to change the way a generation of kids thinks about food and nutrition,’ she said.
President Donald Trump, however, is known for his love of fast food. He often ate McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken on the campaign trail.
One of his favorite meals is a hamburger with a side salad consisting of an edge of iceberg lettuce covered in blue cheese. Apple pie with ice cream is his favorite dessert.
Consumer groups slammed the proposed school meal changes.
‘The proposed rule would allow anything that might be allowable as an entrée on any one school day to be served as an a la carte item every single day. In practice, if finalized, this would create a huge loophole in school nutrition guidelines, paving the way for children to choose pizza, burgers, French fries, and other foods high in calories, saturated fat or sodium in place of balanced school meals every day,’ Center for Science in the Public Interest Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs Colin Schwartz said in a statement.
‘The Trump administration proposal also would limit the variety of vegetables served at lunch and allow schools to reduce the amount of fruit served with some breakfasts. (If past is prologue, lobbyists for the potato industry likely have replacements in mind.),’ Schwartz added.
The changes had been sought by food manufacturers and some school districts that were frustrated with the higher food costs that come at providing more fruits and vegetables.
The USDA defended the proposed rules, arguing they would reduce food waste.
‘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,’ Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement. ‘We listened and now we’re getting to work.’
A public comment period on the new rules opens January 21.
The USDA oversees nutritional programs that feed nearly 30 million students at 99,000 schools.
About two-thirds of those kids qualify as low-income and receive meals free or for a reduced price.
President Obama posted a happy birthday message to his wife
Michelle Obama eats broccoli during a lunch at New Hampshire Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland on May 19, 2010
Low-income kids are at a higher risk for obesity and are less likely to have healthy meals at home, making school lunches and breakfasts an important alternative for them.
The Washington Post first reported the newly proposed nutritional guidelines.
Additionally, the new rules would make it ‘simpler to offer meats or meat alternates’ at school meals. And they would cut the fruit serving guidelines from from one cup to a half cup.
President Trump is known for his love of fast food – here he eats McDonalds during the 2016 campaign
Michelle Obama at Parklawn Elementary School in Virginia on January 25, 2012 to promote her new healthy school lunch guidelines
For school lunches, the new rules would allow potatoes as a vegetable everyday and would allow them to offer pizza and burgers over more nutritious choices.
It’s not the first time the USDA has changed school meal guidelines.
In March, they allowed school breakfast programs to ‘credit any vegetable offered, including potatoes and other starchy vegetables, in place of fruit.’