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Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) will today introduce a bill to loosen the standards set by the massive overhaul of the school lunch program, potentially refueling criticism against the legislation that passed three years ago.
Noem’s bill, Reducing Federal Mandates on School Lunch Act, would eliminate calorie caps on meat and grain, giving schools some flexibility in what they can serve, especially for those in states such as South Dakota, Noem’s home state, where it’s expensive to get a variety of fruits and vegetables year-round and meet the overall calorie requirements.
Although Noem’s bill deals with a specific section of the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, it could renew the negative attention the legislation has received since it was passed. Already this week, “Fox and Friends” featured a video titled “We are hungry” that went viral last year in a segment in which Noem discussed her bill.
Prior to Noem unveiling her bill, criticism against the new standards had largely died down since the release of data from the Department of Agriculture that showed that 80 percent of schools were complying with the new standards.
But in a phone interview with POLITICO, Noem maintained that although schools are complying, they are struggling to meet the added costs. She said she is putting forward the legislation after hearing about hungry students and financially strapped school districts from school nutritionists and her constituents.
“Ever since the new regulations were implemented, I’ve been hearing about how difficult it is to deal with not only the added costs, but also with making sure kids are full,” said Noem, who sits on the House Agriculture Committee.
This is also not the first time the meat and calorie caps set by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act have been called into question. The Department of Agriculture responded to criticism from lawmakers and schools last year by tweaking the standards to eliminate meat and grain caps, as Noem’s bill proposes, at least temporarily.
The USDA explained, at the time, that it understood how a limit on grains may be difficult for schools to manage as they could be served as part of the entrée, such as a sandwich or pasta, as a side dish, such as rice or a roll, or even be part of a dessert, such as a fruit cobbler.
“This variety may create challenges for school menu planners considering different portion sizes for a single meal and across the various meals that may be offered on a given day, and that must be summed to stay within the weekly ranges,” the USDA said. “We understand that in practice, it may be difficult for [school food authorities] to offer meals with relatively larger grain items (e.g., 3 oz.) on the same day as meals with smaller grain items (e.g., 1 oz.), and stay within the weekly ranges.”
But Noem’s bill seeks to make the USDA’s tweak permanent.
“Let’s do it legislatively, and bring some certainty,” she said.
Noem has so far won the support of the National School Board Association, which said this week that the legislation would provide some relief to schools “struggling to meet the overly prescriptive and unnecessary federal mandates and balance the prohibitive cost against other essential student need.”
However, advocates of the school lunch reform say the legislation doesn’t seem necessary because there’s already agreement on the meat and grain cap and enough flexibility for schools to implement the legislation.
“The reality is that the vast majority of districts are implementing (the standards) successfully,” said Jessica Donze Black, director of the Kids’ Safe and Healthful Foods Project for the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The USDA’s Food Nutrition Service already is working with schools to provide assistance and address challenges, which include making the meat and grain flexibilities permanent, an agency spokesperson says.
Noem’s bill faces an uphill climb, given the current gridlock in Congress. She has yet to confirm Democratic support.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) reintroduced similar legislation this year, but his bill, which would eliminate overall calorie caps, did not advance out of committee.
The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was championed by the Obama administration, overhauled the school lunch program for the first time in 15 years. The legislation established a variety of new standards that include limits on calories, salt and fat, and call for schools to serve more whole grains, fruits and vegetables.