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Nutrition Rules for School Lunches Are Rolled Back Trump Takes Aim at School Lunch Guidelines and a Girls’ Education Program
(about 4 hours later)
WASHINGTON — Rolling back Michelle Obama’s signature initiative as first lady, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced on Monday that school lunches would no longer have to meet some of Mrs. Obama’s dietary guidelines calling for healthy meals that include skim milk and whole grains. WASHINGTON — The Trump administration took aim Monday at two signature programs of the former first lady Michelle Obama, rolling back her efforts to promote healthy school lunches nationwide and potentially rebranding her program to educate adolescent girls abroad.
Mr. Perdue said school districts would be granted flexibility from rules rolled out by President Barack Obama’s administration, which sought to improve nutrition for students who receive federally subsidized meals. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced that school meals would no longer have to meet some requirements connected with Mrs. Obama’s initiative to combat childhood obesity by overhauling the nation’s school menus.
The regulations were part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, and they were advocated by Mrs. Obama as part of her “Let’s Move” campaign. They required school districts to cut calories, fat, salt and sugar and offer more whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables. But since schools began complying with the nutrition rules in 2012, many have complained that they are too stringent and costly. The nutrition regulations were part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 and were advocated by Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign. For the last five years, schools have been required to reduce the amount of calories, fat and sodium in their cafeterias and increase offerings of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and nonfat milk to the roughly 32 million students who receive federally subsidized meals.
“This announcement is the result of years of feedback from students, schools and food service experts about the challenges they are facing in meeting the final regulations for school meals,” Mr. Perdue said in a statement. “If kids aren’t eating the food, and it’s ending up in the trash, they aren’t getting any nutrition — thus undermining the intent of the program.” Beginning next school year, schools can request an exemption from the whole grain requirements and delay the sodium mandate. They will also be able to serve 1 percent flavored milk instead of nonfat.
Mr. Perdue said the regulations had cost school districts an additional $1.22 billion since 2014, and schools report that participation in the federal meals program has declined. Mr. Perdue signed a proclamation on Monday after having lunch with students at Catoctin Elementary School in Leesburg, Va. Mr. Perdue said the Obama-era rules had resulted in increased costs for school districts and declining participation in the federal school lunch program. He said relaxing the rules was part of the administration’s effort to “make school meals great again.”
In the coming academic year, states will be allowed to grant schools an exemption from the rule requiring 100 percent grain products, and through 2020, schools will not be required to substantially reduce the amount of salt in meals they serve. And instead of nonfat flavored milk, schools will be able to offer 1 percent. “If kids aren’t eating the food, and it’s ending up in the trash, they aren’t getting any nutrition — thus undermining the intent of the program,” said Mr. Perdue, who announced the changes with a signed proclamation on Monday after having lunch with students at Catoctin Elementary School in Leesburg, Va. Mr. Perdue, a former governor of Georgia, was just confirmed last week.
Before Mr. Perdue’s announcement, childhood nutrition advocates were wary of rolling back any of the guidelines. Nutrition advocates said the move by the Trump administration was shortsighted.
Nancy Brown, chief executive of the American Heart Association, said in a statement that schools had made marked progress in meeting the standards. “Just because children would rather eat heavily salted, processed foods at school doesn’t mean they should,” said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group. “The president’s fondness for Big Macs and KFC is well known, but we shouldn’t let Colonel Sanders and McDonald’s run the school cafeteria.”
“Rather than altering the current path forward, we hope the agency focuses more on providing technical assistance that can help schools get across the finish line, if they haven’t done so already,” Ms. Brown said. Since schools began complying with the nutrition standards in 2012, many have complained that they are too stringent and costly. The new rules were projected to cost $3.2 billion over five years, but Mr. Perdue said they had cost states an additional $1.22 billion in the 2015 fiscal year alone.
Congress has allowed states to apply for waivers if they cannot meet certain standards.
Nancy Brown, chief executive of the American Heart Association, said in a statement that schools were moving forward to meet the requirements. The organization denounced the Agriculture Department’s relaxation of the rules, noting that more sodium and sugar would increase students’ blood pressure and put them at greater risk of heart disease and strokes.
Ms. Brown said her organization was “very disappointed that the U.S.D.A. has decided to put special interests back on the school menu,” and added, “We strongly urge the agency and Congress not to give politics priority over the health of our children.”
Last month, Senator Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican who leads the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, asked Mr. Perdue to have the Agriculture Department provide “immediate relief” from the regulations, some of which were to take effect July 1. On Monday, Mr. Roberts accompanied Mr. Perdue in his announcement, which coincided with the start of School Nutrition Employee Week.
Representatives of the national School Nutrition Association cheered the regulatory rollback. “We have been wanting flexibility so that schools can serve meals that are both nutritious and palatable,” said the group’s chief executive, Patricia Montague.
This flexibility will be welcomed in at least one part of the country, Mr. Perdue said.
“A perfect example is in the South, where the schools want to serve grits,” he said. “But the whole grain variety has little black flakes in it, and the kids won’t eat it. The school is compliant with the whole grain requirements, but no one is eating the grits. That doesn’t make any sense.”
The Trump administration also indicated on Monday that it was eyeing another program Mrs. Obama promoted.
It was not clear how serious the administration was about targeting the program, Let Girls Learn, which was spearheaded by President Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama in 2015 to increase educational opportunities for adolescent girls who face physical danger and other obstacles to going to school.
In a letter circulated internally this week, a Peace Corps official said the initiative would no longer use the Let Girls Learn brand or operate as a discrete program, according to people familiar with the document, which was first reported by CNN.
A senior administration official said there was no plan to end or even rebrand the program, calling the letter a result of an unauthorized and erroneous decision by a career government employee. When Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson’s staff learned of the memo on Monday, they insisted that it be reviewed, said the official, who discussed private deliberations on the condition of anonymity.
R. C. Hammond, Mr. Tillerson’s spokesman, declined to answer questions, providing only a terse statement that said, “No changes have been made to the Let Girls Learn program.” He referred additional queries to the Peace Corps, which did not return phone calls and emails seeking comment.
But former officials expressed alarm that members of Mr. Trump’s administration would even consider trying to redefine an initiative that gained traction, and its name, under Mrs. Obama’s stewardship after the world reacted with outrage to the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria by the Boko Haram terrorist group.
“If this administration wants to move in a different direction on girls’ education, that’s certainly their right and understandable, but to tear down a message that was erected in the wake of this terrible incident that happened in Nigeria, and that the world rallied around, I think it is really shameful,” said Brett Plitt Bruen, an Obama administration official who helped create the program.
The initiative predated Mrs. Obama’s involvement, but she traveled the world and recruited dozens of celebrities, including Alicia Keys, Anne Hathaway and Shonda Rhimes, to promote and participate in it.
“It was effective before the first lady got involved, and it became even more powerful when her brand and her office were associated with it,” Mr. Bruen said. “And to say we’re going to stop the campaign or change it just to distance it from her is to undermine everything that was achieved.”