When the bipartisan Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 was passed, the legislation was applauded by public health and nutrition advocates across the board.
In addition to reauthorizing federal child nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program, the act updated school meal standards. The 2010 mandate created provisions to offer children fruits and vegetables each day, increase whole-grain foods and low-fat and fat-free milk options, rein in calories and cut down on saturated fat, trans fat and sodium.
Sixth-grader Diana Pacheco, 11, visits a salad bar at Centennial Middle School in Montrose, Colorado, in September 2016. U.S. nutrition rules put in place in recent years have improved the health of school lunches, but are being undermined by the new presidential administration.
Photo by Joe Amon, courtesy The Denver Post/Getty Images
“The facts are clear: Kids are eating healthier as a result of updated nutrition standards for school meals, 95 percent of schools are successfully serving healthier meals and in 2014, schools saw a net nationwide increase in revenue from school lunches of approximately $450 million,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a 2015 statement.
But since the new presidential administration assumed power this year, USDA has changed its tune on school nutrition guidelines. Experts in public health and nutrition are concerned that the rollbacks could undermine children’s health.
On May 1, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that USDA would relax school nutrition requirements related to whole grains, sodium and milk. Under the new rules, schools are only required to make 50 percent of their grain products whole-grain rich, as opposed to 100 percent, for the 2017-18 school year; schools are exempt from achieving the highest sodium targets from school years 2017-18 through 2020; and schools are allowed to serve flavored 1 percent milk.
APHA decried the rollbacks, citing harms to nutrition. The Association also noted they are part of a troubling trend: The move is just one of many vital public health regulations that U.S. leaders have sought to weaken under President Donald Trump. While many of the rollbacks have been aimed at the environment, they have also targeted labor policies, firearms, reproductive health and more. The administration’s first regulatory agenda, released in July, called for stripping protections for water, air pollution and food safety.
“Public health regulations are based in science, helping us lead healthier, more active lives,” APHA Executive Director Georges Benjamin, MD, told The Nation’s Health. “Cutting back rules that have made school meals more nutritious for millions of children is not only irresponsible, but also signals disregard for curbing many preventable diseases that can be mitigated through improvements in diet and exercise.”
Rolling back school meal guidelines represents a huge blow to childhood nutrition, according to Colin Schwartz, MPP, senior nutrition policy associate at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
“The update to the nutrition standards in school meals has just been unprecedented,” Schwartz told The Nation’s Health. “It’s remaking the progress we’ve achieved from the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.”
He noted that 99 percent of U.S. schools successfully met the 2010 nutrition guidelines, according to USDA, and that the updated school meal standards have made a positive difference in the health and well-being of low-income children in particular.
Valeria Contreras, 6, receives lunch at North Star Elementary School in Thornton, Colorado, in June.
Photo courtesy Seth McConnell, The Denver Post/Getty Images
“The most concerning (aspect) is relaxing the sodium standards, and that’s because the vast majority of kids consume way too much sodium in their diets,” Schwartz said. “We already see children at young ages at risk of heart disease and other diet-related disease due to high consumption of sodium.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sodium intake among children and adolescents is at excessive levels, leading to high blood pressure and increasing the risk for heart disease and stroke. Because infants and children consume such high levels of sodium as a result of dietary preferences, serving them foods low in sodium can set the path for a healthier diet long-term.
“When we serve kids unhealthy school meals, that sets the standard for what the kids expect, what the parents expect and what the community expects of meals,” Steven Abrams, MD, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Nutrition, told The Nation’s Health.
Obesity is another area of concern that the 2010 mandate sought to address with healthier school meals. While the childhood obesity rate has leveled off in recent years, obesity still affects about 12.7 million children and adolescents in the U.S., according to CDC. The agency recommends a balanced diet based on the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans — which are also used in developing federal school nutrition standards — to combat childhood obesity.
Citing anecdotes about the healthier meals ending up in the trash, Perdue argued that easing standards would give schools the freedom to serve meals that were still reasonably nutritious, but would not go to waste. However, health and nutrition experts have found that children have consumed more fruits and vegetables since the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act went into effect in 2012.
Juliana Cohen, ScD, ScM, assistant professor of health sciences at Merrimack College and adjunct assistant professor of nutrition at Harvard University, said her research showed that children have been eating and enjoying the healthier food on their trays. According to a 2014 study led by Cohen that was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the average amount of food waste per person did not increase after the updated federal school meal standards took effect.
“We actually saw increases in fruit selection and we found increases in vegetable and entree consumption, so the evidence does not support rolling back the standards,” Cohen told The Nation’s Health. “If the goal is to reduce food waste, rolling back the standards likely won’t accomplish that.”
A 2015 study led by the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity also found similarly promising outcomes.
“Students responded positively to the new lunches,” according to the study, published in Childhood Obesity. “They consumed more fruit, threw away less of the entrees and vegetables and consumed the same amount of milk. Overall, the revised meal standards and policies appear to have significantly lowered plate waste in school cafeterias.”
While food waste has not increased, it is still a problem. Cohen’s research found that children discarded about 75 percent of vegetables before the implementation of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, compared with 60 percent after.
The solution to food waste is not to give in to looser requirements, but to help schools overcome roadblocks to serving healthy meals, Schwartz said. He noted that many schools do not have basic kitchen supplies that would make foods more appealing to children, such as slicers for fruit and vegetables.
“These concerns can be addressed over time instead of permanently repealing them through legislation,” Schwartz said.
According to USDA, school lunches are developed under meal requirements set by the federal government, but it is up to local school food authorities to determine which foods are served and their preparation. Schools do not necessarily have to relax their own nutrition requirements simply because they no longer have to adhere to higher standards for meals and snacks, Schwartz said.
Schools should also not be focused on food waste, but should instead take the opportunity to explore new recipes and help children find ways to enjoy eating nutritious food, Cohen said.
“We can make healthy foods taste good,” she said. “Continue to provide these healthier options and it will make a world of difference for these students for their health and their academic performance as well.”
For more information, visit www.fns.usda.gov.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
