School nutrition standards may be significantly changed by Agriculture proposal

By Dennis Archambault

Public health practitioners have increasingly come to realize that a key to population health is centering initiatives within schools, based in the premise that active living and healthy eating are not only important lessons to learn in school, but are effective methods of promoting healthy behavior to reduce obesity and prevent disease among students in elementary and secondary schools. The Trump administration and local elected officials don’t see schools as a place to promote health, either through health literacy or physical activity.

Last month, the Agriculture Department issued recommendations to revise nutrition standards in school meals https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/us/politics/michelle-obama-school-nutrition-trump.html??partner=applenews&ad-keywords=APPLEMOBILE&region=written_through&asset_id=100000006927114&uri=nyt://article/a278b573-8158-597e-bbb5-dac7bf0830f1. Ironically, the proposed standards were issued on Michele Obama’s birthday. Obama, as First Lady, championed healthy eating and active living through the “Let’s Move” campaign and advocating for higher nutrition standards in school meals. She and others in the health and education system, believe that for many children, school meals are the only source of nutrition available to them, if not the only source of substantial food. Conservatives and foodservice industry proponents opposed the standards citing lack of appropriate implementation time, increased food waste, and increased costs to school districts.

The previous standards, which were part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Children Act of 2010 https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/senate-bill/3307, requires the foodservice industry and school cafeteria managers to be innovative in meeting them. A major challenge is student preference and lack of familiarity with many vegetables and fruits. Students, unfamiliar with the looks or tastes of certain fruits and vegetables, or the recipes that use them, tended to avoid eating them. Taste-tests were conducted to educate students and determine whether certain fruits and vegetables should be introduced. In other cases, cafeterias met the standards by including the appropriate fruit and vegetable content in more desirable meals like pizza.

The Agriculture Department move is in line with the Trump Administration’s vow to eliminate the Affordable Care Act and programs associated with it. In Michigan, proposed legislation to eliminate school health education and physical education requirements mirror this effort. It appears public schools, already challenged to find the right mix of educational content and teaching methods, have become a philosophical battleground between proponents of public health and conservatives who have a more narrow view of what should be provided through public education.

Dennis Archambault is vice president of Public Affairs for Authority Health.