President Donald Trump just kicked Michelle Obama’s legacy to the curb.
After Obama spent years forcing American children to eat unhealthy lunches under the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has undone her legacy and will promote actual healthy lunches that consist of less sodium and more whole grains.
“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,” Perdue said during his announcement of the guideline changes at a school in Leesburg, Virginia.
Conservative Tribune reports:
Under the new guidelines, public schools would also be allowed to serve 1 percent milk instead of the nonfat option required under Obama’s initiative, according to ABC News.
Any school that accepts federal reimbursements for free and reduced-price meals for low-income students is required to follow government nutrition rules, but the Obama standards were stricter and often difficult for schools to follow in making sure their students were fed.
In particular, some school nutrition directors have said they have a hard time finding whole-grain pastas, biscuits and tortillas that kids will eat.
Perdue, a former governor of Georgia, was particularly familiar with how schools in the South have struggled to get kids to eat the mandated whole-grain items on the lunch menus.
According to reports, some of the food was so poorly prepared that children were unwilling to eat it and were often throwing it out.
Take for example one school in Georgia where they served grits. Because the grits were “healthier,” they appeared unappetizing, resulting in many kids throwing them out.
“The school is compliant with the whole-grain requirements, but no one is eating the grits,” Perdue said. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Sen. Pat Roberts defended the Trump administration and their decision to change Obama’s school lunch program.
“The policies that Secretary Perdue has declared here today will provide the flexibility to ensure that schools are able to serve nutritious meals that children will actually eat. Because that is really what these programs are about: serving meals to hungry children so that they can learn and grow,” Roberts said in a statement, according to The Hill.
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