The rule the Agriculture Department released today is grossly irresponsible and a significant step backward for our country and for our children’s health. The updated school nutrition standards have been working. Parents support them, kids benefit greatly from them, and the vast majority of schools have been able to comply with them.
Instead of building on that progress, the Trump administration is relaxing these standards in the name of ‘flexibility’ – but this isn’t flexibility, it’s folly, and it’s a sop to special interests that peddle cheap, unhealthy processed foods to our children. With nutrition-related diseases like type 2 diabetes on the rise, this move will unnecessarily put our children’s health at risk.
Children consume a significant portion of their daily calories at school, so the meals schools serve are critical to their growth and development and can affect their health for a lifetime. We urge all school officials to ignore this rollback and instead ensure that they serve only healthy foods and beverages.
Today’s action is a deep disappointment.
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