It’s safe to say that school lunches aren’t exactly known for their healthfulness, or their tastiness. The question is why this has been allowed to become the standard, and why Congress is fighting legislation trying to improve the food served to students across the nation.
Recent changes to school lunches began with the passing of the Child Nutrition Bill last December, giving the U.S. Department of Agriculture the authority to set the nutrition standards of school lunches. The bill’s requirements, such as serving more whole grains and fruits and vegetables, are why school lunches now include offerings such as baked sweet potato fries, grilled chicken on a bun and brown rice.
While these changes are nutritionally better, the parts of lunch that weren’t changed speak louder. Not only are items such as tri-tators and mini corn dogs still on the menu, but Congress is continuing to allow pizza to be considered a vegetable.
In January, the USDA published new recommendations in the Federal Register, proposing changes intended to “improve the dietary habits of school children.”
These recommendations raised questions about the current standard allowing a one eighth cup of tomato paste being considered equal to a one half cup serving of vegetables, because it takes a half-cup’s worth of tomato to make it. This equivalency allows a slice of pizza, with an eighth-cup of tomato paste in the pizza sauce, to be considered a vegetable.
When Congress prevented the USDA from changing this standard, they sent a message to America, to the parents, to the students, and to first lady Michelle Obama, whose Let’s Move campaign was a driving force behind the Child Nutrition Act. And that message was that student nutrition is not as important as the giant food companies who lobbied Congress to deny the USDA’s changes, such as Schwan’s Food Service Inc., a company providing 75 percent of U.S. schools with frozen pizzas according to the Los Angeles Times, and the American Frozen Food Institute.
The changes put in action by the Child Nutrition Bill may be a step in the right direction, but that only goes so far when pizza counts as a vegetable. Congress can say our school lunches are healthier, but while I continue to see cheese bosco stix and tator tots on the lunch trays, I’m not buying it.
