WASHINGTON — A $1.1 trillion omnibus appropriations bill agreed to by top federal lawmakers Tuesday night includes a provision to grant school districts some wriggle room as they try to implement USDA nutrition standards set forth by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.
The bill now goes to the full House and Senate for a vote. By law, the measure must be passed by Thursday night to avoid a government shutdown due to lack of funding.
Under provisions of the bill, school foodservice directors would not have to implement stricter sodium levels until more research is conducted. It also will allow districts who are struggling financially because of a mandate that all grains served by whole grain-rich to revert to an earlier rule that only half of grains by whole grains.
The School Nutrition Association has advocated for passage of the legislation. In a statement, Patricia Montague, SNA’s CEO, said, “SNA greatly appreciates Congress’ recognition of the challenges school nutrition professionals have faced as they work to meet new nutrition standards while ensuring children continue to eat healthy school meals. USDA’s regulations were well intended, but have resulted in unintended, adverse consequences.”
Those consequences have included a continuing decline in participation and the resulting financial impact. The USDA estimates that in FY 2015, its regulations will cost school districts and states $1.22 billion in new food, labor and administrative costs, causing a 10-cent increase in the cost of preparing a lunch and a 27-cent rise in the preparation cost of a breakfast. As a result, according to a recent SNA survey, only 18% of school foodservice directors think their programs will break even this year.
In addition to the provisions lawmakers added to the appropriation measure, SNA had asked Congress to ease the requirement that students take a fruit or vegetable as part of a reimbursable meal and to allow healthy foods served with school meals to also be sold at any time as a la carte items.