Oct. 19—The US Senate adopted an amendment to the 2012 spending bill for the USDA that would prohibit the department from setting “any maximum limits on the serving of vegetables in school meal programs,” reports The New York Times.
The amendment was adopted in response to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which limited the amount of starchy vegetables—potatoes, corn, green peas and lima beans—to one cup per student per week. Many child nutrition directors and industry members did not agree with the proposed limitation of these items, saying potatoes themselves weren’t the problem but the way the vegetable was prepared, i.e. french fries, was adding extra calories to school lunch menus.
According to The Hill, the House has also taken issue with the regulations. The House’s spending bill requires the USDA to start over from scratch.