USDA proposes overhaul to school lunches; awards grant to fight rural child obesity

A U.S. Department of Agriculture proposal released Thursday would require school cafeterias to serve children more whole grains, fruits and vegetables. The plan would be "the first major nutritional overhaul of students' meals in 15 years," The Associated Press reports. The proposal also calls for schools to cut sodium in meals subsidized by the federal government by more than half, use more whole grains and serve low-fat milk. French fries would no longer be a daily staple of school lunches as the proposal limits children to one cup of starchy vegetables a week.

"Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the new standards could affect more than 32 million children and are crucial because kids can consume as much as half of their daily calories in school," AP writes. The guidelines are based on 2009 recommendations by the Institute of Medicine. "The announcement comes just a few weeks after President Barack Obama signed into law a child nutrition bill that will help schools pay for the healthier foods, which often are more expensive."

"The subsidized meals that would fall under the guidelines proposed this week are served as free and low-cost meals to low-income children and long have been subject to government nutrition standards," AP writes. "The new law for the first time will extend nutrition standards to other foods sold in schools that aren't subsidized by the federal government, including a la carte foods on the lunch line and snacks in vending machines." Standards for those foods will be written separately but are expected to be similar to standards for subsidized meals. (Read more)

USDA also announced Thursday it had awarded Oregon State University a $4.9 million grant to develop an obesity prevention program for rural Oregon children. The grant goes to OSU researchers Deborah John and Kathy Gunter to start “Generating Rural Options for Weight-Healthy Kids and Communities." The program "will work with Cooperative Extension in six Western states to engage rural people in community-based research to assess features in rural communities that either prevent or promote obesity and community resources and readiness that could help with prevention efforts," USDA writes. Based on these assessments the researchers will implement an obesity intervention program in three Oregon counties. (Read more)