Study: Obama school-meal law improved nutrition, added little to waste; but Trump's USDA isn't saying much about it

An Obama-era initiative that mandated healthier foods in school meals produced "remarkably positive" results in just a few years, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report. But the USDA isn't making much noise about it, and some say the quiet approach is politically motivated, Laura Reiley reports for The Washington Post.

The School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study was the first nationwide, comprehensive assessment of school meals after the implementation of the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, a key project of first lady Michelle Obama. The report found that the quality of children's diets improved dramatically by the 2014-15 school year, when most of the study's data was collected. Opponents of the law complained that children disliked the new regimen, but the study found that kids were eating the healthier foods: "There was greater participation in school-meal programs at schools with the highest healthy food standards," Reiley reports. "And the study found food waste, a troubling national problem in the lunchroom, remained relatively unchanged."

Despite the good news, "There was no news release," Reiley notes. "USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue didn’t say anything about it. And the link on the USDA website disappeared for several days after that, and was altogether inaccessible before reappearing under a different URL. A search of the study title on the Food and Nutrition Service site does not pull it up, nor is it accessible on the National School Lunch Program website tab." The study was first noted by The Lunch Tray blog.

A Food and Nutrition Service spokesperson said most FNS publications don't merit a press release, and that news of the study was announced on Twitter and included in an email newsletter with 40,000 recipients. The FNS tweet did not draw attention to the health impacts; it said school food directors were concerned about the cost of foods, and that school meals were found to be nutritious, but it did not say that those statements applied mostly to school meals during the 2014-15 year. 

The dates matter, because in December, Perdue announced the USDA "was weakening school nutrition standards for whole grain, nonfat milk and sodium, all of which had been tightened during the Obama administration. He cited food waste and nonparticipation as key rationales for the shift," Reiley reports. However, the new study contradicts those reasons.