New USDA nutritional guidance changes 30-year-old food triangle and calls for far fewer ultra-processed foods

The inverted nutritional triangle recommends Americans 
eat more dairy than whole grains. (USDA graphic)

The Trump administration rolled out new U.S. dietary guidance this week that "inverts" the 30-year-old food triangle and advises Americans to "limit highly processed foods, such as those high in added sugars and sodium," reports Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post. "The administration [used] a revised pyramid with images of steak, a block of cheese and a carton of whole milk at the top," and whole grains at the bottom.

The guidelines focus on strictly limiting ultra-processed foods, which currently make up more than 50% of the American diet. The overhaul reflects Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s opinion that processed foods are major contributors to chronic illnesses, particularly those in children, such as obesity and diabetes.

The recommendations emphasize "eating whole foods — such as fruits and vegetables in their original forms — and foods rich in protein and whole grains." Kennedy told reporters he wants Americans to “Eat real food.”

"Nutrition experts generally praised some of the main changes, such as the move away from processed foods, while a few raised concerns about promoting some fatty foods," Roubein writes. "The American Medical Association praised the dietary guidelines as offering 'clear direction.'"

U.S. nutritional guidance is developed by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture every five years. Its goal is to promote health, and the document is "considered a cornerstone of federal nutrition policy," Roubein explains. "The guidelines influence federal nutrition programs and the foods served in school lunches and to members of the military."

Whole and 2% milk will return to public school lunchrooms soon

Like most school children, dairy cows love to eat.
(Adobe Stock photo)

After more than a decade of advocacy, whole and 2% milk will be served in public school cafeterias. "Congress has approved the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, marking a major shift in federal school nutrition policy," reports Taylor Leach of Dairy Herd Management. "The bill now awaits the president’s signature, with implementation expected as early as the next school year."

The new legislation reverses rules from the 2012 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which aimed to reduce childhood obesity and lower kids' saturated fat intake by restricting school milk options to fat-free and 1%. The bill aimed for students to get the nutrition milk provides without the fat. 

And while the 2012 change was meant to improve children's health, it kept running into a major obstacle. "At home, many kids drink 2% or whole milk. And when the milk at school tastes different, the kids don’t drink it," reports Hannah Barthels of Farm Journal. "And they miss out on the nutrients dairy provides."

Multiple studies on whole milk's impact on childhood obesity have consistently shown that "milk fat has a neutral or even positive effect on health outcomes," Leach explains. "That evolving science, combined with changing consumer preferences, helped build bipartisan support for restoring flexibility in school milk offerings."

The addition of whole and 2% milk offerings in schools is also a big win for American dairy farmers. "School meal programs account for nearly 8% of all fluid milk sales," Leach reports. "The bill’s passage represents the culmination of more than a decade of effort by dairy advocates, lawmakers and industry stakeholders."

What's for lunch? This year's school lunches include restrictions that challenge cafeterias and budgets

'Woodles' are a versatile school lunch favorite.

Estimates on how many rural children rely on school lunches for at least one nutritionally balanced meal to fill their bellies each weekday hover around five million. Nationwide, school cafeterias in America "serve 45 million meals a day," reports Kim Severson of The New York Times. "If they were a restaurant chain, it would be the largest in the country."

Besides the sheer number of meals that need to be served, school cafeteria planners and workers are managing "tighter nutritional standards, and limits on food purchased from other countries, like bananas, to 10% of what’s served," Severson explains. "School nutrition directors are bracing for the impact of federal budget cuts and updated federal dietary guidelines."

Some schools have already implemented some of the new guidelines, which include less sugar, fewer food dyes and more scratch-made entrees. But upgrading lunches while reducing costs will be tough on school cafeteria budgets. Severson adds, "And then there is the biggest challenge of all: How to satisfy the fast-changing tastes of a generation of food-savvy children."

Severson outlines what's new on the menu for 2025-26 school meals; a few are shared below.

• Sugar reduction and "cultural-club" food: Lunch favorites such as yogurt, milk and cereal are limited by grams of sugar. "A cup of chocolate milk, for example, can have only 10 grams or less of added sugar," Severson writes. Schools can opt to use "more culturally inclusive [ingredients], or swap out meat with legumes, tofu and other alternative protein sources."
• Make it from scratch, like they did before the 1980s, which saves money and is generally healthier. "Cooking from scratch is one way to make school food healthier," Severson reports. "More districts are trying to bring it back after economic pressures and looser federal standards in the 1980s resulted in an era of heat-and-eat meals."
• Bring on the noodles and 'Woodles': "Woodles are the most exciting new thing to hit the cafeteria this year," Severson explains. "The dried ramen noodles, made by a South Carolina company, were created specifically for school food service, with enough whole wheat to satisfy federal nutrition requirements."

West Virginia is among the first states to ban some synthetic food dyes from school lunches

Many dyes from nature can replace artificial colors.
(Adobe Stock photo)

West Virginia schools took certain food dyes off the school lunch menu starting on Aug. 1. "West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed a sweeping new law in March banning seven artificial dyes from school meals," reports Jonel Aleccia of The Associated Press. "Other states have enacted similar laws that would strip artificial dyes from school meals, but West Virginia’s action is the first to take effect."

The brief timeline between March and August sent state and school nutrition directors on a crunch time search to root out any school menu items that "contained any trace of petroleum-based synthetic dyes, including Red 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2 and Green 3," Aleccia explains. Once those items were removed, directors began working out substitution options that kids would still eat.

Health advocates have pushed to get synthetic dyes out of U.S. food for years, "citing mixed evidence of potential harm," Aleccia reports. "West Virginia’s ban on synthetic dyes was cheered by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has successfully pressured food makers to agree to remove artificial colors from their products."

Still, banning certain dyes won't suddenly make Americans healthier. "Nutrition experts agree that removing artificial colors from foods doesn’t address the main drivers of America’s chronic health problems," Aleccia writes. "Those stem largely from ingredients such as added sugars, sodium and saturated fat."

Nationally, the push against synthetic dyes is more of a baby step toward better nutrition. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary "has joined Kennedy in the push to get artificial dyes out of food, despite limited proof of health effects," Aleccia reports. In a recent podcast, Makary called the removal of petroleum-based food dyes "steps in the right direction.”

Just because Jell-O fruit cups and older versions of  Cool Ranch Doritos won't be served, doesn't mean school lunches will all turn beige. "Some suppliers had already removed artificial dyes from some school foods, swapping them for products colored with beet juice or turmeric." 

Policy director for Rural Democracy Initiative warns of budget bill’s ‘devastating’ impacts

Members of the 119th House applaud the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. (The Hill video reel photo)

After weeks of wrangling, the U.S. House of Representatives passed President Donald Trump's "one big, beautiful bill" on May 22. The bill, which has moved to the U.S. Senate, includes massive spending cuts to support tax cut extensions and additional tax cuts.

Michael Chameides, the communications and policy director for the Rural Democracy Initiative, in an opinion piece published in Iowa's Times-Republican, points out six ways the bill could hurt rural residents. He writes, "I’ve been hearing from rural leaders across the country about the devastating impacts this bill would have. . . .The good news is it’s not too late. But there’s little time to spare." 

Here are the six concerns Chameides cited:

1. The bill "guts" rural health care. "It would take health care away from 13.8 million Americans and increase the cost for millions more. In some states, 50% of rural children get healthcare from Medicaid. Millions more rely on access to clinics and hospitals that would likely close because of these cuts."

2. It cuts federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program spending. "More than 15% of families in small towns and rural areas rely on this support to feed their families."

(The Department of Agriculture canceled "about $660 million in funding this year for the Local Food for Schools program, which is active in 40 U.S. states," reports Aimee Picchi of CBS News. The cuts were announced in March and have left schools and farmers scrambling.)

3. The bill shifts more costs onto state and local governments. "Slashing federal funding to states would create new burdens for rural states that are already struggling to provide critical public services like health care, transportation, and emergency response services to local communities."

4. It takes away local land control. "Landowners have fought to stop the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines by passing bans and moratoria. . . .This bill would overrule state and local laws and ordinances. . . and deprive residents of a fair opportunity to evaluate the adverse impacts of pipelines."

5. The bill phases out clean energy and infrastructure spending, including tax credits. "It would also take away $262 million in funding for energy efficiency and conservation grants as well as transportation infrastructure. . . .Ending these tax credits will increase household energy costs, which are already higher in many rural communities."

6. The bill favors bigger agribusiness companies and mega-farms. "Leaders in Congress are using the budget reconciliation process to give big farms a $50 billion windfall. Add the heightened pressures and instability caused by the Trump administration’s erratic trade policy and more family farmers would lose their farms — while Big Ag consolidates more of the market."

Chameides calls on rural residents and businesses to speak up: “Lawmakers have already heard from the giant corporations who helped write the bill. Now they need to hear from the rest of us. It’s up to us to alert our communities and tell our lawmakers: Don’t sell rural America out to big corporations and the wealthy.”

A longer version of the Times-Republican op-ed was originally published by Barn Raiser. To learn more about what could happen to the bill in the Senate, click here. 

Quick hits: Appalachian brooms; soap science; school lunches on tour; summer train traveling; escaping the heat

Cynthia Main makes handmade brooms, Appalachian style.
(Sunhouse Craft photo via the Yonder)

When a talented crafter with an entrepreneurial bent got busy making handmade brooms, a new sustainable business in Appalachia was born. "Rural arts programs helped Eastern Kentucky maker Cynthia Main develop Sunhouse Craft, a sustainable business with an Appalachian sense of place," reports Kim Kobersmith of The Daily Yonder. "Main is driven by sustainability and community. With larger revenues, she can pay her small staff a living wage and offer her restored historic storefront as a community gathering space, while moving closer to her goal of developing a 100% local supply chain."

Pioneering women of the 1800s spent grueling hours over a fire making soap every spring. Sounds horrible, but soap itself is somewhat of a miracle. "The discovery of soap dates back approximately 5,000 years, to the ancient city of Babylon in what is today the country of Iraq," writes Paul E. Richardson for The Conversation. "Although billions of people use soap every day, most don’t know how it works. As a professor of chemistry, I can explain the science of soap. . . Soap molecules come together and surround the grime on your hands. The water-loving heads of the soap molecules are on the surface, with the water-fearing tails inside the micelle. This structure traps the dirt, and running water washes it all away."

 

Philadelphia children eating a 'three-cent dinner' at school.
(Science History Institute photo via Smithsonian)

Since the late 1800s, Americans have been arguing over kids' school lunches, but beyond the controversies, the topic offers an interesting look at the U.S. diet. "A new exhibition in Philadelphia spotlights the evolution of American nutritional health through a unique lens: the school cafeteria," reports Sonja Anderson for Smithsonian magazine. "Medical inspections revealed that schoolchildren were malnourished. Many had scurvy or rickets, diseases caused by vitamin deficiencies. . . . Philadelphia and Boston became two of the first cities to offer meals to public school students in 1894. According to a statement from the museum, the exhibition features a tiny aluminum token from 1909, which a Philadelphia child would have used to purchase a 'penny lunch' at school."

A California Zephyr trip is chockablock with scenic
views. (Amtrak photo)

Summer is a time for growing gardens, hiking, swimming, dodging mosquitoes, slathering on sunscreen, and, if you're lucky, taking a long vacation. "Here's how one writer used the $500 Amtrak rail pass to criss-cross the U.S. over the course of one month," writes McConnell Quinn for Condé Nast Traveler. "Unlike planes, where everyone stays in their bubble, trains are oddly social — a rotating cast of characters and glimpses into lives I’d never otherwise encounter. With the USA Rail Pass, I crossed the country three times in 30 days. . . I watched the Pacific creep into view on the Coast Starlight, rode the California Zephyr through the Rockies at sunset, and drifted to sleep somewhere in Texas on the Sunset Limited."

July's heat is surely coming, and for those of us with limited air conditioning options, planning where you will go to keep from baking -- beyond grocery store freezer aisles -- is a priority. One of the all-time favorite spots for escaping heat and humidity is movie theaters. AMC theaters must know they are part of some people's melting prevention plans because "beginning July 9, the movie theater chain will offer 50% off adult movie tickets on Wednesdays for those part of the AMC Stubs rewards program," reports Ramishah Maruf of CNN News. 

Summer is also a time for great reads. It could be on a beach, by the pool, in the grass with your horse or any number of amazing places to chill out and read. Not sure which book to kick off your summer escape? Try one from this list of books that will be made or have already been released as 2025 movies. Wilson Wong of The New York Times writes, "Here are some of the thrillers, romances, sci-fi page turners and detective novels coming soon to a screen near you. This is a running list. Check back for more updates as the year goes on."

"The first novella in the Murderbot Diaries series, 'All Systems Red,' follows a security android that secretly hacks its own operating system, allowing it to think and act independently," Wong writes. "But when an expedition goes strangely awry, resulting in several scientists’ deaths, the robot must help the humans in its own unit unravel the mystery before a similar tragedy befalls them." Murderbot premiered on Apple TV+ on May 16.

USDA cuts hit schools, farmers and food banks. The lost funding and provisions hurt rural communities the most.

Food bank reductions are tough for rural communities
to replace. (Adobe Stock photo)

In an effort to bring U.S. Department of Agriculture spending back to pre-pandemic times, the USDA terminated more that $1 billion in food support programing. The cuts are likely to leave a path of hungry Americans in their wake.

In early March, the USDA cut more than $1 billion in funding for the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement programs for 2025. "The money was designed to pay farmers to provide food to schools and food banks," reports Jeanine Santucci of USA Today. "The abrupt cancellation of government funding for programs to help food banks distribute healthy, local food is being felt across the country, as some already strapped organizations turn to their local communities for help."

Both programs helped local growers boost their incomes while providing fresh food options to local schools and food banks. 

Food banks were dealt another blow when the USDA announced it was halting or reducing deliveries from part of its Emergency Food Assistance Program. Some of those reductions significantly scaled back food bank funding. Jackie DeFusco of NBC reports, "Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks, food pantries and local meal programs, was recently informed that the USDA is canceling $500 million in federal funding as the administration reviews spending decisions made under the Biden administration."

The losses will be especially tough for rural communities to manage "because they depend the most on USDA-funded programs for the food distributed by food banks, said Vince Hall, chief government relations officer of the nonprofit Feeding America," Santucci explains.

According to Hall, the ways food banks receive donations also will contribute to rural regions struggling more than their urban counterparts to fill gaps in USDA funding and provisions. "They include donations from the community itself or from food producers, food purchased through the USDA programs and food purchased by the banks themselves with very limited resources," Santucci reports. "With the loss of a significant amount of federal funding for food purchases, they'll have to lean heavily on donations, which are harder to come by in spread-out, rural areas, he said."

Food inflation has made it difficult for many Americans to return to life without some type of assistance. Hall told Santucci, "Folks who came to us during the pandemic have found it impossible to ease out of dependency on food banks because inflation has made so many of their monthly budget essentials more expensive than ever."

USDA says Covid era is 'over' and cuts $1 billion program connecting schools, food banks and local farmers

Awarded USDA LFS funds for 2025 were canceled.
(Adobe Stock photo)

The Department of Agriculture has cut $1 billion in pandemic-era funding that helped schools and food banks purchase fresh food from local farmers. "About $660 million went to schools and childcare centers to buy food for meals through the Local Foods for Schools program," reports Annie Ma of The Associated Press. "A separate program provided money to food banks."

The USDA explained the cuts as a move away from pandemic-era programs that "no longer support the agency’s priorities," Ma explains. "A USDA spokesperson said in a statement, 'The Covid era is over — USDA’s approach to nutrition programs will reflect that reality.'"

Regardless of why the funding has been cut, schools, children and farmers will now do with less. "The cuts will hurt school districts with 'chronically underfunded' school meal budgets, said Shannon Gleave, president of the School Nutrition Association," Ma writes. Gleave told Ma, “In addition to losing the benefits for our kids, this loss of funds is a huge blow to community farmers and ranchers."

With student lunch money drastically cut, some school districts will have to scramble to feed hungry students. Beyond that problem, the USDA's new priorities have left some teachers and administrators frustrated and disappointed. Patrick Tutwiler, Massachusetts state’s education secretary, told AP, "There’s a clear misalignment around what is important and what matters. We are seeing this cut of the LFS program as a first step towards deeper cuts.”

Some Washington lawmakers have proposed restricting free school meals. Ma reports, "Proposed spending cuts to fund Republican’s tax bill include raising the poverty level needed for schools to provide universal free meals without an application," Ma adds. "Restricting eligibility for food assistance programs and requiring income verification for free or reduced-price school meals, two proposals for cutting costs, would also likely cut out eligible families from accessing food."

Healthier school lunches with locally grown food is more of an option after USDA 'tweaks' standards

Schools will be able to request 'locally grown, raised or caught food' for student meals.
(Adobe Stock photo)

The Department of Agriculture recently released its long-anticipated school meal nutritional standards, including new guidelines focused on lowering sodium and limiting added sugar in students' meals. The standards also include a "small tweak [with] big implications for the increasing number of schools working to get more fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats produced by nearby farmers onto students' trays," reports Lisa Held of Civil Eats. "Starting July 1, when districts put out a call for an unprocessed or minimally processed food — whether it's tomatoes, taco meat, or tuna—they'll be able to specify that they'd like it to be 'locally grown, locally raised, or locally caught.'"

The USDA's change aims to allow schools to specifically request food from regional growers so that farmers and educational communities can work together to provide students with healthier meals produced closer to home. Held explains, "Karen Spangler, the policy director for the National Farm to School Network, said the change has long been a priority for the group because it often hears how the shift will simplify the process for school nutrition directors while also making it possible for more farmers to get involved in the first place."

Connecting school meals and area food has been a work in progress since 2010. "When Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act . . . . It was the first Child Nutrition Reauthorization to push nutrition to the forefront of school meal programs, and it included the first federal farm-to-school grants," Held writes. "Since then, the federal government has supported the efforts in additional ways, alongside numerous state incentives and grant programs as well as work done by nonprofit organizations."

Part of the local-to-school push includes making the bidding process easier for schools and local farming businesses to collaborate. Apple procurement is one example. Held reports, "If the district is confident that plenty of in-state orchards have enough Macintosh and Granny Smiths to satisfy their students' appetites, it could specify up-front that it only wants bids from in-state orchards."

While advocates for more local food are celebrating the change, some feel it is long overdue. "Previously, Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) attempted to go the Congressional route to make [local food to schools] happen, introducing the Kids Eat Local Act multiple times with bipartisan support," Held writes. "But the bill never went anywhere because the overall Child Nutrition Reauthorization process is now nine years overdue. . . . Pingree plans to continue to reintroduce the bill so that it will eventually be set in law and therefore be more likely to stick."

Some states refuse bipartisan aid for school summer lunches; program gives eligible students $40 per month

Some states won't accept aid for summer lunches.
(Photo by Matthew Moloney, Unsplash)

Some states have refused federal support that would be used to provide summer lunch money to families with children who receive free or reduced lunches during the school year.  

"The new $2.5 billion program, known as Summer EBT, passed Congress with bipartisan support. The program will provide families with about $40 a month for every child who receives free or reduced-price meals at school — $120 for the summer," reports Madeline Cass of The New York Times. "The red-state refusals will keep aid from about 10 million children, about a third of those potentially eligible nationwide."

Why would a state governor turn down federal summer lunch money but accept funding while school is in session? Their reasons varied from summer lunches contributing to childhood obesity to insisting that free summer lunches were only part of pandemic aid. Cass writes, "Poor states are especially resistant, though the federal government bears most of the cost. Of the 10 states with the highest levels of children's food insecurity, five rejected Summer EBT: Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas."

In deep-red Arkansas, Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders welcomed the federal provision. "'Making sure no Arkansan goes hungry, especially children, is a top concern for my administration,' she said in a news release," Cass reports. "Arkansas officials estimate the program will cost the state about $3 million and deliver $45 million in benefits."

Early this year, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told The Associated Press: "No child in this country should go hungry. They certainly shouldn't go hungry because they lose access to nutritious school meals during the summer months."

But a look at Summer EBT division doesn't bear that sentiment out. Cass explains, "The outcome illuminates the arbitrary nature of the American safety net, which prioritizes local control. North Dakota and North Carolina are in; South Dakota and South Carolina are out. . . .  In the impoverished Mississippi Delta, eligibility depends on which side of the Mississippi River a child lives."

Flora and Fauna: Reconsider rats; farm-to-school lunches; spawning salmon; a 7,000 mile migration; give up raking

Illustration by Sarah Gilman, Hakai

Many people describe rats as dirty, disease-carrying rodents. But do they deserve the bad rap? "Rats are less pestilent and more lovable than we think," writes J.B. MacKinnon of Hakai magazine. "Can we learn to live with them?"

Hey, kids! What's for lunch? Farm fresh potatoes? How does that work? Some states have launched "Farm-to-school programs that prioritize getting locally produced, minimally processed products onto students’ plates in states like Maine, Minnesota, and New York," reports Shea Swenson of Ambrook Research. "Now, Oklahoma has launched its own Local Food for Schools program — but with a twist." Link here to find out more.

A trip to Salmon River offers a breathtaking experience: "I visited Salmon River in Mount Hood National Forest hoping to see my favorite Pacific Northwest inhabitants, Coho and Chinook salmon, on their way home to spawn, Claire Carlson of The Daily Yonder writes. "This is a long, difficult, and always deadly undertaking – a hero’s journey, through and through, and it’s absolutely worth seeing if you can."

A male humpback whale swims off Maui, Hawaii.
(Photo by Ralph Pace, Whale Trust)

His name is Frodo, but he's not trekking through Middle-earth to Mordor. "He's a battle-scarred male humpback whale who completed the longest-known movement for his species," reports Ralph Pace of National Geographic. "Between 2017 and 2018, the animal swam nearly 7,000 miles from Saipan, in the Mariana Islands, to Sayulita, Mexico, according to a new study published in Endangered Species Research. . . . It shows that whale migration patterns are more complex than we thought."

Hikers and animal lovers alike take heed -- it's flea-borne typhus season. FBT still lives in humid pockets of the South, California, Texas and Hawaii, reports Claire Panosian Dunavan for MedPage Today. "In fact, just last month, a letter to local physicians cited Los Angeles County's record-high count of 171 verified cases and three deaths in 2022."

Photo by Matt McClain, The Washington Post

Dread raking leaves? Don't. This year, leave the leaves, advises Allyson Chiu of The Washington Post. David Mizejewski, a naturalist with the National Wildlife Federation, told Chieu: "The fallen leaf layer is actually really important wildlife habitat. All sorts of creatures rely on that for their survival as a place where they can find food and cover. . . and even complete their life cycle.”

'Leave the chocolate milk out of it:' Parents, teachers, cooks and students angry at USDA over school-meal proposal

Photo by Tony Cenicola, The New York Times

Sometimes people draw a line in the sand and say, "You can't do that." That sentiment seems to be true in the case of school meals and chocolate milk. "The anger was prompted by a February proposal from the Department of Agriculture aimed at making school meals healthier by limiting the amount of added sugar and sodium in breakfasts and lunches," reports Nicholas Florko of Stat, the medicine-and-science publication of The Boston Globe. "Most chocolate milks have about 20 grams of sugar per carton. . . . The American Heart Association recommends kids consume 25 grams of added sugar. . . . But parents, teachers, and school officials simply aren’t having it. They insist children won’t drink unflavored milk — so the proposal would rob them of necessary calcium — and force them to go thirsty."

Michelle Wickstrom, a teacher from Green River, Wyoming, told Florko, "Leave the chocolate milk out of this." Florko writes, "No element of the February proposal has generated more vitriol than a suggestion that the agency might stop reimbursing schools for chocolate milk. . . . It’s not the first time efforts to rein in chocolate milk drinking have caused an uproar. New York Mayor Eric Adams quickly abandoned a plan earlier last year to ban chocolate milk in schools after outrage in the press and from members of Congress."

Florko adds, "The long simmering spat over school meals has also spotlighted the structural weaknesses of the national meal program. While peer-reviewed research has shown that school lunches are now healthier than ever, school officials say they’re still struggling with those standards." An anonymous commenter told Florko, “Our school district’s nutrition department relies on retirees to fill our low paid — short shifted — positions because no one else wants them.  . . .You are going to make these standards so strict that schools will be forced to make scratch foods to meet sodium levels. These school nutrition employees need to be paid better so we can hire staff that has the experience and is trained.”

Dariush Mozaffarian, policy dean at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science at Boston's Tufts University, told Florko, "All of the same concerns and hysteria arose around the 2010 legislation. School staff said this was impossible, industry said this can’t happen. . . . and people said kids won’t eat the food." Florko reports, "Mozaffarian, who supports the overarching changes to the school lunch program, suggested the milk dispute could be solved by cutting the sugar in chocolate milk in half, or offering children plain whole milk instead of the low fat options."

In the ongoing chocolate milk debate, kids also weighed in: "You’re wasting white milk and money,” wrote Ben, who identified himself as a fourth grader. “Another reason you should bring back chocolate milk is because students are super mad.” Another fourth-grader, Delila, wrote, "Kids are getting dehydrated. Everyone I know likes chocolate milk. This is why chocolate milk should stay!”

End of pandemic-era free school lunches could mean more students going hungry, suffering stigma, or falling into debt

"The healthiest meal students typically receive during the day isn’t at their dining room table — it’s in their school cafeteria," Nadra Nittle reports for The 19th, which is named for the constitutional amendment that guaranteed women the right to vote and calls itself "an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting at the intersection of gender, politics and policy."

Nittle writes, "That finding from Tufts University researchers is just one reason child nutrition experts have urged Congress to pass legislation that would enable schools nationwide to provide free meals for all students. Pandemic-era waivers that made universal free school lunch a reality the past two years have expired, and this fall, students will once again have to qualify for free, reduced or full-priced meals based on need."

Child-nutrition experts predict more kids will go hungry this fall, especially considering the recent increase in food insecurity in households with children, the first such rise since 2011. "There are going to be many struggling families next fall who don’t apply for meal programs or who don’t qualify for benefits," Lori Adkins, president of the nonprofit School Nutrition Association, told Nittle. "The ones that do qualify for benefits, our programs will continue to provide that safety net, but for those that are on the cusp, I’m worried about them. Sometimes it is that single-parent household with children, and they have limited resources, and sometimes they can fall through that safety net."

The end of pandemic-era free school meals also likely heralds the return of school meal debt, Kalyn Belsha reports for Chalkbeat, an education-coverage nonprofit: "That’s because families who qualify for free meals may not realize they have to fill out paperwork again, and then struggle to pay the fees. Other students who ate for free during the pandemic might rack up debt before realizing their families don’t meet the low income thresholds."

Such debt can have big consequences for students, who can be shamed for having to eat cold sandwiches or even denied the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities. Some school districts have even sent families to debt collectors, Belsha reports.

Congress keeps some pandemic-era expansions of school-nutrition programs, which could mean more in rural areas

Screenshot of interactive map by The Daily Yonder; for the interactive version, click here.

Congress recently passed, and President Biden signed, the Keep Kids Fed Act to extend some special school-nutrition measures taken during the pandemic. "It could offer a summer lifeline for those in rural areas who rely on school-served meals during the vacation season," Sarah Melotte reports for The Daily Yonder. "The act doesn’t keep the provision of universal free meals to students, but it does expand those eligible for free lunches and increases the reimbursement rate for schools, among other things."

The first pandemic relief bill created child nutrition waivers because "children could not receive meals at school because of lockdowns," Melotte notes. "The waivers increased federal reimbursements for lunch programs and allowed schools to omit eligibility requirements for free and reduced-price meals. A USDA survey found that 90% of schools took advantage of the increased funding and waivers to provide free meals to students regardless of income. The waivers also allowed schools to establish grab-and-go lunches during the summer" in more than just low-income neighborhoods.

"The Keep Kids Fed Act allows schools to continue to deliver meals and provide grab-and-go options," Melotte notes. That's important for rural families, because food insecurity is greater in rural areas. "Rural students may face other challenges such as transportation to and from meal distribution sites during the summer, especially with increasing fuel prices," Melotte writes. "Some families cannot afford to drive to a daily food pick up site to get a free lunch, a challenge exacerbated if they also live in a rural food desert . . . areas without a grocery store for 10 miles."

The act "does not allow all students to eat school meals free of charge in school year 2022-23," said a news release from the Department of Agriculture, which runs school-nutrition programs. "In most school districts, families will need to complete an application through their school to determine if their household is eligible for free or reduced-price school meals, as was done before the pandemic. USDA is also supporting the expansion of direct certification, which uses existing data to certify children for free or reduced-price meals without an additional application. All states are required to directly certify students for free meals if their household receives SNAP benefits, and some states also directly certify for free and reduced-price meals based on participation in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations or Medicaid."

Biden signs extension of pandemic waivers for school meals

Congress has passed and President Biden has signed a one-year, $3 billion extension of pandemic waivers for school meals. "Proponents said the extension would prevent 'a summer hunger crisis' and called for Congress to expand the school food program, rather than limit access," Chuck Abbott reports for the Food & Energy Reporting Network. "The extension allows free meals to all students this summer, increases the federal reimbursement rate to schools for each meal served and gives schools leeway throughout the 2022-23 school year in meeting nutritional standards for meals while they cope with supply shortages."

Thanks to federal aid, school meals have been free to all students since the beginning of the pandemic. But when classes resume in the fall, schools will return to the pre-pandemic system of serving free meals only to children from low-income households unless the school district has a different arrangement, Abbott reports.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., "said she was disappointed by the removal, during Senate negotiations, of a provision that offered meals for free in the new school year for children who ordinarily would qualify for reduced-price meals. Revival of the reduced-price category allowed enactment of the extension before the current set of nutrition waivers expires on June 30," Abbott reports. "Elimination of the reduced-price category has been proposed periodically for years. About 6% of students fall into that category and pay up to 40 cents for lunch. Two-thirds of lunches are free to pupils from households with incomes below 130% of the federal poverty line. Children pay a reduced price for lunch if they are from households with incomes between 130% and 185% of the poverty line."

The Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger group, said the extension was a "critical first step to help avert a summer hunger crisis" but said more is needed, Abbott reports. "Without access to free school meals, an alarming number of children will be at risk of hunger," said the group in a statement. "As we look ahead to the upcoming school year, we call on Congress to make additional investments in child nutrition programs through the upcoming budget reconciliation to prevent child hunger and support children’s access to free school meals."

Expiring pandemic aid to schools could make hunger worse this summer for food-insecure students

Summer is always the hungry season for America’s children — when school is not in session, many students don’t get enough to eat," Bridget Huber reports for Successful Farming. "But anti-hunger groups are warning this summer could be worse than usual, since many schools have been forced to scale back or eliminate their summer meals programs because the waivers that vastly expanded access to school food during the pandemic are set to expire on June 30, unless Congress takes action."

House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said Wednesday the House will extend the waivers, but Republicans are putting up "considerable opposition" to new spending. "The cuts to summer meals come as families are facing high fuel and food prices and a gradual rollback of many pandemic-era programs aimed at reducing poverty and hunger," Huber reports.

Crystal FitzSimons, director of School and Out-of-School-Time Programs at the Food Research & Action Center, told Huber the organization is "very, very concerned that millions of kids are going to lose access to meals this summer."

"Before the pandemic, schools often struggled to reach hungry kids in the summer — only about one in seven students who got free or reduced-cost meals during the school year got summer meals, FitzSimons said. Pre-pandemic, schools and community organizations could offer free summer meals only in communities or neighborhoods where more than half of the students qualified for free or reduced-cost lunch," Huber reports. "This meant the program didn’t reach low-income kids living in mixed-income communities. But under the waivers, free summer meals can be served in any community, regardless of income level."

Expanded summer meals programs have been popular: "In 2020, three times more summer meals were served than in 2019, according to a recent report from No Kid Hungry. Demand remained high in the summer of 2021 — even as things edged back toward normal, more than twice as many meals were served than in summer 2019," Huber reports. An Agriculture Department "spokesperson said the agency does not have projections for how many summer meals will be served this summer, but No Kid Hungry estimates that one in five sites that served meals in summer of 2021 will be ineligible to do so this year, and that nearly 7 million children could lose access to meals this summer."

USDA announces new school-lunch nutritional standards

The Agriculture Department has announced updates to school meal nutrition standards for the 2022-23 school year, aimed at making meals healthier while acknowledging the supply-chain difficulties schools expect to face in recovering from the pandemic. "These transitional nutrition standards -- set to be implemented in the next two school years -- are intended to give 'schools time to transition from current, pandemic operations, toward more nutritious meals,' according to USDA. These standards include updates to milk, whole grains and sodium requirements for school meals," Liz Stark reports for CNN.

USDA said in a press release that the nutritional requirements will allow schools to "gradually transition from the extraordinary circumstances caused by the pandemic to normal program operations and meal standards that are consistent with the latest nutrition science."

Here are some of the updated guidelines:

• Schools can offer flavored 1% low-fat milk in addition to other non-fat and low-fat milk options
• At least 80 percent of grains in school meals each week must be rich in whole grains
• Beginning in the 2023-2024 school year, the weekly sodium limit for lunches only will decrease by 10%

USDA boosts school meal reimbursement rate to help with inflation, supply-chain woes; will cost about $750 million

The Agriculture Department will spend another $750 million to help schools deal with the increased meal program costs brought on by inflation and supply-chain issues. "That’s an addition to the $1.5 billion in extra funding USDA recently directed out of the Commodity Credit Corporation," Ximena Bustillo reports for Politico's Weekly Agriculture. "It’s also on top of the higher than normal reimbursement rates schools have been receiving for much of the pandemic to help make things easier on their nutrition programs, which have been central in efforts to feed millions of kids as well as their families throughout the pandemic. Overall, USDA said schools are getting 22 percent more than they would normally."

The newly announced funds come in the form of a reimbursement rate adjustment; schools will get about 25 cents more per school lunch this year. "That might sound small, but it’s a big deal for school food operators struggling with increased costs, from food to labor and packaging, as well as upended supply chains," Bustillo reports,

Bill Lucia of Route Fifty reports: The "School Nutrition Association surveyed about 1,200 school nutrition directors between October and November about supply chain issues. Those findings, released [in December], showed that top challenges school lunch programs faced—cited by over 98% of respondents—included shortages or insufficient quantities of menu items, other supplies or packaging, as well as discontinued menu items. Over three-quarters of respondents said those challenges were 'significant.'"

SNA President Beth Wallace said in a statement that the $750 million "delivers desperately-needed relief to school meal programs" and that the organization "greatly appreciates USDA’s ongoing efforts to provide additional support for school nutrition professionals who are working so hard to ensure students continue to receive healthy meals at school," Bustillo reports.

Biden administration will provide up to $1.5 billion to mitigate disruptions to schools' food supply chains

"The Biden administration will provide up to $1.5 billion to states and schools to help them deal with costs driven by supply chain disruptions, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Friday. School lunch operators are grappling with both goods shortages and rising costs as the nation contends with broader supply chain and inflation difficulties," Bill Lucia reports for Route Fifty. "Under the newly announced initiatives, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will funnel $1 billion for schools to purchase food for their meal programs and another $300 million for food that states will distribute to schools. The $1 billion will be distributed as cash payments known as Supply Chain Assistance funds. USDA said it anticipates that money going to as many as 100,000 schools in all 50 states." The administration will provide another $200 million for schools to buy local foods from farmers, especially historically underserved producers. 

Schools, and the state and local governments that fund them, have been hammered by rising costs and shortages. "A School Nutrition Association surveyed about 1,200 school nutrition directors between October and November about supply chain issues," Lucia reports. "Those findings, released this month, showed that top challenges school lunch programs faced—cited by over 98% of respondents—included shortages or insufficient quantities of menu items, other supplies or packaging, as well as discontinued menu items. Over three-quarters of respondents said those challenges were 'significant.'"

USDA has $3 billion to help farmers adopt green practices, help school meal programs with supply-chain problems

The Agriculture Department announced Tuesday a $3 billion investment in large-scale pilot projects to create new markets for sustainably produced agricultural products. The programs, set to go into effect next year, would provide incentives for producers who adopt climate-friendly practices. Here's the breakdown:

• $500 million to help farmers recover from drought and encourage the adoption of thriftier water management practices.
• Up to $500 million to prevent the spread of African Swine Fever.
• $500 million in relief from agricultural market disruption such as supply chain difficulties.
• Up to $1.5 billion to help school food programs deal with supply chain disruptions.

The money will be released in a series of pilot projects funded by the Commodity Credit Corp., a Depression-era program that allows the federal government to borrow as much as $30 billion from the federal treasury for programs meant to stabilize farm income.

In a University of Colorado speech, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stressed that the programs are primarily about increasing commodity production and trade, and were not carbon banks, carbon markets, or conservation programs. Such a distinction allows the CCC to pay for the programs, Chuck Abbott writes for the Food and Environment Reporting Network.

USDA will accept public comments on the funding until Nov. 1.