First Lady confronts SNA, House GOP on school meals
May 27, 2014 | 06:16 PM
In a direct confrontation with the School Nutrition Association and House Republicans, First Lady Michelle Obama hosted school food service directors from New York City, Los Angeles, Georgia, Maryland and Virginia today at a White House event to discourage Congress from granting waivers from the healthier school meal rules that have been put in place under the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.
The first lady did not mention that the House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up a fiscal year 2015 Agriculture appropriations bill that contains a one-year waiver from the new school meal rules that some schools claim have been making their programs lose money for six months. But it was obviously on her mind.
Speaking from a podium in a room in the Old Executive Office Building, she told the school food service directors, “Thanks to you, tens of thousands” [of students] are “finally eating healthy food.”
Noting that school meals cost taxpayers $10 billion per year and used to contain too much sodium, Obama said she finds the efforts in Congress to roll back the rules objectionable “as a mother and first lady.”
“We are now facing a crisis,” she said. “Moms and dads don’t want their efforts undermined when they send their kids off to school. The stakes could not be higher.”
Referring to statements that students don’t like the foods required under the new rules, the first lady said that her own daughters, Sasha and Malia “growl at me when we sit down at the dinner table and there’s fish,” but that doesn’t mean she stops serving it.
She noted signs that her “Let’s Move” campaign against childhood obesity is making progress.
“We have to be willing to fight the hard fight now,” she said, including holding Congress and others “accountable” for what they are proposing.
After her remarks, the first lady sat down and said she was going to “do a lot of listening.”
But she asked pointed questions throughout the meeting, telling the attendees they need to share the importance and successes of the new rules with parents and the public, and asking them to tell her why the School Nutrition Association, which represents school food service directors, is pushing Congress to roll back rules that have reduced sodium, fat and sugar in school meals in favor of low-fat dairy and meat, whole grains, and more fruits and vegetables.
(SNA in a statement today said that the first lady was listening to a “select” group of school food service directors.)
White House staff had told reporters and photographers they would be able to attend only the opening part of the meeting, but when an aide signaled it was time for them to leave, the first lady told her staff to let them stay.
Obama and Sam Kass, director of Let’s Move, repeated their defense of the healthier school meal rules with a few rhetorical flourishes.
But their most important act today may have been to open the White House as a forum to school food service directors who oppose the School Nutrition Association’s call for more “flexibility” in the rules.
Donna Martin, director of the school nutrition program in Burke County, Ga., disputed statements that the increase in fruits and vegetables has to lead to a lot of waste when students don’t eat them.
Martin said her students’ favorite fruit is kiwi and that she serves 200 to 300 salads per day. The issue of athletes getting enough calories has been resolved by giving them supper after school, she said, adding that her school won the state football championship and that graduation rates have improved.
Martin also said she had implemented the new rules even though her district is in the South.
“Don’t think that taking fried chicken off the menu wasn’t dangerous,” she said. But now she serves baked chicken and whole-grain locally grown grits for breakfast.
Eric Goldstein, who runs the New York City school meals programs, noted that his system now has more than 1,000 salad bars and that he has seen middle school boys take second helpings of salad.
Of kids’ not being acquainted with certain foods, Goldstein said, “You can’t like what you’re not exposed to.”
Helen Phillips, the Norfolk, Va., school food service director who was president of SNA when the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed, said that the “pushback” against the new standards started with her own staff, but that she persevered because “it is our duty to do the best for our children.”
Asked by Obama why SNA is pushing to change the legislation, Phillips said that there are “definitely school districts that are struggling.”
Some districts were not prepared, Phillips said, and she noted that in others there is an “attitude” problem because the staff doesn’t want to serve food the students may not want initially.
David Binkle, deputy director of food services for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the number of meals served in his program has gone up since the new rules were introduced. And that includes the district’s own decision to launch “Meatless Mondays.”
Noting that he is a member of SNA, Binkle said he believes the organization is calling for changes because “if it’s hard, people shy away from it.”
Marla Caplon, the nutrition director for the Montgomery County, Md., public schools, noted that her district includes both low-income and wealthy students, and that many people thought school lunch offered only lower quality food for lower income children, many of whom got free or reduced price lunch.
“The new rules have improved the image,” Caplon said, adding that they are “marketing our program for us.”
The schools should no more give up on convincing children to eat healthier that they would give up on foreign-born children learning English, Caplon said.
All the school service directors at the meeting said that the Agriculture Department had been helpful.
Janey Thornton, the USDA deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, said that USDA stands prepared to “mentor” and offer training to the school food service directors, but that they must market their meals to the students.
The final words in the part of the meeting that journalists were allowed to attend was left to Shirley Watkins Bowden, who served as Agriculture undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services in the Clinton administration and is now a consultant.
Bowden, who is former food service director for the Memphis schools and served as president of SNA, talked about the rules on “competitive foods,” the items sold in vending machines and a la carte lines, which this fall will have the same nutritional standards as the regular lunch line.
“We’ve been talking about this for 42 years,” said Bowden. “It is not an option to say we can’t do this.”
The first lady did not mention that the House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up a fiscal year 2015 Agriculture appropriations bill that contains a one-year waiver from the new school meal rules that some schools claim have been making their programs lose money for six months. But it was obviously on her mind.
Speaking from a podium in a room in the Old Executive Office Building, she told the school food service directors, “Thanks to you, tens of thousands” [of students] are “finally eating healthy food.”
Noting that school meals cost taxpayers $10 billion per year and used to contain too much sodium, Obama said she finds the efforts in Congress to roll back the rules objectionable “as a mother and first lady.”
“We are now facing a crisis,” she said. “Moms and dads don’t want their efforts undermined when they send their kids off to school. The stakes could not be higher.”
Referring to statements that students don’t like the foods required under the new rules, the first lady said that her own daughters, Sasha and Malia “growl at me when we sit down at the dinner table and there’s fish,” but that doesn’t mean she stops serving it.
She noted signs that her “Let’s Move” campaign against childhood obesity is making progress.
“We have to be willing to fight the hard fight now,” she said, including holding Congress and others “accountable” for what they are proposing.
After her remarks, the first lady sat down and said she was going to “do a lot of listening.”
But she asked pointed questions throughout the meeting, telling the attendees they need to share the importance and successes of the new rules with parents and the public, and asking them to tell her why the School Nutrition Association, which represents school food service directors, is pushing Congress to roll back rules that have reduced sodium, fat and sugar in school meals in favor of low-fat dairy and meat, whole grains, and more fruits and vegetables.
(SNA in a statement today said that the first lady was listening to a “select” group of school food service directors.)
White House staff had told reporters and photographers they would be able to attend only the opening part of the meeting, but when an aide signaled it was time for them to leave, the first lady told her staff to let them stay.
Obama and Sam Kass, director of Let’s Move, repeated their defense of the healthier school meal rules with a few rhetorical flourishes.
But their most important act today may have been to open the White House as a forum to school food service directors who oppose the School Nutrition Association’s call for more “flexibility” in the rules.
Donna Martin, director of the school nutrition program in Burke County, Ga., disputed statements that the increase in fruits and vegetables has to lead to a lot of waste when students don’t eat them.
Martin said her students’ favorite fruit is kiwi and that she serves 200 to 300 salads per day. The issue of athletes getting enough calories has been resolved by giving them supper after school, she said, adding that her school won the state football championship and that graduation rates have improved.
Martin also said she had implemented the new rules even though her district is in the South.
“Don’t think that taking fried chicken off the menu wasn’t dangerous,” she said. But now she serves baked chicken and whole-grain locally grown grits for breakfast.
Eric Goldstein, who runs the New York City school meals programs, noted that his system now has more than 1,000 salad bars and that he has seen middle school boys take second helpings of salad.
Of kids’ not being acquainted with certain foods, Goldstein said, “You can’t like what you’re not exposed to.”
Helen Phillips, the Norfolk, Va., school food service director who was president of SNA when the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed, said that the “pushback” against the new standards started with her own staff, but that she persevered because “it is our duty to do the best for our children.”
Asked by Obama why SNA is pushing to change the legislation, Phillips said that there are “definitely school districts that are struggling.”
Some districts were not prepared, Phillips said, and she noted that in others there is an “attitude” problem because the staff doesn’t want to serve food the students may not want initially.
David Binkle, deputy director of food services for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the number of meals served in his program has gone up since the new rules were introduced. And that includes the district’s own decision to launch “Meatless Mondays.”
Noting that he is a member of SNA, Binkle said he believes the organization is calling for changes because “if it’s hard, people shy away from it.”
Marla Caplon, the nutrition director for the Montgomery County, Md., public schools, noted that her district includes both low-income and wealthy students, and that many people thought school lunch offered only lower quality food for lower income children, many of whom got free or reduced price lunch.
“The new rules have improved the image,” Caplon said, adding that they are “marketing our program for us.”
The schools should no more give up on convincing children to eat healthier that they would give up on foreign-born children learning English, Caplon said.
All the school service directors at the meeting said that the Agriculture Department had been helpful.
Janey Thornton, the USDA deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, said that USDA stands prepared to “mentor” and offer training to the school food service directors, but that they must market their meals to the students.
The final words in the part of the meeting that journalists were allowed to attend was left to Shirley Watkins Bowden, who served as Agriculture undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services in the Clinton administration and is now a consultant.
Bowden, who is former food service director for the Memphis schools and served as president of SNA, talked about the rules on “competitive foods,” the items sold in vending machines and a la carte lines, which this fall will have the same nutritional standards as the regular lunch line.
“We’ve been talking about this for 42 years,” said Bowden. “It is not an option to say we can’t do this.”
