A South Dakota Congresswoman and the leader of the US Department of Agriculture are at odds over nutrition standards in school lunch programs. Representative Kristi Noem is providing lawmakers legislation that eases the dietary guidelines for meals provided by schools.
United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says 93 percent of the nation’s schools meet current nutrition standards for school lunches. But Congresswoman Kristi Noem says the standards that call for more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains plus less sodium are difficult to attain in South Dakota.
"The administration is saying ‘One size fits all. They’re all the same. Feed them all the same. None of them are different’. Anybody who’s worked with kids – I have, I’m a mom, I’ve worked with kids my entire life in 4H and church and youth and camp – and I know that all kids aren’t the same. They’re different sizes. They have different energy levels. They have different requirements based on activity," Noem says.
Noem says some children need more calories than they get in school lunches.
US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says meals in schools can’t cater to individual students but provide a standard meal that meets nutritional needs. He says the standards now allow room for schools to adjust their meal plans.
"You know, we’re working with school districts to make sure that they understand that they’ve got some degree of flexibility in terms of the calories from day to day and week to week. We’re not putting them in a strait jacket. There is some ability to adjust, so I think it’s probably not quite accurate to suggest that school districts don’t have any flexibility and it’s one size fits all," Vilsack says.
Noem says members of the US House of Representatives support her bill to change school lunch standards. Noem says some limits on sodium and additional requirements aren’t feasible in South Dakota schools – and the standards hurt children who are poor.
"You look at areas where we have high poverty in South Dakota. These kids go home from school. They get no food until they come back and have breakfast the next morning," Noem says. "You have school nutrition specialists and lunch personnel in tears that they cannot give these kids seconds so that they can have some in their pocket for later on in the day to get through to the next morning."
The president-elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics says he too wants the best for children in poverty. Doctor Benard Dreyer says poor kids are often obese, because the food they have lacks nutritional value. He says the nation owes it to children and their families to make school lunches as healthy as possible.
"We should dispel the image of, you know, this being a child given six carrot sticks for lunch," Dreyer says.
Dreyer says the updated school meal standards do that by including more vegetables, fruits and whole grains. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack says school lunch standards ensure kids get the right kind of calories.
The discussion about school lunch nutrition comes the same week as South Dakota’s latest numbers reveal nearly one third of all kids in the state are overweight or obese.