{"id":6984,"date":"2012-12-10T16:02:45","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T21:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=6984"},"modified":"2012-12-11T12:15:27","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T17:15:27","slug":"usda-relaxes-school-lunch-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/12\/10\/usda-relaxes-school-lunch-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"USDA relaxes school lunch rules"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo by Julie Grant.<\/p><\/div>\n

The federal government is responding to criticisms that its school lunch rules are too strict.\u00a0 In a letter to members of Congress on Friday, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the USDA will do away with calorie limits on meat and grains:<\/p>\n

This flexibility is being provided to allow more time for the development of products that fit within the new standards while granting schools additional weekly menu planning options to help ensure that children receive a wholesome, nutritious meal every day of the week.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Vilsack also defended the rules.\u00a0 He wrote they\u2019re ensuring twice the amount of fruits and vegetables in school lunches, and a \u201csubstantial\u201d increase in the use of whole grains.<\/p>\n

The new regulations became a campaign issue in the 21st Congressional district race between Bill Owens and Matt Doheny.\u00a0 NCPR’s Julie Grant reported<\/a> that neither candidate was happy with them.<\/p>\n

In a press release today, Owens – who was elected to a second full term – praised Vilsack’s decision, saying, “USDA set guidelines for school lunches that just didn\u2019t work for many students, parents and school administrators.” Owens said he would talk further with local school food service directors to see if any further changes are needed.<\/p>\n

Julie’s story<\/a> got at the heart of some of the consequences when bureaucracy meets reality in the case of school lunches.<\/p>\n

In Potsdam, David Gravlin used to make homemade soup nearly every day: \u201cWe do butternut squash and apple, we do tomato, macaroni and beef, chicken noodle, we did a pumpkin soup. We probably did 30 different soups at different points.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when you ladle tomato, macaroni, and beef soup, there\u2019s no guarantee you\u2019ll get a serving of tomato, a serving of macaroni, and a serving of beef. So schools can\u2019t serve soup anymore.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can read a copy of the letter sent by Secretary Vilsack to members of Congress here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The federal government is responding to criticisms that its school lunch rules are too strict.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[6,36,4803],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6986,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984\/revisions\/6986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}