By Illinois Radio Network
MONTICELLO – Schools across America have the green light from Washington D.C. to serve one-percent milk and white flour tortillas. They are the first of what could be many changes under President Donald Trump to the USDA’s school lunch program.
Former President Barack Obama’s administration ramped up regulations over what schools could serve. Burgers and fish sticks were out. Vegetables and lean proteins were in.
“We’re supposed to serve three servings of orange vegetables a week,” Monticello Schools Superintendent Vic Zimmerman said. “I challenge people to come up with three orange vegetables. And then come up with three orange vegetables that kids will eat.”
Monticello High School is one of a several Illinois schools that dropped out of the USDA lunch program because of the regulations and the high cost to comply. Zimmerman said his district never made money serving lunch. The district as a whole regularly lost about $60,000 a year, but under the stricter federal lunch program, he lost twice that.
“It’s difficult to argue against obesity in the United States and eating healthy,” Zimmerman said. “But at the same time, you have schools who are having a difficult time making ends meet. We’d rather spend our money on teachers and teachers aides and programs inside the classroom.”
The Trump administration is promising schools “flexibility” under a new USDA lunch program.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue this week told education leaders he’s not going to require schools to meet the next school lunch targets that require more whole grains and even less sodium.
Even supporters of the federal school lunch program, like the School Nutrition Association, say that’s a wise move.
“A couple of these [regulations] aren’t working,” SNA spokeswoman Elizabeth Cowles Johnston said. “So let’s make them better. Let’s make them better so students are eating the meals and not vilify something like a white flour tortilla.”
Target II under the Obama administration lunch rules would have made it almost impossible to serve white flour tortillas, white rice, or anything other than skim milk.
Cowles Johnston said schools were looking at regulations that label a turkey wrap without cheese, green beans, an apple, and a carton of milk as an “unhealthy” lunch.
Zimmerman said that’s the problem when you let bureaucrats in Washington D.C. decide what kids in central Illinois need to eat for lunch.
“The thing about federal money, it always comes with strings,” Zimmerman said. “They’re not just going to send you money and say, ‘We trust you to do what you think is in the best interest of your students.’ Federal money always comes with stacks of rules.”
And that’s why Zimmerman says simply allowing schools to serve a few more items, or not enforcing the next round of regulations, might not be enough to get him to rejoin the lunch program.
“We’re certainly open to taking a look,” Zimmerman said. “But they’d have to be pretty drastic changes to the program for use to be able to jump in.”
