Ten years ago this month, President Barack Obama signed into law the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA), a monumental bill that improved access to healthy foods and beverages in school meals.
Unfortunately, even as the Trump administration has one foot out the door, it is trying to dismantle the nutrition standards in school meals, and quickly. Its latest proposal, which reinstates the 2018 rollbacks on sodium and whole grains, gave the public just 30 days to comment until today (Dec. 28). Many stakeholders, including those impacted by this rule, lacked the time needed to weigh in. In fact, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), as well as more than 60 organizations, and the Attorneys General from 11 states and DC, are calling for extending the comment period.
Called “one of the most important national obesity prevention policy achievements in recent decades,” by the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the impact of HHFKA is enormous. 30 million children rely on school meals, and two-thirds of program participants are low-income children. For many kids, school meals may be the only healthy meals they receive that day. In the pandemic and ensuing economic hardship, more children are expected to qualify for free or reduced-priced school meals.
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