Caps on the amount of grain and protein in school meals鈥攑ut in place just this school year鈥攈ave been lifted for now.
In a letter last month to Republican U.S. Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said that because schools have found limits on servings of grains and proteins 鈥渢he top operational challenge鈥� of new school meal requirements, schools don鈥檛 have to follow them for the rest of the school year.
The rules authorized under the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, limited schools鈥� ability to serve as much of what they wanted. For example, elementary schools that wanted to serve sandwiches every day could not because they would exceed caps on how many servings of grains students may have per week.
The revised nutrition standards for school meals took effect at the start of the 2012-13 school year. The new rules boost the amount of fruits and vegetables students must be served, require bread products to contain whole grains, and for the first time set both minimum and maximum calorie requirements.
