- The Plate
School Lunches and House Ag Appropriations Bill
Last week the House Appropriations Committee passed the annual agriculture funding bill. Fights over the substantive content of funding bills are usually reserved for the hottest issues, ones that congresspeople take to the mat for ideological reasons or because constituents are noisily banging pots over them, especially in election years. 2014’s food battlefield issue? What a captive audience of 32 million future American leaders eat, usually without choice, every day: school breakfasts and lunches. Schools currently follow 2012 Obama Administration rules that school meals must incorporate more fruits, green vegetables, and whole grains and reduce salt and fat. Republicans claim that schools complain healthier lunches are expensive and kids don’t eat them, which leads to hungrier kids and colossal