Adults may change healthful school lunch rules
GILBERT, Iowa – After the day’s meals are done, Deb Purcell, Gilbert Community Schools director of food service, shuffles through a stack of papers.
Gilbert, a town north of Ames in central Iowa, serves about 1,400 to 1,600 meals a day.
“This is what I do, planning for a week,” Purcell said while pointing to columns on a page. “And there’s actually seven pages minimum that go with each day.”
She is counting cups of vegetables and documenting other details about every meal she has served to comply with stringent federal rules. Her job could soon get easier.
The Trump administration has been loosening regulations. It canceled planned sodium reductions and allowed low-fat flavored milk last year. One proposal would ease rules for meat and meat alternatives at breakfast and the types of vegetables required at lunch.
Some call the changes rollbacks and others say they would give schools more flexibility.
GOOD INTENTIONS
In 2012, Congress passed new rules for school lunches in the…