School Nutrition

Guidance, policy updates and actionable resources for schools & districts focused on nutritional standards and access to school meals.

  Background

AASA strongly supports the enactment of comprehensive services and programs that encourage children to be healthy.

• Schools will not have to do anything for SY24-25 – everything will remain the same. 
• Sodium is far less stringent than the original proposal – there will only be one more reduction. 
• Milk and whole grain rules remain the same as now. 
• Moving forward states are not required to take fiscal action against districts who are not able to be in compliance due to supply chain disruptions for other issues.

  AASA's Position & Priorities

The guiding principles for federal education policy stem from equity and the important role the federal government stands to play in creating equitable learning opportunities for all students. AASA is committed to advocating for better access to school meals and reasonable nutrition standards for students in the public school system.

AASA's priorities are to:

• Support universal school meals on the contingency that such policies do no harm to eligibility for and enrollment in existing federal funding streams serving schools, and fully cover costs associated with the program
• Refrain from increasing the administrative burden related to nutrition eligibility verification
• Ensure that licensing and certification requirements for school nutrition workers are a state responsibility
• Ensure federal school meal reimbursement rates are sufficient to cover the full cost of production