Comment on Changes to The Federal School Meals Programs!
As was previously highlighted, in January, U.S. Agriculture
Secretary Sonny Perdue announced newly proposed regulations to the National
School Lunch (NSLP) and School Breakfast Programs (SBP).
The
good news is that USDA's proposal is aimed at providing school districts with
more administrative and nutritional flexibilities around the federal school
meals programs, and if passed, will increase local school systems' control of
their SBP and NSLP. Specifically, USDA intends to accomplish this through a
three-pronged strategy that would offer schools more time to comply with the
programs' compliance requirements, relax the programs' nutritional provisions
regarding fruits and vegetables, and modify the Smart Snack in Schools Rule, so
that districts' can sell revenue-raising competitive foods for longer periods
of time.
At
a time when school districts are being asked to do more to improve their school
meal delivery systems with fewer resources, this regulation takes the correct
approach in moving the needle by improving local systems operation of the
federal school meals programs. However, to get this regulation across the
finish line, we'll need our membership to weigh-in and let USDA know that the
proposed regulation has broad support from superintendents and other school
system leaders. We urge you all to let your voices be heard by following the
directions below to comment on the regulation.
- Copy
this template and fill in the highlighted fields with the requested
information.
- Click here, and then select "Upload files,"
- Fill
out "First Name", "Last Name", and under category
select "School district"
- Click
"Continue"
- On
the next page, please mark the box stating, "I read and understand
the statement above."
- Click
"Submit Comment"
Comments
are due on or before March 23, 2020 at 11:59 pm ET. If you are pressed
for time or need help submitting the comments, AASA staff can submit them on
your behalf. To do this, please reach out to Chris Rogers directly at crogers@aasa.org.