A proposed rule announced today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture would continue the historic progress of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act by, for the first time, limiting added sugars in school meals. School meal nutrition standards are based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recommends limiting added sugars intake to less than 10 percent of calories per day. School meals will be required to meet this limit by the 2027-2028 school year.
This white paper suggests approaches to enhancing equity in GusNIP, including increasing program funding to expand SNAP participant access. We include recommendations for the 2023 Farm Bill and recommendations for USDA administrative actions.
In a move long awaited by consumer advocates, the USDA announced today that the agency will be taking bold new steps to prevent chicken and turkey contaminated with dangerous bacteria from reaching store shelves.
CSPI submits these comments in response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Child Nutrition Programs: Transitional Standards for Milk, Whole Grains, and Sodium” final rule (87 FR 6984), which will provide necessary flexibility to schools for SY 2022-2023 and SY 2023-2024 as they respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. CSPI urges the USDA to align school meals with the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, particularly with respect to added sugars, sodium, and whole grains in the rulemaking expected later this year.
With global supply chains and labor shortages for school food service staff not yet resolved, schools need more flexibility than ever to meet the challenge of serving one or two free healthy meals daily to millions of children.
No federal policies and few state policies affecting food bank donations currently prioritize nutrition, according to a new report released today by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
