ODESSA, TX (KWES) - The Trump Administration is easing some Obama-era regulations earlier this week on school lunches. They're easing restrictions on things like sodium, whole grains and flavored milk.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama took the fight against childhood obesity in 2010 with the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. The program aimed to target nutritional requirements for school lunches. But schools around the country could soon take the controls on their kids' plates.
"We may look to adding more salt into some of vegetable recipes so they have more flavor, but other than that, there's no change for us on this," said Director of School Nutrition Katy Taylor.
The Obama Administration had a three-phase process that would slowly cut down sodium intake each school year but the Trump Administration is easing down on those regulations. Currently, ECISD is under the first phase of cutting down sodium which would mean they'd have to stop serving chocolate milk during breakfast next school year. But under the new plan, school districts meeting the second phase wouldn't have to cut down on sodium levels until the year 2020.
"The sodium in chocolate milk was a little more than the strawberry milk," said Taylor. "We were just gonna do strawberry and white. This would allow us to do chocolate milk at breakfast."
The plan would also allow schools to choose whether they wanted to serve 100% of whole-grain foods.
"You could submit for a waiver, we have never done that," said Taylor. "Our menu meets the guidelines as far as whole grains go."
Schools would also be able to serve 1% flavored milk instead of fat-free flavored milk.
"One of the benefits there, would be especially for the students that eat lunch early during the day," said Taylor. "One of the purposes of dietary fat is to help you feeling full. This could have an effect so they're able to concentrate after lunch. Our goal is to feed as many students who want to eat, good quality healthy food every day."
