White House moves to relax school meal reforms championed by Michelle Obama

THE Trump administration moved to roll back school nutrition standards championed by Michelle Obama on Friday, the former first lady’s birthday.

Rules proposed by the department of agriculture for the Food and Nutrition Service would allow schools to cut the amount of vegetables and fruits required while allowing them to sell more pizza, burgers and fries to students.

The service is responsible for administering nutritional programmes that feed nearly 30million students. According to the latest figures, about 19 per cent of children in the US are obese.

While her husband, Barack, was in office, Mrs Obama pushed to bring healthier foods to schools and created the first Task Force on Childhood Obesity, becoming her signature issue.

She also developed the “Let’s Move!” campaign to get children to engage in 60 minutes of physical activity daily.

Mrs Obama’s work “improved the diets of millions of children, especially vulnerable children in food insecure households”, said Juliana Cohen, a nutrition professor at Harvard University’s School of Public Health.

She said more students were eating vegetables and whole grain-rich foods because of the campaign. A spokesman for the department said that it had not intended to roll out the proposals on Mrs Obama’s birthday.

Schools have been allowed to substitute potatoes and other starchy vegetables for fruit with breakfast, after pressure from the “potato lobby”.

The agriculture department said the changes reflected requests made over the past two years by those who serve food at schools, which are throwing out vast amounts as a result of pupils not enjoying what has been on offer.

Representative Robert Scott of Virginia said the Trump administration was putting “special interests above the long-term health” of students.