COLUMBIA, Mo. – About 1.2 million American students dropped out of the National School Lunch Program in the first two years after the federal government imposed restrictions on calories, fat, sugar, sodium, and other elements of school food.

Missouri U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler now understands why.

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She met with the Jefferson Middle School Council recently to tour the school’s lunch operations, and better understand how the new regulations championed by Michelle Obama are taking a toll on schools and students, the Buffalo Reflex reports.

“As a parent and someone who taught nutritional science for 11 years, I want nothing more than for our kids to grow up healthy,” Hartzler said. “Unfortunately, the rules being pushed on our schools are inhibiting that. What we are seeing is wasted food, soaring costs and declining participation. These regulations have caused Columbia Public Schools to lose over $2 million over the last two years. According to its superintendent, they may have to look at cutting staff and faculty jobs to cover the losses.”

Hartzler is co-sponsoring the Reducing Federal Mandates on School Lunch Act to peel back some of the more onerous requirements of the Healthy and Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010, the original law that tightened school food restrictions.

South Dakota U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem is co-sponsoring the proposed changes with Hartzler, with support from the National School Board Association and the School Superintendents Association, according to the news site.

“The current standards of the National School Lunch program represent more of the administration’s failing one-size-fits-all responses to an issue best handled at the state and local levels,” said Hartzler, who taught high schoolers about healthy eating and balanced diets for over a decade before becoming a lawmaker.

“The fact that kids are declining to participate is proof enough that this program isn’t working. We need to allow schools to have the flexibility required to provide a nutritious meal that kids will actually eat,” she said.

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The Reducing Federal Mandates on School Lunch Act doesn’t seek a full repeal of the Healthy and Hunger Free Kids Act, but rather amends portions of the regulations that have caused schools the most headaches.

According to the Buffalo Reflex, the legislation would:

  • Allow schools to maintain the previous whole grain requirements. Without this change, 100 percent of the grains that schools would be required to serve students would be whole-grain rich, pushing items like tortillas and pasta largely off the menu. Rep. Noem’s bill would restore the requirement back to 50 percent, meaning at least half of the grains served would be required to be whole-grain rich.
  • Maintain Target 1 sodium requirements. Absent a change, schools would have a difficult time serving healthy foods that include milk, cheese, meat and other foods with naturally occurring sodium.
  • Give administrators flexibility on some of the rules that have increased costs for school districts, including the school breakfast program, a la carte options and school-lunch price increases.
  • Make the USDA’s easing of the meat and grain requirements permanent through law, rather than regulations. This would give certainty to schools that they’ll be allowed more flexibility in serving meats and grains while still staying within calorie maximums.

It’s unclear if the Reducing Federal Mandates on School Lunch Act addresses other common complaints that calorie limitations leave student athletes famished until late into the evening, or the current requirement that all students must take a fruit or vegetable, which has resulted in billions in food waste.

And while Hartzler and Noem work to ease the federal food restrictions, many schools are opting to drop out of the National School Lunch Program altogether, so they can serve students food they need and want, instead of government prescribed meals.

That decision requires schools to give up federal subsidies for free and reduced price lunch students, and for schools to pick up the tab, but improved lunch sales often cover the costs.