Trump Takes Bite Out Of School Lunch Reforms And Former White House Chef Bites Back
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Liza Schoenfein May 3, 2017
After Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue joined students at an elementary school cafeteria in Leesburg, Virginia, on Monday and signed away some of former First Lady Michelle Obama’s 2010 school lunch reforms, former White House Chef Sam Kass registered his outrage.
“Considering the deeply struggling farm economy, that climate change is making it harder to grow food and one in three kids are on track to have diabetes, one would think Secretary Purdue has more important things to worry about than making sure food in schools has a lot of salt,” Kass told “Politico.”
While praising certain aspects of the former First Lady’s healthy-food initiatives — she was instrumental in passing the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act — Secretary Perdue, a former governor of Georgia who joined the Trump Administration last week, signed a policy directive giving states more leeway in their school-lunch choices. In particular, the new policy would weaken sodium restrictions and whole-grains requirements.
“While these changes are bad for children’s health, they are relatively minor,” Kass said. “I hope the secretary will find ways to strengthen the standards over time and do what’s best for kids.”
Kass, was born in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, was an assistant White House chef from 2009–2014 while serving as senior policy advisor for nutrition policy under President Barack Obama and executive director of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign. In 2016, he started a food technology company called TROVE.
Liza Schoenfein is food editor of the Forward. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @LifeDeathDinner
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
