Black Hills Fox - Noem Files School Lunch Reform Bill

News Article

By Tessa Thomas

Representative Kristi Noem has filed a school lunch reform bill in response to criticism she says she's heard from local schools on the new mandates that are coming from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Noem initially introduced the bill in 2013, but now has filed an updated version which eases new federal school lunch standards.
She says it includes provisions on the whole grain requirement which took effect in July of 2014 and the Target 2 sodium requirements which will take effect in the coming years.
She says her bill will allow local school districts more flexibility to relax those standards and feed kids more meat and grains permanently.

Noem says, "The whole grain requirement will be relaxed as well as the sodium levels that they were moving to, you know, simply some of those requirements that were coming down on our local school districts that kept them from being able to potentially feed milk, cheese, some of the meats that are necessary to put on our kids' plates to make sure that they are well fed."

Noem says her legislation has a lot of support in the House and she's looking forward to it getting support in the Senate as well.

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