It’s because she’s black, right? We’re on to you, Waterford school districts!
Via Journal Times:
New federal requirements that foods sold in schools be healthier have some area school districts opting out of the federal lunch program that provides subsidies for serving free or reduced-price meals to low-income students.
Opting out means the districts do not have to follow food healthiness requirements. But it also means the districts lose federal money that covers the cost of free and reduced-price meals for poorer students.
The Waterford Graded and Waterford High School districts have weighed their options and decided they’d rather forego the money and serve what they want. They’ll continue to cover the costs of low-income students’ meals — likely by spending less on fruits and vegetables that students simply throw away, and by serving slightly less healthy but overall tastier meals to increase lunch participation among paying students, officials from those districts said. […]
The National School Lunch Program previously required participating schools make lunches healthier by doing things like serving more fruit and a greater variety of vegetables; offering only low- or non-fat milk; and eliminating trans fat. Further requirements for the 2014-15 school year will limit sodium and require all grains be “whole-grain rich,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Additional changes that take effect in July will apply similar requirements to other food sold at schools during the school day, like items in the a la carte lunch line or in vending machines, according to the USDA.
Those changes would be especially problematic for Waterford High School. A coffee shop run by special education students would likely have to close given the calories and sugars in specialty coffee drinks, Brandstetter said. The school’s a la carte revenue would also likely decline, according to Taher, the high school’s food service vendor.