L10.17.4 School Meal Nutrition Act

[Esteemed Jimmy]

School Meal Nutrition Act

1). All fluid milk served during school meals must be whole milk, not reduced fat or fat-free. Other dairy products should be full-fat.
2). Schools are prohibited from serving trans fats in meals.
3). Entrees should not contain more than 10% calories from saturated fats.
4). Serving unsaturated fats shall not be restricted.
5). All "low-fat" foods are to be replaced with their full-fat variants.
6). Sodium in school entrees should not exceed 600mg.
7). Diet sodas should not be served by schools. Replacement with regular sodas is recommended.
. It is recommended that schools serve low amounts of added sugars.
9). Added sugars in school meals should need exceed 12.5 grams.
10). Refined grains may be served.
11). Schools should make fruit/vegetable sides available. It should be allowed to serve them with butter/dips/sauces.
12). Schools must have entrees available for students with nut, dairy, gluten, and shellfish allergies. Not all entrees must comply these requirements.
13). Schools can not be held liable for food allergy outbreaks from school meals unless an allergen-free option was not made available.
14). This bill takes effect at the start of the 2018-19 school year.

Author/Sponsor: Ninja0428

I open the floor for debate. The sponsor has 36 hours to argue in favor of this bill.

[Sirius_]

Real quick please add a space between the 8 and the ).

[Sirius_]

Current school meal nutritional requirements are based upon misconceptions, primarily the one that fat is the main cause of obesity. Our current standards are failing at curbing child obesity because they promote the usage of low-fat foods which generally contain more sugars, the actual culprit. Child obesity is a legitimate issue that we can fix by providing the healthiest meals possible, and the standards I have proposed actually accomplish that. It also addresses food allergies so that families can take advantage of reimbursed school lunch programs no matter what the allergy needs of their child is. I hope that we can pass this bill and provide meals that are satisfactory to both the nutritional needs of our children as well as their flavor palettes.

[Wells]

I like this bill and what it tries to do but is mandating whole milk the best option here? It's basically the other end of the extreme. Perhaps allowing choice of milk by the school/student is better. Section 8 also sounds a little weak. Simply "recommending" something is useless; instead, we should set an exact cap on the amount of added sugar. Which by reading the next part I see you did, making Section 8 even more unnecessary. Those are the easiest and least controversial fixes. There are also other issues like Section 13, which I think doesn't account for scenarios in which the school may still be at fault even if they supplied a non-allergy option.

The rest is all good.

[Sirius_]

I like this bill and what it tries to do but is mandating whole milk the best option here? It's basically the other end of the extreme. Perhaps allowing choice of milk by the school/student is better. Section 8 also sounds a little weak. Simply "recommending" something is useless; instead, we should set an exact cap on the amount of added sugar. Which by reading the next part I see you did, making Section 8 even more unnecessary. Those are the easiest and least controversial fixes. There are also other issues like Section 13, which I think doesn't account for scenarios in which the school may still be at fault even if they supplied a non-allergy option.

Whole milk has been found to be healthier than reduced fat milk. I really don't know what the middle is. I also don't think that children will really be able to make an informed decision about which milk to get. We can remove section 8, it's a bit redundant. Section 13 was made so that schools can't be held liable when a student picks out a lunch that they know will give them a reaction but we could re-word that as it does cover a bit too much. Thanks for the input.

[Sirius_]

I amend my bill:

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[Sirius_]

I motion for cloture.

[Esteemed Jimmy]

I motion for cloture.

Seconded.

[Esteemed Jimmy]

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All assembly members please vote aye, nay, or abstain.

[Esteemed Jimmy]

Aye

[Sirius_]

Aye

[Wells]

Nay, I really don't think forcing people to eat more fat is all that helpful, even if the rest are genuinely great things. That one part is bad.

[Esteemed Jimmy]

By a vote of 2-1-0, this bill passes and will be sent to the governor.

[Red Tory Indy]

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All assembly members please vote aye, nay, or abstain.