Perdue defends school lunch 'freeze'

PERDUE DEFENDS SCHOOL LUNCH ‘FREEZE,’ ASKS SNA FOR HELP: Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday celebrated and defended the Trump administration's recent controversial move to relax some of the school-nutrition standards championed by former first lady Michelle Obama. Perdue was in friendly territory as he spoke to the crowd of some 7,000 professionals at the School Nutrition Association’s annual conference in Atlanta. The crowd cheered, applauded and laughed as Perdue told them that he believed they know much more about their communities and kids than Washington does.

What rollback? Perdue was adamant that the administration’s new policy isn't a step backward (health advocates and Michelle Obama disagree). “Some have said in the press, as you’ve read, that we’re ‘rolling back’, [that] these rules ‘roll back progress.’ I don’t agree with that,” Perdue said. “We’re freezing things in place to help us evaluate what the palatability, what the acceptance of these changes have been and to reduce the burdens on schools to get you back to feeding kids and not doing paperwork so much anymore.”

http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-agriculture/2017/07/13/perdue-defends-school-lunch-freeze-221308