Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Since healthier standards were put in place for school meals in 2012, more fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products and whole grains have been features of the breakfasts and lunches that reach 31 million students in 100,000 schools every day.

First lady Michelle Obama, who led the effort to put healthier meals on cafeteria tables, had good intentions, and changes were necessary, given the size of the nation’s waistline and worries about obesity rates among children as well as adults.

But it turned out that too many children were put off by the new menu and were throwing away too much food.

Last week, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry approved a sensible, bipartisan bill that would reauthorize the school meals program for another five years but scale back some of the regulations.

School meals would retain the emphasis on fruits and vegetables, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture would delay until at least 2017 plans to cut back on the amount of sodium in menu items.

In addition, the department would rewrite the rules so whole grains could make up 80 percent of the lunch line instead of the current 100 percent. Some school nutrition directors have said it is difficult to get students to eat whole grain pastas and other starches.

The compromise gives schools more flexibility without gutting the improvements toward healthy cafeteria eating, and it deserves to be approved.

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