I have been involved in school lunch reform for 16 years.  My current title is Corporate Chef, K-12 Segment at a company that sells rice, grains and legumes.  In July, we exhibited at the School Nutrition Association’s Annual Conference for the fifth year in a row.  And while...Read more

School food vendors are promoting their new, exciting products for school lunch and breakfast – and they're not exactly healthy. It doesn't take a detective to see what's going on here. Food companies are changing the formulas of their junk food so they meet U. S. Department of Agriculture standards for school...Read more

​This year, the Child Nutrition Act is up for reauthorization, and special interest groups are already lobbying Congress to roll back crucial progress in the fight for healthier school food for all children. This blogpost provides insight into why one group that represents school food professionals would ask for...Read more

Healthy school food has been part of the national debate for the past six years, but this week the level of partisan politics is showcased in The New York Times Magazine article, “How School Lunch Became the Latest Political Battleground.”  In our school food drama, the School Nutrition Association...Read more

Chef Ann Cooper brings us back to school in her U. S. News & World Report blog by highlighting three schools that are meeting the new USDA guidelines through creative and innovative strategies. She also updates us on congressional legislation that impacts school food. Read the blogpost: "Back to School and Back to the...Read more

In previous U. S. News & World Report blogposts, Chef Ann outlined the drawbacks to congressional legislation that would allow schools to opt out of USDA school food guidelines. Here, she explains how this could be the first step to dismantling the Child Nutrition Act (aka the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids...Read more

In this U. S. News & World Report blogpost, Chef Ann continues her discussion of congressional legislation that would allow struggling schools to opt out of healthier USDA school food requirements, which would ensure that the schools that need the most help will be the ones left behind. Read the...Read more

In the spring of 2014, the House of Representatives introduced a bill that would allow schools to opt out of USDA school food guidelines. In this blogpost from U. S. News & World Report, Chef Ann explains how this new strategy of subverting the USDA's authority erodes the infrastructure that...Read more

Food waste and increasing school food costs are the two most common arguments against the healthier USDA school food guidelines. In this blogpost from U. S. News & World Report, Chef Ann offers up a solution: nutrition education. Read the blogpost: "Why Kids Are Eating Fewer School Meals and...Read more

By Chef Ann Cooper & Chef Beth CollinsWhy are potatoes and the proposed meal patterns for school breakfast and lunch making headlines in Colorado?In August Senator Udall and Susan Collins (R-ME) sent a letter to the Senate agricultural appropriators urging them to add language to the FY2012 spending bill that states: ​None of the...Read more

The Institute of Medicine recommended them and now the USDA is putting them on paper! Here are a list of the following changes the USDA will be upholding for the 2012-2013 school year as a result of the Reauthorization 2010 (this is the projected date). Use this guide to help make the transition easier...Read more