WASHINGTON — While pleased that new guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for school meals do not restrict servings of potatoes, members of the potato industry and some members of the state’s congressional delegation expressed concern Thursday that the spud is taking a back seat to other vegetables.
The final round of rules for government-subsidized school meals issued on Wednesday adds more fruits and green vegetables to meals while reducing salt and fat. About 32 million children participate in school meal programs each day. The rules are the first changes in 15 years to the $11 billion school lunch program.
When the USDA first proposed the new nutrition guidelines last year, it sought to limit servings of starchy vegetables in the National School Lunch Program. It also sought to ban them from the School Breakfast Program altogether.
Starchy vegetables include potatoes, green peas, lima beans and corn.
Saying that the USDA was unfairly targeting the potato, U.S. Sen Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Democratic 2nd District U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud wrote letters to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to address the issue.
In November 2011, the Senate approved a 2012 agriculture funding bill that included a bipartisan amendment written by Collins. The wording of the amendment blocked the USDA from limiting potatoes and gave the USDA flexibility to regulate the preparation of potatoes when it issued the final version of its new school nutrition guidelines.
But Snowe said in a statement late Wednesday evening that the USDA chose a “backdoor approach” with the new rules that requires schools to meet all other fruit and vegetable requirements before serving more than one cup of starchy vegetables each week in order to be eligible for reimbursement by the federal government.
Snowe called the move “disappointing after Congress made it clear in November that limitations on potato consumption should be removed when they are served in a healthy manner.”
“The USDA chose a backdoor approach that reduces the flexibility in providing affordable and nutritional meals when our public schools already face constrained budgets,” she continued.
Rep. Michaud said he was relieved that the new standards did not remove potatoes from school lunches, but he remained skeptical about the cost of implementing the new changes in an era of extreme belt tightening in schools. He said he would urge the USDA to re-evaluate the new rule if concerns arose from potato producers or school lunch administrators.
Collins said she was “generally pleased” with the new standards, but was concerned that the rule for the School Breakfast Program “does not fully reflect the intent of our amendment.”
“While USDA would no longer ban certain vegetables, such as potatoes, from the breakfast program, as it originally proposed to do, the overly prescriptive nature of the rule may continue to limit the flexibility of local schools and increase costs,” said Collins.
The USDA estimates that the cost of preparing each school lunch will rise by 11 cents under the new rules because schools will be preparing more fresh food and labor will rise. The cost of each breakfast will go up 28 cents. The federal government will chip in 6 cents per lunch to help schools meet the standards.
The National Potato Council also was appreciative of the new rules but still somewhat displeased.
Spokesman Mark Szymanski said that the group feels that the potato “is being downplayed in favor of other vegetables in the new guidelines.”
“It seems the department still considers the potato a second-class vegetable,” he continued.
Tim Hobbs, director of development and grower relations for the Maine Potato Board, said Thursday that the new rule was issued to get around the amendment made by Collins.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “The potato is just as healthy as other vegetables.”
One medium-size baked potato has 110 calories and provides 620 milligrams of potassium if eaten with the skin, according to figures from the Presque Isle-based Maine Potato Board. It also contains more vitamin C than one medium tomato and has 15 percent of the daily recommended intake of dietary fiber.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From now on potatoes will be healthy. We are going to use vegetable oil to fry them !
Except now vegetable oil’s first ingredient is GMO soy.
That takes soy away from the vegetable list. However I was trying to make lite of the fact. There still french fries !
I don’t understand how this is a bad thing.
I don’t get it either. It’s kind of crazy : (
In most school lunches, 50 years ago, potatoes and the white bread and butter were the only things worth eating.
strange, I don’t think schools in Maine served school lunches back then. you brought it from home in a paper bag or ‘cool’ lunch box ….
They did and it was mostly Government subsidized surplus stuff same as they gave out prior to food stamps.
They had lunches back then. I’m here to tell you that potatoes and bread and butter was usually the only safe thing to try. That in a nutshell is why the brown bag lunches were taken. Mom usually put a pb&j sandwich in for you.
Yes and there wasn’t all that many “Fat” kids (for those that will, don’t bother telling me that this is not PC, I don’t care) back then, they got outside and did stuff as well as worked.
Well at least they’ve got a lima bean limit.
Couscous and veggie burgers, that will make the kids lose weight, because they wont touch the stuff…..
This is Mrs. Obama’s policy in action, plain and simple.
While I agree that the potato is being unfairly targeted as a result of its preparation not its actual nutritional value, I’m not sure why one would argue that the government should be providing school children with terribly unhealthy food options.
How did our generation ever survive to old age without the Do-gooders and Mrs. Obama saving us from ourselves? You may call a POTATO “TERRIBLY” unhealthy I do not.
You are apparently having trouble comprehending my comment. I never said the potato is unhealthy, I said the way that it as been served to students (fried) is unhealthy. No one is telling you what you can eat or what to feed your children, they are simply attempting to offer a healthy meal to school children in public schools.
Damn that Obama, trying to get kids to eat more healthy.
I don’t know how our country made it 236 years without her! Thank god she is here to save us all.
See, this has nothing to do with food and everything to do with hate. Pathetic!!!!!!!! and typical for republicans.
Name calling, very typical for democrats. What did I write that was in anyway hateful? I will be happy to accept your apology.
he does not give a Damn, About your White kids.
who said my kids are white? Me thinks you are a racist!
nice to see someone besides me knows waht this arrogant HAG is pushing.
My kids complain about the school lunches and wish there were veggie burgers and couscous.
Most kids love couscous.
….
Absolutely insane! Potatoes are a vegetable, find a better way of cooking them for goodness sake. Take out the HUGE chocolate chip cookies, over the top soda, and other trash for goodness sake.
well said viper 13….
Potatoes are a fattening starch with limited nutrients, all of which disappear when the potato is peeled, fried, frozen, re-fried and then plopped on to the plate of some young kid. The only way they appear in schools is in the form of a french fry, which is garbage food. Unless school kids suddenly develop an interest in eating baked potatoes, we should be giving them better choices.
I can’t even believe this is an issue? Where has the common sense gone?
there is no commonsense, remember, this is democratic leadership doing this. the hipocryte,michelle obama, look at some of the crap she tries to shove down peoples throat about eating, then read about what she always likes to eat herself. very contradictive.
Wait a second; Obama only wants kids to eat better. The cons are the ones trying their hardest to vilify him for suggesting kids should eat a little more fruits and veggies
CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!
….
and the worse being the current occupant of 1600 pa. ave in wash d.c.
This is just an example of what an over reaching enforcement bureaucracy looks like. They now check into what you put into the child’s “Brown bag” to verify it meets the standards set. Freedom is now just a myth .
It is Mrs. Obama’s menu or the highway. Sorry girls you tried but were out done by the old back door gang. (as usual)
I think it is very disheartening that we live in a state that makes it’s money off of the potato, and saying it is unhealthy for our children to eat them in school. Children for the most part only eat 1 meal a day at school. I understand they don’t want them to be served french fries, but what about the parents who take their kids or teenagers to McDonald’s? They get served more fat in a serving of fries there then they ever would at school!
I for one ate french fries a couple of times a week with my school lunch when I was in high school and middle school. I am not obese or overweight, what are they trying to say? That eating french fries during that ONE MEAL A DAY will cause them to become overweight later in life? That’s absurd! Maybe they should look at how this impact would have on the Maine economy before they make such a ridiculous statement. We live in Maine for crying out loud, home of the potato!!!
I feels very disheartened by this comment. I feel that they should look at what theses kids and teenagers eat at home before they open their mouths. I am pretty sure that the majority of these kids parents take them out to McDonald’s for a meal. A serving of fries there is way more fattening then any kind of french fries the school is going to serve them. I feel it’s an outrage to say if they eat french fries during lunch they will become obese or unhealthy. When I went to high school and middle school I ate french fries with my meals a couple of times a week. I am not overweight or obese. I am a healthy adult. We live in Maine for crying out loud! What are they thinking! The potato is our bread and butter pretty much. Only second to lobster. I understand they don’t have to serve it as french fries, they could have mashed or baked. I really don’t feels it’s a huge issue myself that our children have fries at school. For the most part they only eat 1 meal a day there. I personally feel they should ban the soft drinks, candy bars, and nacho machines that are in a lot of cafeterias around the state. Why not start there first? Let’s leave the HEALTHY potato alone!
How hard is it to make mashed potatoes? Anything fried is not healthy, hence french fried potatoes.
Moderation is the key. Repeating the notion that anything fried is not healthy does not give anyone the chance to practice moderation. Fried potatoes taste good and once in a while will not hurt most people or kids. Some of the time we need to ENJOY life and food is a part of life.
Why not offer kids fried potatoes once a week and let them enjoy it. At other times a baked potato is tasty as well as mashed potatoes. Banning the potato is ridiculous. Perhaps the government should mind its own business regarding school menus. Let parents take the initiative in helping determine what the kids eat. The federal government is overstepping its boundaries in too many ways and our freedoms are eroding quickly.
The best part is… French fries in school are baked!! LOL
Not quite. The French fries are fried by the manufacturer and then reheated in ovens at the school.
And I believe in school they have boxed mashes potatoes?? I’d much prefer a real potato
Your in luck. Write to Senator Collins. She will autograph one and send it to you.
The term vegetable is archaic, it describes that a plant is edible and nothing else.
Seriously this outrages me!! My son is 9 and very small!! He had a feeding tube for years and needs high fat intake!! So to make all the choices based on the over weight children is absolutely ridiculous!! Maybe they should bend the rules for skinny people!! Seriously!! I understand I can pack a cold lunch… My point is… because some kids are fat they have to make everything low fat… Shouldn’t they make everything fattening for the skinny kids?? To make it “fair” for one you always make it “unfair” to the others!
I would also like to add that my third grade son came home from school last week saying he had cherry coke!! Hello!! How many people would rather their children have potatoes?? Not to mention he has a heart issue and cafeine is very bad for him!! And when he told his teacher his mom and dad didn’t let him have that she replied with every now and again is ok and proceeded to give him a whole frickin’ can!!
The government should not be setting the rules for what your children eat. The government wants to take it from the taxpayer, then give it to only schools that will follow the guidelines the government sets. What and who gave the federal government the right to determine what your kids eat? Big brother will probably next target your kitchen to see the kind of meals you prepare at home then start to tell you that YOU are the problem.
Michelle rattles her mouth saber and the government and everyone else must listen to her idea of what is good and what is bad. When will parents wake up and stop the nanny state from telling them how to raise their kids? It had better be soon.
Perhaps schools should serve alcohol and cigarettes to students as well, why should the government be telling parents how much their children can drink and smoke?
Perhaps you are not thinking clearly at all—-it is up to parents to raise their children well with good manners and morals. Are you telling me that without the government interference in your life, you do not know how to raise a child. Then you should be ashamed of yourself.
Think about what you say and how you say it because in trying to be sarcastic, you make of fool of yourself.
By the way, I was raised without as much government interference as you were probably raised.
I’m not sure how offering a healthy meal to students is interfering in the way you raise your child. If you insist on providing unhealthy food that has been proven to be detrimental to long-term health to your children that is your prerogative, no one is forcing you to do otherwise.
The sarcastic comment simply illustrates the lunacy of your argument. Demanding that schools provide unhealthy meals to school children as opposed to healthy ones is mind boggling. Perhaps it is you who should be ashamed of such an illogical position.
P.S. I was raised by bears in the great north woods free of all government interference, except for the radio collars they used to track my bear brethren.
You are quite the character. First, you take my comment and decide that you think I want alcohol served. I never said anything like that at all. I believe that most parents know how to parent and feed a family. Offering healthy choices is not the same as forcing everyone to eat only one cup of all starches per week. Whose idea of healthy is that? Who made that decision? Potatoes are not necessarily reheated French fries, yet, they would be almost abolished in a public school cafeteria. No lunacy exists in my comment or argument. You should be ashamed of your inability to accept the logical viewpoints of another person who believes in freedom of choice in terms of the right of a parent to determine good food for their own children.
PS Read about socialism. You might want to begin with Karl Marx. Perhaps you may get caught up in his argument. But, most of us who want to make choices and enjoy the opportunities that freedom provides would not succumb to propaganda, one man’s poor philosophy regarding the way life should be.
Perhaps the bears in the north woods did not teach you enough about life, especially regarding how to have manners and not infuse sarcasm into your commentary about intelligent ideas/statements of others. One usually gives up feeling that they are the center of the universe by the time they are three.
Maybe your reading comprehension was somewhat off today. Go back to my original comment and try to understand its intent. Then the next time you want to be sarcastically ignorant and flip, think again how others will perceive you.
I understand the intent of your posts. You’re insinuating that somehow providing students with one healthy meal in public schools is a way for the government to squash your freedom. You also seem to think this meal is a socialistic way to rob your children of their right and choice to eat unhealthy fried food. The point you seem to be missing is that your arguments are illogical and false. If your children want to bring unhealthy food for lunch that is their choice, but why should the public school system provide foods that are scientifically proven to pose health risks.
That being said I do feel that the potato, in general, is being unfairly targeted as a result of the most common preparation in schools (french fries), but that argument is lost in the sea of anti-government, socialist conspiracy theory rhetoric you and others are spewing.
You will never understand that you are an adult and in charge of your own life. The government should not be your parent or my parent. As an adult, I make choices for myself and that may include eating potatoes. It also includes serving my children meals which I deem to be good and healthy as well as providing them with the basic necessities of life and perhaps even a lot more including a good education. When the government tries to tell me how to raise my children, then it is being intrusive. As your freedoms are taken from you, unfortunately, you do not realize that for each part of your life that the government makes the decisions, then you are losing your freedom. Sadly, too many Americans will not realize that the intrusion on their rights to act responsibly as an adult capable of making their own decisions will eventually result in loss of many of freedoms. I am not spewing socialist rhetoric; I am observing how freedom has eroded.
Some people want to be taken care of—I personally wish to take care of myself. The federal government should be involved with infrastructure and national security. Read more. Stop parroting the media and do your own research.
I’m not sure how I can make this any clearer. No one is telling you how to raise your children. They are providing a healthy school lunch. Take it or leave it. If you don’t like the options provided by the school, pack your children a lunch. It sounds like you have an issue with schools providing lunch at all or perhaps the existence of a public school system as a whole. You claim that by providing a healthy lunch some sort of freedom has been taken from you. Yet in all of your posts you have yet to pinpoint what this supposedly stolen freedom is. Perhaps because you’ve become so enthralled in anti-government vitriol, you have lost sight of the fact that you are for some reason arguing that schools should be providing unhealthy foods rather than healthy ones.
I have not lost sight of anything. Nor am I saying that schools should serve unhealthy food. Even you agreed that the potato is being unfairly targeted. Who was it that targeted starches? I am not anti government, I am anti anyone or anything targeting good things and deciding I must agree with it. I am not sure how I can make it any clearer to you that parents are losing their rights to make decisions. Why is it that you are still not able to comprehend that in Maine the potato is not the enemy?
You’re right the potato itself is not the enemy, it is the unhealthy way in which it is prepared for students, as I have stated. You keep talking about losing these rights to make decisions, yet you still offer no examples of a right you have lost. Schools are simply offering a healthy meal. If you or your children don’t like it, you don’t have to take advantage of it, that is your right.
The schools should be offering a healthy balanced meal to students. If your child has special dietary requirements, that is an issue for you as a parent to deal with, not the school.
I think eating completely healthy is unhealthy… If parents would make their kids get off the couch and actually do something with themselves instead of watch tv perhaps it wouldn’t be as much of an issue?? Check the kids that play sports and how many of them are fat?? Maybe 1 or 2 out of the whole damn team?? Raise your kids with all healthy food and watch what they gorge on when they are older!! Seriously!! People should really stop trying to control everyones lives… Its not ok for french fries but its ok for cookies, ice cream etc… How hypocritical!!
No one is trying to control your life. Feed your kids whatever you want, just don’t expect the public school system to feed them unhealthy food.
Sigh. I’m guessing that we will soon hear cries of protest and outrage from the cauliflower and broccolli growers because they’re not being equally represented by our legislators……
1984 came and went, that book should have been titled 2012 because the government as big brother or NANNY is watching and orchestrating and taking our rights away. Parents should be the ones to decide what the kids eat, not the government.
Moderation is the key in all things, but from the way this mandate is written, the feds want to oust the potato almost entirely. If fried potatoes were offered once a week, that would not cause obesity. Plus potatoes could also be offered baked or mashed to the kids. OMG, but that would mean more than a cup of starchy veggies in a week. If you add peas or corn or lima beans to the menu, that would be way over the government limit for starchy veggies. Doesn’t this mandate now look even more ridiculous.
The feds need to get a grip, but the government is not in the habit of giving up power it has already assumed. The hungry federal government will just take more and more until it tells all of us what to do and what to eat. After all, it already is taking more taxes than it should and spending money it does not have. Parents, take back your rights.
Actually, all Americans need to take back their rights and freedoms before we will not be allowed to make any choices for ourselves.
A balanced diet will mean a diminishment of spuds in the starch crazed menus of so many school systems. I can live with that. More importantly kids can too, and will live longer and healthier lives. When potato politics and nutrition scratched each others backs in the 19th century we had the Irish potato famine. Now it is conspiring for the triumph of obese children riddled with early onset diabetes and the re election of Senator Potato, who voted against health reform.
Soon you will see more regulations on what we can eat. What do you expect when you put an idiot in office you get what you get.
what you you expect when you have someone going through the back door to do what they want. Soon she will be telling you what you can and cannot eat. She will use her race to get away with it.