The Center for Science in the Public Interest announced Thursday it fears members of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee will try to make changes to the school meals program rules next week — and that the organization is launching a national petition drive to discourage the subcommittee members from making any changes in the way the Agriculture Department has written rules for the program.

Margo Wooton
“Some members of Congress are playing politics with our children’s health,” Margo Wooton, CSPI nutrition director, wrote on the petition website Change.org.

“We expect they will act on Tuesday, May 20 to gut nutrition standards through the appropriations process,” she wrote.

“They might say they just want to provide schools with a little more ‘flexibility,’ but their changes would roll back standards on salt, whole grains, fruits/vegetables, and snacks. These are the same people who legislated that pizza is a vegetable (because it contains a little tomato sauce)!”

Wooton urged people to sign the petition or write their own letters.

Marion Nestle, the New York University nutrition professor, also urged readers of her Food Politics blog to sign the petition.

In what she called an alert to stop congressional micromanagement of school nutrition standards, Nestle wrote, “Congressional interference with school nutrition standards is looming large on the horizon.”

▪ Change.org — Congress: Stop Playing Politics with Kids’ Health
▪ Center for Science in the Public Interest
▪ Food Politics — Stop congressional micromanagement of school nutrition standards