SAN ANTONIO — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced two proposals today, Jan. 17, that are two provide school and summer food service operators more flexibility with food offerings at their schools, according to a news release from the U.S.D.A.

Under the school meals proposed rule, school nutrition professionals are to have more flexibility, according to a press release.

The proposed rule also encourages state and local operators to focus resources on feeding children rather than administrative paperwork, the release said. 

In a statement, Secretary Perdue noted the reforms come as school districts report abundances of food waste and a need for flexibility to provide nutritious and appetizing meals. 

“Our proposed changes empower schools to give their very best to our children nationwide and have the potential to benefit nearly 100,000 schools and institutions that feed 30 million children each school day through USDA’s school meal programs,” said Secretary Perdue. 

The school meals proposed rule, according to the U.S.D.A. is to:

• Allow local schools to offer more vegetable varieties.

• Make it easier for schools to offer school lunch entrees for a la carte purchase.

• Provide schools options to customize meal patterns to best serve children in different grades or smaller schools who eat together.

• Support a more customized school breakfast environment by letting schools adjust fruit servings, make it simpler to offer meats/meat alternates, and encourage breakfast options outside the cafeteria.

• Shift to a performance-focused administrative review process .

USDA also proposed another rule with customer-focused reforms to the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), which serves more than 2.6 million children during the summer months, when they are at higher risk of food insecurity and poor nutrition because they do not have access to school meals.

The summer feeding rule is to:

• Provide more flexibility in choosing meal offerings, meal service times, and allowing children to take certain nonperishable food items offsite.

• Grant flexibility in order to reduce paperwork and streamline the application process.

• Balance program integrity and flexibility with stronger monitoring to help sponsors maximize their resources

• Clarify performance standards and eligibility requirements for sites