The federal school meal program provides lunch, and in many cases breakfast as well, to 32 million students nationwide. For far too many of those students, the meals they receive at school are all they get to eat each day.
As part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, the U.S. Department of Agriculture revamped the nutrition mandates for the school meal program to focus on fewer calories and healthier options, including requiring servings of both fruit and vegetables at lunch instead of the previous allowance of providing one or the other. The changes, as well as the Let’s Move! physical fitness campaign, have been championed by First Lady Michelle Obama as part of her efforts to curb the national epidemic of childhood obesity.
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