First Lady Michelle Obama Will Unveil New School Nutrition Standards During Virginia Event

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and celebrity chef Rachael Ray will join Mrs. Obama at Parklawn Elementary School to debut long-awaited guidelines...
UPDATE, Jan. 25: CLICK HERE FOR FULL POST ABOUT THE EVENT
First Lady Michelle Obama's first Let's Move! event of 2012 will be on Wednesday, January 25th, when she joins Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to unveil USDA's new nutrition standards for school meals. Improving America's school lunches is one of the five key pillars of Mrs. Obama's childhood obesity campaign, which marks its second anniversary in February. The standards will be unveiled during a visit to Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia, where celebrity chef Rachael Ray, a longtime supporter of Mrs. Obama's campaign, will join the cafeteria staff to cook a model school lunch.

Mrs. Obama and the Secretary will dine on the healthy feast with the kids after making remarks. The nutrition standards are part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act signed into law by President Obama in December of 2010. About 32 million children receive free or reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program, which is responsible for up to half of kids' daily calorie intake, according to USDA and the White House. A summary of the Act [PDF].

The First Lady's visit to Parklawn is designed to illustrate that many schools are already providing excellent school lunches for children, even before the new nutrition standard has become law. Parklawn has been recognized by USDA in the HealthierUs School Challenge, a program that rewards schools for best-practices in food and fitness initiatives.

"Mrs. Obama and Secretary Vilsack will see firsthand how schools like Parklawn have undertaken creative efforts to provide healthy food and nutrition education for students ahead of the new standards," the White House said.

USDA notes that "the new standards make the same kinds of changes that many parents are already encouraging at home, including ensuring kids are offered fruits and vegetables every day of the week, substantially increasing offerings of whole grain-rich foods, offering only fat-free or low-fat milk varieties and making sure kids are getting proper portion sizes."

The proposed USDA nutrition rule was unveiled in January 2011, and received more than 130,000 comments during the public comment period. In December of 2011, as Mrs. Obama marked the one-year anniversary of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act becoming law, she vowed to take "bold steps" to ensure the child nutrition legislation is implemented properly.

"As we celebrate the many accomplishments of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act's first year, we also pledge to continue taking bold steps forward to advance this goal," Mrs. Obama said.

Mrs. Obama made her pledge because by the end of 2011, Congress had made two efforts to weaken the new rule, the first significant change to school nutrition standards in more than 15 years. Congress declared pizza sauce a vegetable, and also ensured that white potatoes and other starchy vegetables could be served in unlimited quantities during the school week.

Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass told Obama Foodorama that he believes the new nutrition rule will be strong, despite Congressional interventions.

"In the end the nutrition standards are going to be raised significantly," Kass said. "There will be more resources for schools, and we're going to be well on our way to really dramatically improving school lunch."

Kevin Concannon, Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, will also be at the 11:15 AM event.

In 2010, the White House unveiled a before-and-after school lunch menu, created to show how school meals would change under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

On January 26th, Mrs. Obama travels to Florida to promote MiPlato, the Spanish-language of USDA's MyPlate icon. She'll also attend two Campaign 2012 fundraisers in Florida. On Feb. 9, Mrs. Obama kicks off a three-day multi-state tour to celebrate the second anniversary of the Let's Move! campaign. Her first stop is in Des Moines, Iowa.

*Photo by Edie Gehman Kohan/Obama Foodorama