Farm Action joined a coalition of farmers, parents, and food and agriculture advocates urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to focus on the quality of meat and dairy served in school meals, as it prepares to update nutrition standards in line with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). These decisions will shape what millions of students eat every day for years to come.
In a letter to USDA, the coalition warns that proposed nutrition changes under consideration—including raising protein requirements—could backfire if they don’t address how that food is produced. Increasing protein targets without improving sourcing risks locking schools further into industrial supply chains that produce heavily processed products. Students are already meeting protein requirements, the letter states. The bigger issue is overall diet quality, including too little fiber and too few minimally processed foods.
“School meals should be setting kids up for lifelong health, not reinforcing the same industrial food system that’s driving chronic disease,” said Farm Action President Angela Huffman. “This letter lays out a practical path forward: focus on real food, reduce reliance on heavily processed products, and invest in the infrastructure schools need to actually cook. If we get this right, we can support both children’s health and American farmers at the same time.”
The coalition urges USDA to prioritize a phased, commonsense approach: maintain current protein standards while strengthening sourcing rules, expanding local and regional procurement, and investing in the infrastructure schools need to prepare fresh meals. This includes strengthening farm-to-school programs, giving schools more flexibility to purchase from local producers, and building the kitchen capacity needed to cook from scratch.
By putting these pieces in place first, USDA can improve student nutrition now while building a more resilient, fair marketplace for independent farmers and ranchers—before considering whether higher protein requirements are necessary.
These steps would improve students’ nutrition while creating fairer market opportunities for independent farmers and ranchers.
