Giving Compass' Take:

• Nicolas Jammet argues that the USDA's rollback of nutritional standards for school meals will negatively impact the health of American children. 

• How can funders work to ensure that children have the best chance to lead to healthy lives? 

• Learn about a program teaching students about healthy food. 

The United States Department of Agriculture is turning its back on America’s 30 million schoolchildren by making their school meals less healthy.

This month, the department is rolling back nutritional standards on school lunch for millions of kids. Established in 2010, these standards were championed by former first lady Michelle Obama as part of the bipartisan Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, and they required more whole grains, lower sodium levels, and more fruits and vegetables in our nation’s school lunches. These changes, implemented in 2012, were based on recommendations from pediatricians, nutritionists, and school food experts—and brought school meals into the modern era by making the most revolutionary updates to the nutrition standards since the 1970s. A recent study by the USDA demonstrated that the majority of U.S. schools were serving healthier meals thanks to the 2010 legislation.

Despite this evidence—and in defiance of nutrition and pediatric experts —the USDA is now allowing schools to ease up on the restrictions to sodium, serve more refined grains, and bring back sugary, flavored milk. With more than 10 million students on track to develop diet-related diseases, we think kids deserve better.

Read the full article about lowering nutritional standards for school meals by Nicolas Jammet at FastCompany.