School cafeterias, vending machines trading sugar, fat for more healthful fare, By Lenny Bernstein, September 27, 2013, Washington Post: “Any parent who has fixed a nutritious school lunch only to find it untouched in a backpack the next morning will be heartened by new federal rules that will take effect in schools nationwide in the fall of 2014. That’s when laws will require school vending machines, stores and ‘a la carte’ lunch menus to provide only healthful foods. So if a child hits the cafeteria line for pizza, the cheese on that slice will be relatively low in fat and sodium and the crust probably will be made from whole grains. And snackers will find nuts, granola bars and water in vending machines instead of candy bars, potato chips and sugary sodas…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty