This is for
vending machines that the students pay for themselves, using
money provided to them by thier parents. The
feds have nothing to do with them, they are via
arrangements with the local schools themselves.
Provided meals are a seperate issue.
(My bold)
Most children pick the saltiest, sweetest, fattiest food they can find. The whole point to schools is to teach - & good nutrition is teachable. Vending machine food/drink is - left to its own devices - profitable & bad for you. Yah, the parents pay for the stuff, & then pay for the dental, obesity, weak bones, poor posture & on & on. If they don't pay directly through their own health insurance, we all pay through Medicare/Medicaid. & in fact we can't keep up - as fat/salt/sugar took off in processed food in the '60s, the rate of high BP, cardiac problems, obesity & etc. ballooned right along with our children & adolescents. That trend isn't sustainable.
Vending machines are a money-maker for local schools. I sympathize with the schools, but killing our children in slow motion so that the band can have new uniforms is not an acceptable tradeoff. Bad food & drink simply shouldn't be available in the schools.
Furthermore, the earlier that children take to salty/fatty/oversweetened food/drink, the more salt/fat/sweet they demand, making the problems worse & accelerating. It's possible to "reset" children's tastebuds, but it's best done ASAP, when they're still young. Then their appetite for salt/fat/sweet drops back to more natural levels.
Separate meals - free or reduced breakfast/lunch prices - are meant to improve educational outcomes. It's not a question of coddling our children with tacos & pizza & whatnot - it's providing protein & carbs in reasonable proportion & portions, so that our students aren't distracted from learning by hunger.