Update to this story.

First lady vows to ‘fight’ healthy school-lunch rollback – Washington Post

Sounding a new aggressive tone, first lady Michelle Obama vowed in a private conference call on Monday to fight industry efforts at rolling back healthy school-lunch standards, an issue that could come up for a vote on Capitol Hill later this week.

The remarks to health activists were made in an off-the-record conference call at the beginning of a week of intense lobbying around proposed changes in the national school-lunch program, which sets standards for fat, sugar and sodium levels in food.

“I was thrilled that the first lady pulled advocates together this morning and sounded such a strong rallying cry to fight back against efforts to weaken the school food standards,” said Margo Wootan, who lobbies on Capitol Hill and elsewhere on behalf of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

A House Appropriations bill to be considered in committee later this week would allow schools to apply for waivers if they have a net financial loss on school food programs for six months in a row.

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