Bangor schools will stick to more demanding nutrition standards for school lunches even as the federal government officially relaxes them next month.

New guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that take effect in February will ease up on some school nutrition guidelines first established during the Obama administration. Under the Trump administration’s new rule, schools can serve items that include low-fat chocolate milk and white bread that have been banned since 2012 in favor of more nutritious alternatives.





School districts will have the option of continuing with the higher nutrition standards, and Bangor is one of the districts that will keep adhering to the 2012 standards.

“We plan to continue exactly what we’ve been doing all along,” Food Services Director Noelle Scott said. “So these changes won’t affect us.”

Under the new guidelines, schools will be able to offer flavored low-fat milk as an alternative to fat-free milk. Whole-grain rich food will only be mandatory in half of all weekly meals, instead of at every meal, which will allow for the use of less nutritious refined grains. School districts will still be required to continue lowering sodium levels in meals, but they can do so more slowly under the Trump administration’s new rule, reaching target levels later.