Title: Ketchup as a vegetable - Wikipedia
Headings: Ketchup as a vegetable
Ketchup as a vegetable
Contents
Summary
Legislative history
National School Lunch Act
Child Nutrition Act
Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1980
Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981
Food and Nutrition Service proposed regulations
Overall goals
Section I: removing red tape in record keeping & streamlining administration
Section II: meal crediting
School choice in crediting food alternates: pickle relish as a vegetable
Quantity reductions
Reaction
Ketchup
Changes in income eligibility
Diluting nutrition
Results
Similar efforts
See also
References

Content: Building upon these reductions, the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981 (passed as the Gramm-Latta Budget) made further spending cuts to the Federal School Lunch Program decreasing its fiscal year 1982 budget by 25 percent. To administer the requirements made by both Omnibus Reconciliation Acts of 1980 and 1981, the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) was tasked with proposing ways to implement the regulations while maintaining nutritional requirements for school lunches despite the lower funding. Among the recommendations made by the Food and Nutrition Service 's September 3, 1981 Regulations was a proposal to give local school lunch administrators flexibility in accrediting substitute food items that met FNS nutritional requirements and regulations. The report stated an item could not be counted as a bread that was not enriched or whole-grain, "but could credit a condiment such as pickle relish as a vegetable." While ketchup was not specifically mentioned as a potential substitute, critics demonstrated outrage in Congress and in the media against the Ronald Reagan administration for cutting school lunch budgets and allowing ketchup and other condiments to count as vegetables. According to New York Times reporter Benjamin Weinraub, "the opposition had a Dickensian field day of outrage and mockery that contrasted school children's shrinking meal subsidies with the Pentagon generals' groaning board of budget increases." Legislative history
The Food and Nutrition Service proposed regulations had roots in four previous pieces of legislation: the National School Lunch Act of 1946, the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1980, and the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981. National School Lunch Act
The National School Lunch Act of 1946 established the nonprofit National School Lunch Program to ensure the health and well-being of American children and increase the domestic consumption of agricultural products and commodities. Under Section II of the National School Lunch Act, eligible students at all participating schools gained access to free or reduced-cost school lunches.