Does USDA Mean "Ultra Silly Dietary Agenda?"

Marion Nestle has written an extremely informative post about the history and politics of the school lunch program. You can read it here: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2010/04/eating-liberally-the-child-nutrition-act/

Essentially, the school lunch program was developed to use up surplus agricultural commodities by feeding hungry kids (remember back then kids actually suffered from malnourishment here in the US). So while feeding kids was a side benefit, the real goal was to get rid of agricultural surpluses (driving up prices).

So feeding kids properly was never a goal of the school lunch program, and the problem has only gotten worse as time has progressed. Special interests have intervened to the point were it's impossible to serve kids "real" food, and so schools have to rely on overly processed foods to meet the standards.