The Trump administration has relaxed school lunch nutrition rules - here's what kids can now eat

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

More sugary chocolate milk, fewer whole grains, and around 300 extra milligrams of salt - these are just some of the ways the Trump Administration has relaxed school-lunch nutrition rules put in place during the Obama Administration.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who heads the US Department of Agriculture (the agency that sets school meal rules), has argued that the healthier meals fed to kids since 2012 have led some picky eaters to refuse more of the food offered at school.

"It doesn't do any good to serve nutritious meals if they wind up in the trash can," Perdue said in a statement posted on the USDA website in November.

But recent studies suggest that's not true, and that kids are now eating more vegetables and taking in less saturated fat at school (though the healthier lunches did take some getting used to).

It costs more to feed kids healthier meals, however. And with the administration set on major budget cuts - including spending less on programs that feed children, and slashing billions from their 2018 education budget - the cost-cutting effects of feeding children cheaper, processed foods may be a primary reason for the rollback.

Here's what kids across the country can get in the school lunch line under the Trump administration's relaxed rules: