According to the Huffington Post, the United States Congress voted to rebuke new USDA guidelines for school lunches that would have increased the amount of fresh fruit and vegetable in school cafeterias and instead declared that the tomato paste on frozen pizza qualified it as a vegetable.

The first thing that came to mind after reading about this new legislation was that this directly affects children of low income communities where children qualify for the free lunch program, and might I add, where obesity is more prevalent among children.

Is the health of children not worth investing in more fruits and vegetables for school lunches? Furthermore, wouldn’t it make more sense to Congress to invest in preventative measures by providing healthier foods at schools rather than having to pay for the costs of treating obesity?

It seems that Congress isn’t protecting the interest of children, but rather large food corporations.

Kierra Bussey can be reached at kierrajb@temple.edu.