LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Department of Education is asking the federal government to ease some nutritional guidelines schools must follow for their meals.
The department said if the federal government grants the waiver, it gives school districts more control on what they can feed communities.
Schools across Michigan are handing out sack lunches while they are closed because of the coronavirus.
Those meals are a lot like school lunches and have to follow the same federal guidelines.
But, the Michigan Department of Education is looking to the future and the possibility some food groups might be harder to get.
The Lansing School District said nothing is changing for the meals it is handing out.
"It will essentially allow us to provide flexibility to locals in the types of the food they provide to their families and students," said Kyle Guerrant, Michigan Deputy Superintendent of Finance and Operations.
"We're still using the Department of Agriculture requirements in terms of you have to have vegetable, fruit and those types of things. If they relaxed those rules, I'm not sure much we would change," said Lansing interim superintendent Sam Sinicropi.
If the USDA grants the waiver for Michigan, the Department of Ed said the meals will still be healthy and not junk food.
There are more than a thousand meal pickup sites across Michigan.
The Department of Education has a map for them.
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