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The U.S. Agriculture Department would regulate all food sold in schools - not just cafeteria meals - when Congress reauthorizes child nutrition programs, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee said Tuesday.

Chairman Tom Harkin said giving the USDA authority over all food in schools will ensure junk food does not undermine nutrition programs, according to Reuters.

School food directors on Long Island and across the country have complained that snacks sold outside their cafeterias, such as in vending machines and student stores, undermine their efforts to serve healthy meals.

Among the findings of a Newsday series last fall examining school food programs across the Island was that districts earn thousands of dollars in vending machine commissions from companies such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Some districts receive scoreboards or other athletic equipment in those deals.

The USDA currently oversees school meals, but not snacks sold separately in the cafeteria. Many Long Island districts have taken steps on their own the make snacks healthier, but food service directors say they do so at the risk of losing revenue.

A major finding of the Newsday series was that school food programs struggle to stay afloat financially because they are forced to operate mostly independently from their district's budget. That leads food programs to rely on the sale of snacks.

Meanwhile, nutrition experts have been critical of the USDA's outdated standards for school meals, which have not been upgraded since the mid-1990s. The USDA is working with the Institute of Medicine to upgrade the standards.

"I don't think the USDA guidelines are strong enough anyhow," said Ann Cooper, the interim director for nutrition services for the Boulder Valley district in Colorado, who is known for pioneering changes in school cafeterias. "But it would be a good start."

Cooper, who formerly ran food programs in the Berkeley, Calif., district and for the Ross School in East Hampton, said USDA regulation of all food would at least put cafeteria meals on the same playing field as snacks sold elsewhere on campus.

"Right now, vending machines can have all manner of junk in them," she said.

Sharon Gardner, food service director for Hempstead schools, said the district's vending machines have healthier snacks such as baked chips and low-fat cookies. USDA oversight, she said, would be welcome but would have little impact on Hempstead's cafeterias, because she does not sell many snack items.