By: Dayle Hayes Date: 1/28/11
It’s an incredibly busy time in the nutrition world. With the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans being released next week and major nutrition announcements from food manufacturers, it’s hard to keep up from day to day!
If you work in school nutrition, the major news was the release on January 13, 2011, of USDA’s Proposed Rule on Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. According to USDA, these proposed requirements “will raise standards for the first time in fifteen years and will make critical changes to school meals and help improve the health and nutrition of nearly 32 million kids that participate in school meal programs every school day, an important component of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative”.
The proposed standards are based on School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children, a 2009 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report. Overall, the changes represent critical ways to upgrade school meals and address both weight problems and nutrient gaps in American youth.
There is obviously broad support for guidelines to:
o Increase whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and fat-free/low-fat dairy foods
o Limit calories, saturated fat, trans fat, and sodium appropriately for young people
o Provide training, technical assistance, and monitoring as schools implement changes beginning in the 2012-2013 school year
This is a proposed rule, meaning that USDA is seeking input from the public for 90 days through April 13, 2011. Anyone can review the proposed Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs and offer comments at www.regulations.gov. This web-based portal is designed to make it easy for citizens to participate in the Federal rulemaking process.
I’ll admit that it takes a while to wade through the 195-page document and, as with anything this comprehensive, the devil is in a few of the details. While supporting the overall goals, those who work in school nutrition ‘trenches’ will be commenting about some concerns including:
o Sufficient funding for increases in more expensive food items, including whole grain products and fresh produce: For example, the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act provides only a 6 cents per lunch increase.
o Overly restrictive rules on some vegetables (corn, peas, and white potatoes): While fried potato products should certainly be limited, menu items like baked potato bars, roasted potatoes, snap peas, and local corn are very appealing to students and bring customers to school cafeterias.
The great news is that school districts all across the country are already way ahead of the curve in implementing many of the changes proposed in Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Delicious examples are featured as Tray of the Day for Student Success on School Meals That Rock.
The beautiful tray shown here is from Willamette High, Bethel School District in Eugene, Oregon. On January 14, 2011, Jennie Kolpak, RD, and this Nutrition Services staff served this yummy Chicken and Cheese Quesadilla hot and fresh off the panini grill (using locally produced whole wheat tortillas from Carmen's Tortilla Factory), with a fruit medley, mixed salad with homemade low-fat ranch dressing, and low-fat milk. What a delicious way to put guidelines into action – and keep teens out of the local fast food drive-thru or convenience store!
Dayle Hayes, MS, RD, president of Nutrition for the Future, Inc., blogs at Nutrition for the Future. She is currently the Chair of the School Nutrition Services Dietetic Practice Group of the American Dietetic Association and also Co-Chair of Billings Action for Healthy Kids in her hometown of Billings, Montana.