Are the New School Lunch Standards Making a Difference?

Tips SEO Pretitle:

Healthy Kids' Lunches

Tips Dek:

Midway through the school year, experts give cafeterias a report card

Short Teaser:

Midway through the school year, experts give cafeterias a report card

Tips Author By Line:

Celia Shatzman

Publication:

Fitbie

Thumbnail:

Tips Intro

Tip 0 Title:

School Lunch Menus Get a Makeover

Tip 0 Image:

Tip 0 Body:

Remember when the USDA tried to <a href="http://www.fitbie.com/eat-right/should-pizza-and-french-fries-count-vegetables-our-kids" target="_blank">pass off ketchup as a vegetable</a> in school lunches? Those days long gone thanks to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Implemented at the start of the 2012-2013 school year, this legislation requires cafeterias to serve children veggie-heavy meals with no trans fats and a cap on the amount of grains and proteins that may be dished up weekly (<a href="http://www.bing.com/search?q=Healthy%2C+Hunger-Free+Kids+Act&qs=n&form=msnfit&pq=healthy%2C+hunger-free+kids+act&sc=8-29&sp=-1&sk=" target="_blank">get the full details here</a>). “School meal standards had not been revised in over 20 years, so it was time to bring them in line with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” says Rochester, NY-based dietitian Deborah Beauvais, RD, SNS, president of the New York School Nutrition Association. At schools nationwide, many products and recipes had to be reworked to meet the new <a href="http://www.fitbie.com/slideshow/25-shockingly-low-calorie-foods" target="_blank">low-calorie food</a> guidelines.Related: <a href="http://www.prevention.com/food/smart-shopping/10-healthy-kids-snacks-and-organic-foods-parents-will-want-eat?cm_mmc=Fit_Life-_-Original-_-Mid%20Year%20School%20Lunch%20Review-_-10%20Healthy%20Kids%20Snacks%20Youll%20Love%20Too" target="_blank">Healthy kids' snacks you'll love too</a>     While the motivations are good, the program has had a few unintended consequences. Students and teachers at one Kansas high school produced a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IB7NDUSBOo" target="_blank">YouTube video</a> parody called “We Are Hungry” in protest of their newly trimmed lunches, while kids in Wisconsin <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/09/18/high-school-students-boycott-school-cafeteria-over-new-lunch-restrictions/" target="_blank">boycotted their cafeteria</a> over the changes. “School nutrition professionals around the country are doing marvelous things to work within these tight regulations, but I think that reviewing and re-evaluating their effectiveness is warranted to do the best by the kids we serve,” Beauvis says.   With school year about halfway through, we asked Beauvais and Joan Salge Blake, MS, RD, a nutrition professor at Boston University, to weigh in on the greatest successes of the program—and what still needs improvement.Related: <a href="http://etnt.eatthisnotthatbook.com/2013fitbie?keycode=220989&cm_mmc=Fitbie.com-_-Editorial%20Contextual-_-Site_Link-_-Eat_This_Not_That_2013" target="_blank">Make better food choices for your family with the help of Eat This, Not That! 2013

Tip 1

Tip 1 Title:

Success: Needy kids eat for free

Tip 1 Body:

Children whose families receive public assistance—such as food stamps and other aid programs—are automatically and immediately qualified to receive free breakfast and lunch at school. No action is required on behalf of the student’s household, making it a cinch for kids to get the meals they need—which in turn makes them better students. “We know that when a child is hungry, a child is not focusing on school,” says Blake. “And if you have a child who’s hungry and can’t focus, he or she gets distracted and becomes disruptive. If you have multiple kids in the classroom who are not well fed, everyone is having a hard time learning.”Related: <a href="http://www.fitbie.com/eat-right/tips/kids-meals-are-happier-happy-meals" target="_blank">Kids' Meals That Are Happier Than Happy Meals</a>

Tip 2

Tip 2 Title:

Success: Schools have more funding for healthy food

Tip 2 Body:

Schools earn an additional 6 cents for every meal served that meets the new nutrition requirements. While that doesn’t sound like much, it can certainly add up. “In the school that I am associated with, 6 cents per meal equates to nearly $40,000 for the year in increased subsidy to be spent on food,” Beauvais says. “Increasing the subsidy amount is a good thing. The regulations require us to serve larger portions of fruits and vegetables, thus increasing our food cost per meal.” (Related: <a href="http://www.fitbie.com/slideshow/8-fresh-foods-are-surprisingly-cheap" target="_blank">8 fresh foods that are surprisingly cheap</a>) It’s the government’s way of chipping in for schools receiving federal funds for meal programs.Video: <a href="http://www.fitbie.com/eat-right/pick-fresh-season-fruits-and-veggies" target="_blank">How to pick the best fresh fruits and veggies</a>

Tip 3

Tip 3 Title:

Success: Kids are drinking more milk

Tip 3 Body:

It’s no secret that <a href="http://www.fitbie.com/slideshow/6-dairy-products-maximum-health" target="_blank">milk does a body good</a>: Each 8-ounce serving delivers nine essential nutrients, including protein, potassium, and 300 mg of calcium—a third to quarter of the daily requirement for children. Kids who drink milk at lunch meet their daily calcium requirement, while studies show that those who avoid it are more likely to experience fractures and be overweight. Now every school meal now comes with 1 percent or fat-free milk. After much debate, kids can even opt for flavored fat-free milk. “Research shows that offering students the option of flavored milk increases consumption, whereas switching from flavored to white has the opposite effect,” says Beauvis. Though flavored milk has added calories and sugars, she continues, “Drinking fat-free flavored milk offers a huge benefit to a growing child's diet versus consuming no milk at all. The amount of other foods that would need to be consumed to replace the nutrition that one 8-ounce carton of fat-free milk contains is huge.”

Tip 4

Tip 4 Title:

Success: Healthy meals are habit-forming

Tip 4 Body:

“You eat what you know,” says Blake. “We’re showing kids what healthy meals look like. If we do it from kindergarten through 12th grade, eating right becomes habitual.” And by allowing students to go back for seconds for fruits, veggies, and dairy, the theory is they’ll reach for carrots instead of a cookie when they’re on their own. Blake believes a growing number of students are realizing that health and nutrition are important. “Kids nowadays are getting the message that if you want to be an athlete, you have to eat well and be strong,” she says. “Other than parents, the school system will be the second next biggest impact on kids’ eating habits because we are consistently with them for 12 years.”Related: <a href="http://www.fitbie.com/slideshow/7-healthy-habits-pass-your-kids" target="_blank">Healthy habits to pass on to your kids</a>

Tip 5

Tip 5 Title:

Success: Lessons go beyond the cafeteria

Tip 5 Body:

No rules require that schools incorporate nutrition into their curriculum, but many are doing it anyway. “If a teacher or school nutritionist discusses what kinds of foods kids should be eating more of, the students go to the cafeteria with a better idea of what they should put on their trays,” says Blake. “This is a great way to marry what’s going on in the classroom to the environment—show them where the foods are and then they can taste it.” Teachers can incorporate food in the curriculum in a variety of ways; for example, in biology class teachers can explain how a plant grows and incorporate vegetables. Blake hopes that more funding will become available to integrate nutrition into lesson plans and bring dietitians into the classroom. Ideally, there will eventually be outreach to students’ families so that their parents become educated on what to serve at home.

Tip 6

Tip 6 Title:

Failure: Whole grain requirements are unrealistic

Tip 6 Body:

Half of the grains offered during the school week must be whole, and additionally, schools are required to serve minimum and maximum amounts that vary by grade level. This isn't a bad thing—<a href="http://www.fitbie.com/slideshow/sneaky-ways-eat-more-whole-grains" target="_blank">whole grains</a> are full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that help a child grow up to be healthy. But manufacturers need time to catch up to these new rules, Beauvis says. For example, a cafeteria must serve at least 2 ounces of <a href="http://www.fitbie.com/slideshow/sneaky-ways-eat-more-whole-grains" target="_blank">whole grains </a>in a meal, but a traditional hamburger bun is only 1.75 ounces…but making the bun bigger isn’t practical because the beef patty is only 2 ounces. Therefore, the school chef would have to serve .25 ounces of a macaroni salad to round out the meal.  “Having set minimums and maximums has made menu planning puzzle-like and challenging,” Beauvis says.

Tip 7

Tip 7 Title:

Failure: Kids Aren't Eating Their Extra Veggies

Tip 7 Body:

To satisfy vegetable rules, a school can’t dish up heaping portions of broccoli and call it a day. An assortment is required, including dark leafy greens, red and orange veggies, starches, and legumes. “We all know that <a href="http://www.fitbie.com/slideshow/10-best-ways-add-color-your-diet" target="_blank">eating a variety of colors</a> provides a vast array of nutrients,” Beauvais says. “But we are finding that many of these vegetables are new to our students and may be placed on trays but not actually consumed. It takes 10 to 15 tastes for children to decide if they really like a new food, so we carry on trying to offer the required array of vegetables in new and tasty ways to encourage children's consumption.” Schools are experimenting with new recipes with fun names to entice kids to actually eat them, such as “Beans & Greens,” a black bean corn salad known as “Cowboy Caviar,” “Grapefruit Smiles,” and “Veggie Crunchers,” an assortment of fresh vegetables that comes with a dressing of the student’s choice.

Tip 8

Tip 8 Title:

Failure: Kid-approved recipes have been banned

Tip 8 Body:

Many schools had been serving tasty and nutritious meals before the new rules kicked in—but they didn’t quite fit into the new mold and needed to be revamped, Beauvais says. “Thanks to the stringent guidelines on breads, grains, and meats, a favorite dish like spaghetti and meatballs with a warm breadstick no longer makes the cut since it exceeds the bread limit,” she says. “Kids eat with their eyes and they are noticing smaller portions of breads and grains. The theme of fueling up on fruits and veggies is not always seen as a bonus in their eyes.”

Tip 9

Tip 9 Title:

Failure: Sodium is slashed—at a price

Tip 9 Body:

The average kid consumes nearly 3,400 mg of sodium daily—over 1,000 mg more than the recommended amount, according to a 2012 CDC study. To fight this problem, schools have been ordered to reduce the amount of sodium served in lunches gradually over the next decade. By the 2022-2023 school year, lunches for students in grades kindergarten through five will be capped at 640 mg of sodium, grades six through eight won’t exceed 710 mg, and ninth through 12th grades will be limited to 740 mg. “The sodium target is very aggressive,” Beauvais says. She notes that the guidelines seem to have failed to take into account the sodium that occurs naturally in milk—an 8-ounce carton contains 240 mg, which leaves only 400 to 500 mg for the remainder of the meal. (<a href="http://www.fitbie.com/slideshow/8-secretly-salty-foods" target="_blank">Here are some other secretly salty foods</a>.) Breads and grains also contain a substantial amount of sodium naturally—serving a turkey sandwich on whole grain bread with a carton of milk with no additional condiments will not meet these restricted sodium targets.

Tip 10

Tip 10 Title:

Failure: Schools are losing customers

Tip 10 Body:

Since the new meals aren’t as popular with kids, more food is ending up in the trash. “Kids eat the parts of the lunch they want and discard the rest,” Beauvis says. As a result, the schools where Beauvais works have seen a decline in sales and many more bagged lunches from home. Blake believes that schools can boost school lunch sales through marketing and food presentation. To get kids to eat more fruit, for example, they could cut up watermelon or slice up apples instead of putting out an entire piece of fruit. Blake also believes school cafeterias should be set up more like grocery stores in regards to marketing. “When you check out at the supermarket, you see candy and The National Enquirer behind the counter,” Blake says. “Cafeterias should position healthier foods at the checkout and ask cashiers to encourage kids to take them. They need to improve presentation because you eat with your eyes, and use more creativity with how the place is set up.”

Tips More From Links

Latest Images

Trending Articles

Latest Images