Posted on 08/04/2012 4:46:55 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
New federal demands for healthier school lunches are causing a summer scramble for Long Island school districts to meet the new demands.
The real impact will likely be felt during the first weeks of school in September, when many kids begin to notice smaller portions of meat and increased portions of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
Across the region, and the nation, districts are struggling with both the need to match new guidelines and to communicate the changes to parents and students.
Districts are having to respond to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, championed by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is making the first major changes in school meal requirements in 15 years which, the government says, reflects the latest nutrition science and the circumstances of America’s schools.
The new federal guidelines require most schools to "increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat- free and low-fat fluid milk in school meals; reduce the levels of sodium, saturated fat and trans fat in meals; and meet the nutrition needs of school children within their calorie requirements," according to the program's summary.
On the surface, the concept makes sense, but the changes are detailed and complicated.
For example, the new rules dictate the kinds of specific vegetables that must be provided, breaking down the components into items such as "red" and "dark green" vegetables. The rules generally lower the weight of the minimum daily requirements for meat in the lower grades.
And gone are the small packages of whole milk; now milk must be 1 percent or nonfat. Those tasty chocolate milk packages are history.
Long Island school nutrition directors are attending a seminar this week on how districts and their contracted food providers can meet the requirements, school officials said.
"Students will definitely notice a difference," said Holly Von Seggern, vice president of marketing for Whitsons Culinary Group of Islandia, which serves about 20 school districts across Long Island.
Whitsons has been preparing for the changes for almost two years and providing a range of new options for its districts to get kids used to the changes, Von Seggern said. They've even recommended that parents offer whole grains and more fruits and bean dishes during the summer to prepare kids for the changes.
In September, a school lunch plate will look different, she said. "They will notice a smaller burger and more vegetables," she said. The buns will be smaller, the portions different.
Earlier this month, thousands of food service workers and nutrition experts from around the country gathered in Denver at the annual conference of the School Nutrition Association, where the new standards were a big topic of conversation, according to a July 11 New York Times story.
The USDAs report said the meal program changes are based on recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. It claims they are expected to enhance the diet and health of school children, and "help mitigate the childhood obesity trend," according to the federal report.
Local districts were expected to comply with the changes by July 1. The impact, however, is likely to be heard during the opening weeks of school, when kids and parents begin complaining about smaller portions.
Some school leaders said they expect some children and, in turn, their parents, will find the portions insufficient for hungry teenagers. And while some school officials expect to hear complaints, they are plan to mail out information in advance to explain the changes and tell parents and students can do.
One option, as always, will be to pack your own lunch. The federal government has no say on brown bagging it.
The lunch tray was 35 cents. They let the kids fill the tray with anything on the daily menu, any variety, or all of one item.
Bread was free and every table had bowls of real butter, peanut butter and jelly.
Nobody died from some made up peanut disease, and nobody was fat.
I’m all for this as long as the EXACT same food is served in the congressional lunchrooms, the White House, and every cafeteria in every government building in America. No exceptions.
Kids will lose weight alright...because a lot of that food will go in the cafeteria trash can.
Ask the Los Angeles school district about that.
Once we allowed the federal government to pay for school lunches, this was bound to happen.
The one good thing about this, although I know it’s a pipe dream, is that maybe support for this crap will end, and the school districts will pay for (or subsidize) school lunches on their own, if at all.
Nobody died from some made up peanut disease”
I use to feel that way until my daughter gave my 3 year old granddaughter peanut butter. Her lips swelled and her face got all blotchie. She was tested and while she doesn’t have a severe allegy to peanuts it is probably something she should avoid.
My daughter is a dancer. In high school she was dancing 30 hours a week or so. This child could stop at Chipotle on the way home from dance, eat her burrito on the way home, then walk in the door and ask what was for dinner. And the biggest problem with her weight? Trying to find size zeros. Active kids can eat an amount that astounds adults (and leave us wishing we had our younger metabolism back). Limiting calories for growing active kids borders on cruel. And I bet they don’t learn well in the afternoon when all they can think about is where they are going for more food when they leave
Guess how many “Dieticians” work for the federal, state and county governments, with the sole purpose being to plan “healthy” school menus? Thousands.
Now, let’s think about this for a minute. Is there anyone who doesn’t really know how to find out information about healthy eating? It’s available EVERYWHERE, instantly online, for free.
My son takes a medication that suppresses his appetite, so it’s already difficult enough to get him to eat consistently. The fact that school lunch tastes like crap, no seasoning, boring menu items, no real cooking at all, just microwaving and assembling frozen foods.
The school meals are pathetic, worse than ever before, yet we have BILLIONS of dollars being spent on just ADMINISTERING them, not the food itself, just the people/companies making money off of feeding our kids.
My point was there is no reason to ban it on school property, which is what has happened with todays food Nazis.
With the drought in the Midwest, where are those fresh fruits & vegatables coming from?
With the sutdown of the Central Valley of California irrigation water, thousands of acres are now dry & not productive.
What COUNTRY will be supplying this ‘fresh food’???
Obama is literally shipping more jobs out of this country!!
If it turns out to be a fiasco, it will take years of politicking to correct.
it’s yld=wild strk=streak not yardstick lol
You know what’s funny....I’m 99% sure that the board made that mistake automatically. It’s very rare that I enter anything into the “To” box. I just hit reply.
But now I can’t be sure???
Wait-a-minute.....there is a Yardstick posting in this thread as well. It was Yardstick I was replying to :-)
oh, there is indeed, never mind lol
Thanks for the ping!
How about students bring their own damn lunches, problem solved.
Good grief!
I packed big, healthy lunches for my kids for 18 years (several years where all of them were in school at the same time). Sure, it killed a half-hour of my evening before bedtime, but that’s what being a parent means. The rare times I gave the kids lunch money to buy school lunches they were not happy about it at all. They were not interested in any food the stinking school cafeteria had to offer, that’s for sure.
How lazy do you have to be to just hand your kids lunch money instead of packing them something good?
It’s not cheap anymore either. When my kids started school, 9 years ago, it was a $1.25, it’s now about $4. Ofcourse, only for the saps like us who actually have to pay for it if we buy it. (I pack them lunches also.)
For the few years my daughter went to public school, I packed her lunch. One school provided free breakfast, lunch, and after school snack for all the students because there were too many enrolled in the program to try to keep it straight. In other words, her magnet program was at that school to make it not look so bad academically, and about 25 kids out of the whole school weren’t worth the headache. I later found out that half her sandwich regularly went to the highest bidder. The kids were desperate for “real” food. Learning from my college nutrition class, I’ve never denied her food like candy. It’s always been available and I have regularly had to throw out old candy. People want what they can’t have. My daughter is skinny as a rail.
We are in a pretty affluent school district - there are no “poor areas” - but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some poor kids, and kids whose parents didn’t give a rat’s behind. Still, very few kids were on a “free lunch” program of the kind that dominate the concentrated Democrat parasite nests (”cities”) where taxpayers feed not only their own kids but the welfare litters as well.
One day I found out my daughter was “sharing” her lunch with another girl who sat at the same lunch table because the girl didn’t have any lunch and didn’t have any money and my daughter felt bad for her. So I started adding extra sandwiches and fruit and cheese crackers to my daughter’s lunch so she’d have more to “share”.
On the one hand, I’m glad those days are long over, but on the other hand - - man, I am freaking old. Oh well... Like Dear old Dad always said, “Growing old sure beats the alternative.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.