School Lunch Program

I have been reading up on the proposed rule regarding changes in the National School Lunch Program.  The program is to updated every time the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) is revised.  This is part of the school lunch law or act.  You can read the same material that I read, if you like, by clicking on this link.  I will highlight what appear to be the most significant changes.

The school lunch program has not been aligned with the DGA of 2005 and as you might know, we have a newer version, DGA 2010.  I am now in the process of reading the main conclusions of the DGA Committee .  I had quickly reviewed the summary when it was released, and likely noted it here, but the DGAC report is more detailed and has some very good statements that bear repeating, on another day.  

The USDA and Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) are the main agencies that work with the schools.  The USDA is following most of the  recommendations of the Institute Of Medicine in changing the nature of our school lunches.

The goal of the school lunch program is related to the health of our children, but the concerns have changed over time.  Now our kids are not deficient in nutrients but are over consuming calories and certain food components, much as are all Americans.  Thus, what is happening in our schools is the exact same thing that should be happening in our homes, restaurants and work places. I can see as I am reading the DGAC report that it is also the driver behind the IOMs recommendations for front of pack labeling.

Unfortunately, an assessment of the National School Lunch Program  has found that even the standards that are less stringent than those proposed are not being met.

The changes, for the most part are to take place at the time of implementation- school year 2012-2013.  The standards for whole grains will be entered in 2 phases and the standards for sodium which are DRASTIC will take place over a ten year period.  These stages are meant to give industry time to reformulate foods.

Without going into too much detail because my brain is sort of overflowing and needs a break:

The focus of the school meal will be to get adequate servings of certain food groups and limiting components that are related to chronic disease.  Thus the children will be given certain amounts of each food group (evaluated per week) to meet the child's needs and for reimbursement standards.  There will be monitoring.

The lunch will have more whole fruit and vegetables, with LIMITS on starchy vegetables and specific amounts of green, orange and legumes is mandatory.  There is to be 0 grams of trans fats on the label of any product used alone or to comprise a meal (and those only trace amounts would be in a meal).  Sodium is to be drastically cut so that the meal has 700 mg or so (there are differences based on grades for all of these).  I recently reviewed a lunch program at a school and the average daily sodium was over 1400mg.  Saturated fat is currently to be less than 10% of the total calories in that meal, which remains true(though it has been suggested that it be less than 7%). The use of lean sources of protein including meats and meat alternatives is strongly encouraged.  Whole grains are to replace refined ones - within the two year window.  Such that when implemented 51% of a grain serving must be from whole grain. I.e, if a product as 19g of grains, then 9g must be whole grain. Two years from implementation, the total 19g would need to be whole grain. There are to be limits on fruit juice (100% only) and as I have mentioned before - the milk provided to the students if unflavored, can be skim or 1% (ONLY) if flavored, it MUST be skim.  

If nothing else, open the link and go to page 2498 to review the chart of the changes.  I think this is fantastic! And by the way, the goal is to "safeguard the health of children." At this time the threat to kids is obesity with about 32% of school aged children either overweight OR obese and about 17% actually obese.  Sadly, what we see happening is NOT that the overweight kids turn into normal weight adults, but that they graduate into the obesity category. 

Oh, another change for the meals is that the is not a percent of carbs, or protein or a specific nutrient that the lunch has to meet.  Instead,  if the school lunch planners  follow the meal plan, the needs of the children will be met.

The changes are not without challenges, including costs - these are detailed in the linked document as well.