Children eat as many as half of their week's meals at school! Even before proposed new Federal school nutrition rules take effect, you can make schools healthier places for your kids to eat.
 

by Christina DiMartino

Chelsea Pigg, an eighth-grader at Bellview Middle School in Pensacola, Florida, grabs her breakfast each morning and goes to her classroom to eat it. “I love to eat in the classroom because I get to eat and talk with my friends,” she says.

Several middle schools in Pensacola are offering grab-and-go breakfasts for students today. Each morning, students go to the cafeteria, get items like a sausage biscuit or cereal bar with milk or juice, and eat them in the classroom.

Bellview Middle first offered the program five years ago as the school worked toward achieving the National Recognition Award from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. It’s a major program for the school today. The school has a student body of 1,100, and it is serving about 450 breakfasts daily.

Jaleena Wortham, Pensacola School District’s supervisory dietitian, says, “Breakfast helps students improve academically and be more alert.”

School food often accounts for half of what children eat

Pensacola’s program is in the vanguard of addressing concerns about the role that school meals play in children’s lives. Between breakfast and lunch, children eat as many as half their week’s meals at their school. This means that many children receive as much as 50 percent of their daily caloric intake from school meals.

The National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program play key roles in supporting the nutrition and health of schoolchildren in the U.S. by providing nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches each school day. The National School Breakfast Program feeds nearly 11 million children each day, and the National School Lunch Program feeds nearly 32 million students.

Federal action underway for healthier students

Up until this year, the most recent standards for school meals provided through the Federal programs dated back to 1995. But change is coming.

On January 13, 2011, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a proposed rule to update the nutrition standards for meals served through the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 13, 2010.

The USDA’s proposed new standards are based on recommendations from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), an independent nonprofit organization that provides advice to decision makers and the public. In 2008, at the USDA’s request, IOM convened a committee to provide recommendations to revise standards and requirements so that school meals would be more healthful. In its October 2009 report, School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children, the IOM recommended that the USDA adopt standards for menu planning that included these goals:

• Increasing the amount and variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains
• Setting a minimum and maximum level of calories
• Limiting saturated fat, trans fat, and sodium

A typical week’s menu of elementary school lunches, comparing meals created according to the 1995 guidelines to meals created according to the proposed new rules, can be viewed here. The proposed nutrition guidelines are found in complete detail here.

Change badly needed

The USDA’s proposed changes are essential coming none too soon, according to recent studies of American eating habits.

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation was formed by the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation in 2005 to create a healthier generation by addressing childhood obesity, one of the nation’s leading public health threats. It reports these troubling facts:

●  Young people today are eating on average eight percent more than they were less than 30 years ago.

●  Nationally, 83 percent of elementary schools, 97 percent of middle/junior high schools, and 99 percent of high schools sell food and beverages through vending machines, school stores or à la carte in the cafeteria.

●  Poor nutrition during childhood can have lasting effects and impair cognitive development and school performance.

What you can do

It’s important to remember that, although all schools are likely to be paying close attention to the new Federal guidelines, the USDA’s regulations will be binding only for schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program. That may not include your school.

No matter what, however, there are actions you can take to improve children’s nutrition and health at your school. Here are some ideas from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.

●  Take time to check out the cafeteria and sneak a peek at the vending machines.

●  Bring in healthy snacks for school parties.

●  Encourage extra recess or active party games.

●  Since many unhealthy foods and beverages fund school activities, work with your child’s school to organize healthy fundraisers like walk-a-thons.

●  Meet your child’s teachers and administrators, and become a positive voice for your children’s health.

●  Learn what your child’s school has pledged to do to advance student wellness by becoming familiar with the School Wellness Policy.

●  If your child’s school or district has a School Wellness Council or Health Advisory Council, join it. To find out whether there is a council, who is in charge, and how you can get involved, contact your school’s principal or the district’s food service director. If there is no School Wellness Council, start one! The Alliance for a Healthier Generation has information and a toolkit to help you get going.

●  If your school serves healthy meals, help the school win an award! The USDA runs a voluntary program, the HealthierUS School Challenge, to recognize schools participating in the National School Lunch Program that meet many of the goals contained in the IOM report. The program’s website not only has information about applying for the award, but includes tips for energizing the students and the school community about healthy meals.

For more ideas to help a school get healthy, join the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program.

 

Christina DiMartino has been a freelance and assignment writer since 1985. She is a researcher, interviewer, writer, editor, and manuscript collaborator with a repertoire of clients from around the world.

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