The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has 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.
The new proposed meal 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.
"The United States is facing an obesity epidemic and the crisis of poor diets threatens the future of our children and our nation," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
"With many children consuming as many as half their daily calories at school, strengthening nutritional standards is an important step in the Obama administration's effort to combat childhood obesity and improve the health and well-being of all our kids."More nutritious
The proposed changes to school meal standards, which would add more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat-free and low-fat milk to school meals, are based on recommendations released in October 2009 by the National Academies' Institute of Medicine (IOM) and presented in the report, School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children. Schools would also be required to limit the levels of saturated fat, sodium, calories, and trans fats in meals. A comparison of the proposed nutrition standards can be viewed here.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act gives schools and communities new tools to meet the challenge of providing more nutritious food including increasing school lunch reimbursements by six cents per meal, and increasing technical assistance.
Margo G. Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) says the new standards "represent an enormous improvement over the status quo." In a statement on the CSPI Website, Wootan says "capping calories, limiting french fries, and reducing salt will all help America’s school children avoid unnecessary weight gain and diet-related diseases." And, she says, "Requiring school lunches to provide more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables will teach kids healthy eating habits that may last a lifetime."
Partnership
School meal programs are a partnership between USDA, State agencies and local schools, and USDA says it will work with schools and communities to help improve meals so that they are consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
"Raising a healthier generation of kids will require hard work and commitment of a host of partners," said Vilsack. "We understand that these improved meal standards may present challenges for some school districts, but the new law provides important new resources, technical assistance and flexibility to help schools raise the bar for our kids."
According to government data, almost 32 percent of children 6 to 19 years of age are overweight or obese; the number of obese children in this age range has trebled in the last few decades. These children are more likely to have risk factors associated with chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and Type 2 diabetes.
