Conclusion

In conclusion, my research has found that there are hundreds of active coalitions, non-profit organizations, schools, agencies, that are advocating for changes in the school lunch. Changes are being made at the federal level too. The gap that has not been closed yet, though, relates to nationwide follow-through and financial stipend. I have learned a reasonable amount of information regarding school lunches and nutrition this semester and how the children really are affected by unhealthy school lunch offerings. Unhealthy school lunches are almost like silent killers because the overall health (looking at the population as a whole) of our children is declining. I had a lot of fun reading blogs and postings on this issue, and with others like myself interested in the issue, given time, changes will take place!

Children’s Advocacy Day at the Capitol

Coming across The Blueprint for Kentucky's Children, I realized, "What a perfect opportunity to address the school lunch issue as well as aspects of healthy eating to the children of Kentucky!" The Blueprint for Kentucky´s Children is a coalition of nonprofit, private, and public organizations committed to making Kentucky a great place to be a kid. It is a time of gathering and rallying of Kentucky children at the Capitol in Frankfort, KY. Claiming that legislators of Kentucky cares about the children, I will be in contact with Representatives, House of Representative Kelly Flood and House of Representative Ruth Ann Palumbo. Both women are invovled with education and health committees. I will address one of the most pressing issues Kentucky’s kids are facing today, healthy eating as well as obesity.

At the Children’s Advocacy Day at the Capitol, all are welcome to take a stand and raise their voice. Elected officials, social workers, teachers, judges, doctors, public health experts, therapists, members of the military, seniors, and kids all come together to rally on children’s issues and talk to legislators about the Blueprint for Kentucky's agenda.

After the rally, there will be opportunity to meet with legislators, sit-in on committee meetings, and sit-in on a House or Senate meeting.

I completely agree that in order to move Kentucky forward, we must make responsible investments in our children. Child advocates throughout the state need to speak with a common voice and advocate for a common agenda.

http://blueprintky.org/index.html

Fed Up with Lunch

http://fedupwithlunch.com/2011/12/littlebeepops/

Click the link above to visit another blog site called Fed Up with Lunch. You can view my guest blog post under Liz Snyder's blog "In Defense of the Childhood Treat."

National School Lunch Program

According to Las Angeles Times, there is speculation that the National School Lunch Program may be partly to blame the childhood obesity epidemic. But why? How? Isn't the National School Lunch Program suppose to get nutritious food into the stomachs of the children who cannot afford nutritious foods, coming from a low-income family?

From the article:
"The latest report was published online this week by the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. It concludes that girls who participate in the National School Lunch Program gain weight at a faster clip than other girls from low-income families who do not get the subsidized lunches (and sometimes breakfasts) at school."

"According to background information in the study, about 36% of kids ages 6 to 11 are overweight and 20% are obese. That can lead to lifelong problems, including an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and many kinds of cancer. For girls, extra weight can also mean earlier onset of puberty, which also increases the risk of depression, eating disorders, breast cancer and other health problems."

"Studies have found that kids who are part of the school lunch program get more protein, vitamins and minerals in their diets and eat fewer foods with added sugar. However, studies have also found that these kids also consume more dietary fat and more calories overall. In addition, some studies have found that kids on the program weigh more than their peers."

According to a study done from Penn State University where 574 girls and 566 boys across the country enrolled in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study as kindergartners in 1998, girls participating in the school lunch program were shown to gain weight faster and weigh more. For the boys, there was no statistical significance of those who were on the school lunch program compared to those who were not.

The link to the above post can be assessed at http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/06/news/la-heb-school-lunch-program-obesity-20110406

Easy on the Eye :)

Legislative Issues

The Healthy School Meals Act of 2010 (H.R. 4870)

What is the purpose of the Healthy School Meals Act?  Will it require schools to serve plant-based school lunches?

• The Healthy School Meals Act, H.R. 4870, will help schools to offer healthful plant-based vegetarian options if they choose to do so, but it does not requires schools to serve particular foods. The act directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to conduct a pilot program (modeled after its successful whole grains pilot) to determine what healthful plant-based protein products children like and are easy to prepare for school breakfasts and lunches. Based on the findings of this pilot, the USDA is directed to then add such products (like vegetable burgers or soy chicken nuggets) to the commodities list, thus reducing significantly their cost. (Currently, schools have to purchase these products at market rates, unlike other products on the commodities list.)
• In addition to making healthful foods more affordable, the legislation provides an incentive of additional financial assistance for those school districts that choose to offer a majority of students a healthful plant-based entrée among the several options available in the lunch line. Schools can use the supplemental commodity assistance to buy more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other healthful plant-based foods. This bill is about helping those schools that want to provide the healthiest options for our children but cannot afford to do so.

Why plant-based meal options for students?

• Today, one in three children is overweight and one in five struggle with obesity. Children are increasingly affected by obesity and related conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, which were previously considered adult diseases. Children consume too much saturated fat and sodium and don’t get enough fiber, whole grains, fruits, or vegetables. Most schools are struggling to meet the USDA guidelines: More than 70 percent of schools can't meet the maximum saturated fat requirement. According to the latest research, children who eat school-purchased lunches are more likely to be overweight and obese, and less likely to eat fruits and vegetables.
• Plant-based vegetarian foods are cholesterol free, generally low in fat and saturated fat, lower in calories, and higher in fiber. Plant-based school lunch options are not just healthier—they are some of the healthiest options schools can provide and have the potential to make the biggest impact on improving children’s health. Millions of children get more than half of their daily calories at school, and with each plant-based entrée that a child chooses, he or she is more likely to receive the health benefits of plant-based diets—lower risk for becoming overweight or obese and developing diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers.
• Offering plant-based menu options also helps schools to meet and exceed existing nutritional standards for the school lunch program: Rather than simply reducing saturated fat and cholesterol, they can eliminate it almost entirely from some menu items with this approach. By providing schools with entirely plant-based foods that are affordable, we are ensuring that our federal dollars are spent on food that will directly improve student’s nutrient intake. In addition, offering plant-based meal options allows all children—those who are lactose-intolerant, or avoid animal products for religious, ethical, or health reasons—to find healthful options in the lunch line.
• In schools across the country where healthful plant-based options are offered regularly (including Broward County, Fla., Boulder, Colo., and San Diego), they are very well accepted by children and have made it easier for the school districts to meet existing USDA nutritional standards.

What will it cost to provide healthful plant-based options for school lunches?

• The Healthy School Meals Act, H.R. 4870, introduces a pilot program at a cost of $4 million. The pilot program will provide plant-based alternate protein products (like vegetable burgers and soy nuggets) and nondairy milk free to schools, with the goal of evaluating which products are most favorable. Subsequently, the best products will be added to the USDA commodities program, so schools can purchase them at low cost. Many schools that currently do not offer these healthier options say they would do so if these types of products were more affordable.
• The act will also offer 25 percent supplemental commodity assistance to school districts that offer a plant-based entrée option to a majority of their students each day. Currently, only about 20 percent of school districts are offering plant-based options in at least one school some of the time, according to the School Nutrition Association’s 2009 Operations Report, but far fewer schools are offering this type of healthful option regularly to a majority of their students. If 20 percent of school districts offered daily plant-based options under the Healthy School Meals Act, the cost in supplemental commodity assistance would be $46.6 million. The supplemental assistance provided would directly assist schools in serving the healthiest foods by allowing them to purchase more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and plant-based proteins through the commodities program.
• Obesity-related conditions cost an estimated $147 billion in medical costs each year. Improving children’s health and helping them develop lifelong healthy habits can help prevent obesity and significantly reduce medical costs in our nation.

Why require schools to offer nondairy milk alternatives? Aren’t schools currently required to provide nondairy milk alternatives for students who are lactose intolerant?

• Schools are only required to provide an alternative to dairy milk for students who have a disability, such as an allergy, upon receipt of a written statement from a licensed physician. 42 U.S.C. §1758(a)(1)(B)(iii).
• Any reason other than a disability (including lactose intolerance, religious, or ethical preference) requires a note signed by a doctor or parent, but even then schools are not required to provide a substitute beverage that is nutritionally equivalent to dairy milk. If a school district decides to provide a substitute, it must first notify the state educational agency, which is a significant burden. Currently, schools that provide a dairy milk substitute must incur the additional expense of purchasing the substitute, which is often significant compared to the low cost of dairy milk available to schools. 42 U.S.C. §1758(a)(2)(B).
• Also, most schools are unable to provide a nutritionally-equivalent substitute for fluid milk, because most of the readily available dairy milk alternatives do not meet the nutritional requirement for protein (for example, most soymilk products on the market have only about 6-7 grams of protein, while the minimum requirement for protein set by USDA is 8 grams, although these alternatives are fortified to be equivalent to dairy milk in every other nutrient category). Previously, many schools were offering an alternative beverage that was not equivalent to dairy milk (e.g., juice or water), but the USDA clarified its interpretation of the statute in 2008 regulations, directing that schools may only provide a substitute that is nutritionally equivalent. As a result, many children who are lactose intolerant or who do not drink milk for other reasons are provided no beverage at all with their reimbursable meal.
• The Healthy School Meals Act would make a dairy milk alternative available to students who request one for any reason, including lactose intolerance, religious or ethical reasons, or other dietary preference. The act would remove the requirement that students provide a note from a doctor or parent to request a dairy milk alternative, and it would also remove the burden on school districts to report to the state when they provide alternatives. By changing the nutritional requirement to make currently available nondairy milks eligible for reimbursement, the act would allow schools to purchase substitutes more easily. And by directing USDA to offer nondairy milk through the commodities program, the bill significantly lowers the cost for schools providing such a substitute.
• Schools would also be permitted to offer nondairy substitutes to all students as part of the reimbursable meals, if they chose to do so, in the same way that they may provide flavored dairy milk as an option on the lunch line.

Who supports the Healthy School Meals Act?

• The Public: More than 120,000 individuals from all 50 states have signed a petition calling on Congress to help schools provide vegetables, fruits, legumes, grains, vegetarian foods, and healthful nondairy beverages in school meal programs.
• Doctors and Health Care Providers: The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a national nonprofit organization representing 8,000 physician members and more than 100,000 lay members. More than 100 hospitals and health care providers also support this effort, and more than 200 doctors have signed letters in support of healthy school meals.
• States: California, Florida, Hawaii, and New York have passed resolutions supporting healthful plant-based options for school lunches. Similar resolutions are pending in a number of other states, including Georgia, Iowa, and Ohio.

Source: http://www.healthyschoollunches.org/legislative/hsma_faq.cfm

From the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

What's Currently Required?

An array of federal, state, and local policies and regulations govern water availability in schools.  Recent legislation created a federal requirement that free drinking water be available to students during school meals.  Some states might also have their own policies.  In September 2010, California passed legislation, SB 1413 (Leno), to require that free, fresh drinking water be available where meals are served or eaten.  Massachusetts has enacted similar legislation and other cities and localities might have similar requirements.
Other local and state policies can also broadly influence access to water in school buildings, but these are generally not specific to availability during meals or in the areas where meals are served or eaten.  In addition, state and local policies can govern water safety and water testing.
Because policies to require water availability with school meals are relatively recent, many schools are probably not currently in compliance.  Some schools might have existing local policies or rules, perhaps stemming from local school wellness policies, that require water to be available during meals.  For more on wellness policies, click here.
What follows is a summary of the current policies related to water access and availability in schools.

Federal

Nationally, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) sets the rules for the federally-funded National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP).  In December 2010, Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which included a requirement that free drinking water be made available during school meals.  No other federal regulations govern the availability of water on school campuses.  In April 2011, USDA released guidance to implement this requirement.  This guidance explained that schools ought to be in compliance by the 2011-2 school year.  Additionally, the USDA will issue formal rules on water in schools when it initiates its rulemaking process for competitive foods sold on school campuses.  This proposed rule should be published by the end of 2011 and there will be an opportunity for public comment.  We will update this website when the rule is published, so please stay tuned to our site.
Currently, federal rules also govern what is sold on school campuses outside of the school meal.  USDA has created a classification of so-called "Foods of Minimal Nutritional Value" (FMNV) which include a limited range of foods and drinks, such as soda water, water ices, gum, and hard candies.  Schools cannot sell these FMNV during the school day.  This means that vending machines, "a la carte" lines, and other sources of "competitive foods" can sell a range of sugar-sweetened beverages including sodas, sports drinks, fruit drinks with added sweeteners, as well as 100% juice and bottled water.  For definitions of some of these terms, see our glossary.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act strengthens these competitive food standards, and the proposed standards will be published along with the rule on water in schools, as described above.

State

The state also has a role in water availability on a school campus.  State policy is relevant in at least two ways: through state-level school meal regulations and through state-level requirements for school water infrastructure.
States can create stronger requirements around school meals than the federal government.  For example, California has set stronger nutrition requirements on competitive school foods and beverages than is required by federal law.  In California, students can no longer buy soda and most other sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) on school campus. (Sports drinks are only available in high schools.)  Otherwise, vending machines can only sell 100% juice, milk, and bottled water.  You can learn more about your state’s school nutrition requirements by visiting the website for the administering agency.  In most states, this is the Department of Education or, in some cases, the Department of Agriculture.
For more information about California, go to: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/sn/
States can choose to create a stronger requirement than the federal one for water availability in schools.  For example, a state could choose to expand the area where water must be served or expand availability for the length of the school day.  However, states cannot choose to weaken the federal requirement.
Many states also have rules governing water availability in school buildings.  For example, in California, state plumbing code requires one water fountain per 150 people on school campus.  However, in 1999, this ratio was also found to be inadequate by the Superintendent of Public Instruction but no action has been taken to remedy this issue.  Moreover, water fountains are often in poor repair and may not be sufficient to adequately hydrate a thirsty student.  To promote water consumption in schools, states can reform plumbing code to ensure greater access to water on campus.

Local

Local action will be vital to ensuring that kids have easy access to water instead of sugary drinks at school.  Given the budget problems facing all schools, it is likely that promoting access to water is not on the top of many lists.  This is why local advocates will be key to successful implementation of new water requirements.
Federal law requires all schools to have a local school wellness policy.  To date, these wellness policies have been implemented and enforced to varying degrees of success around the country.  The federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 strengthens the wellness policy requirement by including provisions intended to ensure public input and transparency during the formulation of these policies as well as to ensure implementation and monitor compliance.  USDA will publish an implementation memo on this in the Spring of 2011 and propose rules in the Fall of 2011.  These changes provide a great opportunity for local advocates to re-engage with the wellness policies and wellness committees established at schools, as well as to ensure that language is included around water access and availability.
Individual schools or school districts can also take the initiative on their own to experiment with innovative ways of getting water to thirsty kids.  You can work with your local school’s wellness committee, through your site council or the PTA to get things going in your own school.  Check out this great resource for working with local wellness policies.
Other possibilities for local action could be working with your county government or city council.  These entities might be able to help with funding or local policy changes to support water consumption.

Source: http://www.waterinschools.org/whatsrequired.shtml

What the Fork?

Study: Overhaul School Lunch in Oakland

Written by: Jesse Hirsch
February 114, 2012

School lunch reform is a hot-button national topic, with reformers like Michelle Obama and Alice Waters counterbalanced by budget cuts and Big Food lobbyists (the gang that successfully convinced the

USDA a thimbleful of pizza sauce is a vegetable). A comprehensive local study of the Oakland Unified School District’s lunch program was recently released, and it concluded that    it’s in dire need of an overhaul.

Every day, OUSD serves 37,000 meals, 6.6 million meals are served each year, and some students are fed five times a day (breakfast, lunch, early dinner, and two snacks). Key among the study’s findings was that the district’s kitchen facilities and equipment are woefully inadequate to keep up with this level of need.

For instance, the chief central kitchen at Prescott Elementary School was designed to prepare 8,000 meals a day, but it is currently preparing 20,000, well over twice its capabilities. Prescott is one of three off-site kitchens that prepare almost three-quarters of the district’s meals.

On a somewhat positive note, the study did find that the OUSD had exceeded the USDA’s dietary guidelines. However, as the federal policies themselves need to be reformed, the study suggests Oakland could still use a nutritional overhaul. In keeping with the beliefs of OUSD Nutrition Services Director Jennifer LeBarre, the report recommends cooking 60 percent of all meals from scratch, avoiding high-fructose corn syrup and trans fats, and sourcing produce organically and locally.

The study, a joint effort of the Center for Ecoliteracy and the Oakland Unified School District, was the result of more than a year of intensive analysis. Rather than focus on one small area of the district’s food system, “Rethinking School Lunch Oakland” took a holistic approach, reviewing ten components that provide a fairly thorough portrait: facilities, finances, food and health, wellness policy, teaching and learning, the dining experience, procurement, waste management, professional development, and marketing and communications.

LeBarre and the Center for Ecoliteracy presented the study to the Oakland school board, and are now hoping for some real-world change. First on their wishlist is the creation of a 44,000 square-foot central commissary; a facilities and equipment upgrade to create 17 from-scratch cooking kitchens; the designation of 14 “community kitchens” that can be used by outside groups after school hours; and the creation of a 1.5-acre farm to grow produce for the district.

LeBarre said initial feedback from the school board has been largely supportive, and OUSD superintendent Tony Smith has long been an advocate of school lunch reform. She said the proposed changes would be tied into the district’s facilities master plan.

Zenobia Barlow, executive director of the Center for Ecoliteracy, said this study was coincidentally well-timed, considering the current national focus on diabetes and the childhood obesity epidemic. “I’m kind of ambivalent about needing a diet-related epidemic to get something done,” she said. “Yet I can’t deny how exciting it is that we may be able to implement significant changes here.”

Jesse Hirsch Contact Information: Jesse.Hirsch@EastBayExpress.com.
East Bay Express
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/WhatTheFork/archives/2012/02/14/study-overhaul-school-lunch-in-oakland

Get Involved! (Part Two)

A healthy mind, physical state, emotional state, and overall well-being are important components to being able to learn at one's optimal level. Through the development that children undergo, it can be declared that healthier students are better learners. Healthier intake of food leads to healthier students, for I beleive "you are what you eat." A banana with essential nutritents, versus a Twinkie with additives and simple sugars, will indeed provide higher quality energy, such as, on the cellular and neurological level. 

The Healthier Schools Campaign advocates for policies and practices that allow all students, teachers and staff to learn and work in a healthy school environment. 

The Healthy School Campaign announces their education policy recommendations [pdf], specifically supporting reform for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Blue Ribbon Schools Program, on the website. They insist people to look and to read through their recommendations, and if your organization would like to show their support of education policy that promotes student health and wellness, Alex Schaible contact information is provided (via email or phone (312) 419.1810).

On the website you can download the policy recommendations and/or add your name to the petition.

What's on your plate?

Another great resource for advocacy and learning more about food politics and kids!!! Get involved and watch the trailor on the documentary film.

 http://www.whatsonyourplateproject.org/

For 31 million schoolchildren, the U.S. needs a solution for dealing with the unhealthy facts listed below.

• According to The Center for Disease Control, children born in the year 2000, one-third will contract diabetes. And, these children will be the first in our country’s history to die at a younger age than their parents.
• 70.1 percent of Americans are overweight; 4.3 million children ages 10 – 14 will become overweight or obese in the next 24 months.
• Rates of childhood obesity are soaring. About 12 percent of children ages 2 to 5 are obese compared with 17 percent of kids 6 to 11, and 18 percent of kids ages 12 to 19.^{i ii}
• “The number one thing any school can do to improve their school food is to add a healthy salad bar and allow children to make their own choices.” – Chef Ann Cooper, AKA The Renegade Lunch Lady and cofounder of The Lunch Box Project and Food, Family, Farming Foundation (F3)

Information provided by:

The Lunchbox: Healthy Tools to Help All Schools

Get Involved!

Advocacy is a political process by an individual or a large group of people which normally aims to influence public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions; it may be motivated from moral, ethical or faith principles or simply to protect an asset of interest.

Advocacy is a great way for community members to make an influence on an issue, such as improving the lunches within our schools across the state and across the nation. Parents, teachers, medical professionals, college students, etc. can definitely get involved and take the initiative to encourage our state legislatures.

A website that will be great to look at and guide you on the path of advocacy for better school lunches is:

http://www.thelunchbox.org/advocacy

New School Lunch Guidelines will mean some changes in Fayette County

From WKYT 27 News First
Reporter: Stacy Ellison
Posted: Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Link: Fresh is Best
 
In cafeterias across Fayette County you'll find salads, two fresh fruits and two canned fruits offered daily. Nutrition director, Michelle Coker, says Kentucky has been proactive in making school lunches healthier for kids.

"When I came 7 years ago, many of these practices were already in place", Coker says.
So new federal guidelines requiring lunchrooms to offer foods with less fat, less sodium, more whole grains, and more fruits and veggies won't mean big changes.

But one change will be made and it could mean big bucks for the Fayette County's nutrition budget. Starting next year, kids will have to take a fruit or vegetable when buying a school lunch. Now, it's optional.

Coker says, "If we have 800 kids eating we may have only prepared 500 servings of fruits and veggies knowing not everyone will take one. But now, if every child has to take it we've got to prepare 800 servings. And that's fine. But if kids aren't eating it and throwing it away we've got to do some education".

Coker says that education is already underway at the elementary level. Several programs are in place that teach students about healthy eating. In those schools, Coker says there is an increase in the number of kids taking and eating more fruits and vegetables. Similiar program will be implemented next year at the middle school and high school levels.

Coker understands offering healthy foods is one thing. Getting students to eat them is quite another. So ,along with the fruits, vegetables, and whole grains offered in cafeterias you will also find pizza and chips for sale. Coker says the key is finding a balance. The right combination of foods that provide a balanced diet and keep the budget balanced as well.

The new policy will be implemented at the beginning of the next school year. Schools will receive an additional 6 cents per meal in federal funding or adhering to the new guidelines.
The district will asses the cost of following the guidelines before the school year begins to determine if the costs of school lunches will be increased.

With a 16 million dollar school lunch budget in Fayette County, menu improvements will contribute to a 6 cent increase per meal, as well as, 5 cent increases per carton of 100% juice.

Fayette County is really trying to promote the benefits of healthy eating to the school children: Mind, Power, Energy, and Strength!

School Lunches to Blame?

Are school lunches partially to blame for childhood obesity?

In 2010, a study was done at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor where 1,076

middle school students filled out questionnaires asking what they ate, how much physical activity they

got, and the number of hours they watched TV, played video games, and/or spent on the computer

each day.

The students were divided into three groups, depending on whether they said they "always," "almost always," or "sometimes" ate school lunches, "always," "almost always," or "sometimes" brought their lunch from home.

School Lunch (%) vs. Lunch From Home (%)

• More likely to be overweight or obese (38.2% vs. 24.7%) 
• More likely to eat two or more servings of fatty meats like fried chicken or hot dogs daily (6.2% vs. 1.6%)
• More likely to have two or more sugary drinks a day (19% vs. 6.8%)
• Less likely to eat at least two servings of fruits a day (32.6% vs. 49.4%)
• Less likely to eat at least two servings of vegetables a day (39.9% vs. 50.3%)
• Kids who bought school lunch had higher levels of LDL "bad" cholesterol

Also, the school-lunch kids were less likely to participate in active sports like basketball, moderate

exercise like walking, or team sports than the kids who brought their lunch from home. School-lunch

eaters spent more time watching TV, playing video games, and using computers outside of school.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology.

___________________________________________________________________________

It is vital that efforts are put forth to provide healthier choices on school lunch menus, as well as incorporating better education and involvement to teach kids to make healthy choices, in relation to

not only food but exercise too.

The middle school age is a great age to target these goals. Middle schoolers are at age where

independence starts coming into play. The choices these kids make will shape their eating and

exercise habits as they get older.

According to Bill Tomson, a Wall Street Journal writer, new rules for federally subsidized meals are to set limits on calories and saturated fat for the school lunches.

First lady Michelle Obama unveiled new nutrition rules for school meals on January 25,2012, in an effort to combat the nation's high rate of childhood obesity.

Schools will have to offer students more fruits, vegetables and whole grains—a shift they worry will raise meal costs. And for the first time, the Department of Agriculture is setting calorie limits on school-cafeteria meals.

A lunch for students in kindergarten through fifth grade must contain no more than 650 calories on average. The limit goes up to 700 calories for grades six through eight, and 850 calories for grades nine through 12. That requirement begins next school year.
Federal officials had initially sought to reduce the amount pizza counts toward students' vegetable allotment and to put limits on french fries and other forms of white potatoes. But those changes were abandoned after drawing criticism from lawmakers and the food industry.

Michelle Obama, joined by celebrity chef Rachael Ray, has lunch Wednesday with children at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Va. Schools that participate in the government-subsidized lunch and breakfast programs next school year won't be able to serve whole milk and must offer nonfat milk. Flavored milk will only be allowed if it is nonfat. That change is aimed at reducing the amount of saturated fat consumed by children, according to the Agriculture Department. The new rules require that less than 10% of the calories students consume in a meal come from saturated fat.

"When we send our kids to school, we have a right to expect that they won't be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we're trying to keep from them when they're at home," Mrs. Obama said Wednesday at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Va. About 17% of children between the ages of two and 19 are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Schools will be required to offer students ¾ to one cup of vegetables, plus ½ to one cup of fruit, a day. That is about double the amount they have been required to offer. However, students will only be required to put about half that amount on their trays. School districts, food-service companies and nutrition professionals worried students wouldn't eat the full amount, and the agency said it eased the requirement out of concern students would simply throw away unwanted fruit and vegetables. That rule starts next school year.

The rules require that, over the next two school years, whole-grain products must account for half of the grain products served in school lunches. By the 2014-15 school year, all grain products must be whole-grain, the agency said.

The agency first calculated the changes would cost schools $6.8 billion over five years, but it cut that to $3.2 billion Wednesday. The cost estimate fell in part because the agency cut a proposed requirement for schools to provide meat or a meat substitute in the government-subsidized breakfast program, according to agency Undersecretary Kevin Concannon.
Schools across the country are "definitely going to be challenged" by the additional costs of meeting the new rules, said Diane Pratt-Heavner, a spokeswoman at the School Nutrition Association, which represents people who run cafeterias.

Mrs. Obama joined students at the cafeteria.

The federal government will reimburse schools that follow the new rules six cents a meal, but Ms. Pratt-Heavner said that likely won't cover all of the additional expenses. About 32 million children are served every school day in the federal school lunch or breakfast programs, according to the Agriculture Department.

One source of saturated fat the agency wasn't able to cut down on is the french fry. The agency initially proposed to sharply limit starchy vegetables like potatoes on school menus, but lawmakers and farm lobbyists killed the effort last year.
Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) took credit for helping thwart the agency's efforts to reduce the amount of potato-based foods served in schools. Maine is the fifth-largest potato-producing state in the U.S., and farmers there were quick to contact Ms. Collins when they realized the agency was trying to squeeze spuds, said Tim Hobbs, a director at the Maine Potato Board.
The agency also had tried to diminish the amount that tomato sauce in pizza counts toward vegetable requirements. Congress blocked that effort in November after the food industry complained.

Link to article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203718504577182821311576652.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The U.S. has become one of the unhealthiest nations in the world. Obesity-related illnesses are steadily increasing as the cause of chronic disease, disability, and even death, and efforts are increasing to combat our nation's high rate of childhood obesity.

With the number of children across the nation attending schools, their school lunches are one thing to blame for the over-estimated intake of calories, fat, carbohydrates, and protein with limited nutrient-density.

Afterall, healthy eating is essential and the benefits extend far beyond the size of the clothes our children wear. Healthy eating begins with the decision to make choices with  health and well-being in mind.

In this blog you can read about the positive impact that knowing more about proper nutrition, as well as physical activity, at a young age can help shape our nation into a more healthy one. With an intiative to make school lunches across the nation even more healthy, the road of childhood obesity can potentially come to a road block.