{"id":14998,"date":"2020-02-21T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T15:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=14998"},"modified":"2020-02-05T11:25:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T16:25:01","slug":"proposed-changes-to-school-meals-reduce-fruit-and-vegetable-servings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2020\/02\/21\/proposed-changes-to-school-meals-reduce-fruit-and-vegetable-servings\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed Changes to School Meals Reduce Fruit and Vegetable Servings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 30 million children in the United States participate in the National School Lunch Program yearly (1 https:\/\/fns-prod.azureedge.net\/sites\/default\/files\/resource-files\/NSLPFactSheet.pdf<\/a>) and more than 14 million children participate in the School Breakfast Program (2). These programs are federally funded, operate in public and nonprofit private schools, and have a stated goal of providing nutritionally balanced, low-cost or no-cost breakfasts and lunches to children each school day (1,2). Meal patterns for these programs are established by the USDA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children get more than half of their\ndaily calories from school meals so it\u2019s important that these meals provide\nnutritious food, the kind of food kids need to grow and be healthy. That means\nwhole grains, beans, vegetables, and fruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changes to school meal requirements\nthat were implemented in school year 2012-2013 resulted in significant\nimprovements in the nutritional quality of school meals (3). Specifically, more\nwhole grains, greens, and beans were served to children at lunch and more whole\ngrains and fruit were served at breakfast (3). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent proposed rule change (4)\nwould eliminate many of the changes that were made in 2012-2013. The proposed\nchanges would reduce the amount of vegetables and fruit required to be served\nat breakfast and lunch. Fewer red and orange vegetables (sources of vitamin A)\nwould be required to be served at lunch. The proposed change would allow pasta\nmade with vegetable flour to be counted as a serving of vegetables. I\u2019m sorry,\nbut in my mind, there is a difference between pasta and a salad. Children need\nto become familiar with vegetables that are presented as vegetables. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If breakfast is served outside of\nthe cafeteria, which many school districts do, the amount of fruit included would\nbe cut from one cup to a half cup. Since the number of calories that must be\nserved at breakfast is unchanged, a half cup of fruit could be replaced with\ncheaper food like sweet pastries. The proposed changes would allow schools to\noffer potatoes as a vegetable every day. Potatoes could take the place of fruit\nat breakfast. Potatoes are a fine food, but they don\u2019t supply the generous\namounts of vitamin C, vitamin A, calcium, and iron that other vegetables or\nthat fruits do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A rationale given for the changes is\nthat children don\u2019t like the changes that were made in 2012-2013 and that\nthey\u2019ve resulted in more waste. A study conducted by USDA, refutes this\nargument and shows that after the 2012-2013 changes, there was either less\nplate waste or about the same plate waste as before (3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some readers may think this is not\ntheir issue. Since most school meals have limited options for vegans and\nvegetarians, their children may bring their own breakfasts and lunches. We\nstill have a long way to go before school meals are vegan. Realistically,\nhowever, for many children, these meals are an opportunity to have access to\nhealthy food. These proposed changes cut required healthy plant foods from\nschool meals and are harmful to children\u2019s nutrition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comments on the proposed changes can\nbe submitted at https:\/\/www.federalregister.gov\/documents\/2020\/01\/23\/2020-00926\/simplifying-meal-service-and-monitoring-requirements-in-the-national-school-lunch-and-school#open-comment<\/a>\nand must be submitted by March 23, 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.       USDA. The National School Lunch Program. 2017. https:\/\/fns-prod.azureedge.net\/sites\/default\/files\/resource-files\/NSLPFactSheet.pdf<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.       USDA. The School Breakfast Program. 2017.  https:\/\/fns-prod.azureedge.net\/sites\/default\/files\/resource-files\/SBPfactsheet.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.       USDA. School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study. 2019. https:\/\/fns-prod.azureedge.net\/sites\/default\/files\/resource-files\/SNMCS_Summary-Findings.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.       USDA Food and Nutrition Service. Simplifying Meal Service and Monitoring Requirements in the National\nSchool Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Federal Register. 85 FR\n4094. January 23, 2020. https:\/\/www.federalregister.gov\/documents\/2020\/01\/23\/2020-00926\/simplifying-meal-service-and-monitoring-requirements-in-the-national-school-lunch-and-school<\/a>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD More than 30 million children in the United States participate in the National School Lunch Program yearly (1 https:\/\/fns-prod.azureedge.net\/sites\/default\/files\/resource-files\/NSLPFactSheet.pdf) and more than 14 million children participate in the School Breakfast Program (2). These programs are federally funded, operate in public and nonprofit private schools, and have a stated goal of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15000,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14998\/revisions\/15000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}