New school meal requirements take effect next month

Public school students will see changes in their school meals, including more servings of fruits and vegetables on their plates beginning this school year.

This is pursuant to the new meal requirements to be implemented beginning July 1, 2012.

According to PSS nutritionist Dianne Esplin, details of the required changes in school meals were released in January 2012, mandating the implementation of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines, which means school meals will look a lot more like the USDA’s recommended My Plate, which replaced the food pyramid last year.

For starters, there will be more whole grains, Esplin said.

“In 2012-2013, at least 50 percent of the grain products on the menu have to be at least one-half whole grain. In two years, this goes up to 100 percent. PSS-Food and Nutrition Services proposed that we add whole grains to our local school meals by using half white and half brown rice, as suggested by NMC-CREES,” said Esplin.

She said PSS tried to keep the changes as economical as possible to show that healthy food doesn’t have to be expensive and so that parents can afford to try it at home, too. PSS also requires its bread products to be half whole grain.

Esplin said there will be more fruits on the menu, too. “On the breakfast menu, students need to be offered a full cup of fruit, and most of the time, that can’t be fruit juice. Fruit juice is not as healthy as eating whole fruit. For example, it takes about five oranges to make one 8-ounce cup of orange juice. One cup of orange juice doesn’t really fill you up, but five oranges would. It is very easy to overdo the calories by drinking juice, rather than eating whole fruit, and you miss out on all that healthy fiber,” she explained.

This year, PSS-FNS gave contracted school food vendors more flexibility on fruit choices, allowing vendors to choose local fruits that are in season when it is economical for them.

Students’ plates will also see more vegetables this year. “There will be more vegetables on the menu-at least one cup every day at lunch-and we’ll need to meet minimum quantities of specific vegetable categories on the menu each week. Vegetables can fill you up with less calories than foods such as rice or meat.”

The new vegetable categories in the menu include red and orange vegetables, dark green vegetables, legume vegetables, starchy vegetables, and other vegetables.

The menu changes also require PSS to serve 1 percent white milk, and skim flavored milk.

According to Esplin, USDA also has sodium (salt) reductions that will start next July. “PSS-FNS is currently working on standardizing all PSS recipes to allow us to meet those requirements next year,” she said.

School meals are funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.