http://yankton.net/articles/2012/10/04/community/doc506d021d8e6b6484986662.txt

 

Students, Schools Have Beef With New Lunch Guidelines

School Districts Adjusting Meal Options To Meet New Guidelines

By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net

School districts around the country have been adjusting their meal options in order to comply with the new federal guidelines on school lunches that took effect this fall.

South Dakota schools haven’t been spared by the changes.

In a survey conducted last month of superintendents across the state, 90.7 percent said their schools had been affected by the new mandates. Ninety-nine responses were received of  the 152 distributed.

Among the high school requirements instituted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture are an 850-calorie limit, milk that is nonfat or low-fat, one cup each of fruit and vegetables, 2 ounces of protein and 2 ounces of grains per day.

Middle schools have a 700-calorie cap, while the elementary schools have a 650 calorie maximum.

In the coming decade there will also be a maximum amount of sodium students can be served for their lunches.

In the survey, 73.2 percent of the superintendents said they had heard student complaints about not getting enough to eat. Also, 48.5 percent said the number of sack lunches being brought to school had increased.

More than two thirds of the respondents — 72.2 percent — said they would support a freeze on the new rules until further study of the issue could be done.

Rep. Kristi Noem (R.-S.D.) met with Sandi Kramer, YSD’s food services director, on Wednesday to discuss the changes. Additionally, Sen. John Thune got an earful about the new rules from students during a visit to the Yankton High School last week.

“The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) increased the fruit and vegetable totals that we have to serve students across the board,” Kramer told the Press & Dakotan Wednesday. “They’re treating fruits and vegetables separately now. They used to be one food group; they’re now considered two separate groups.”

Kramer added one of the biggest changes with the new rules is there is now a maximum amount of protein allowed to be served to students, when it used to be a minimum amount.

“At the high school level, we used to give about one grain daily and up to 15 each week, and now it’s a maximum amount of 10-12 grains that we are allowed to serve,” she said.

Kramer said the biggest thing she has had to deal with so far is the calorie counts that she is required to serve students.

“The minimum amount of calories that we were allowed to serve high school students was 825, now the maximum we can serve is 850,” she said.

She noted that the when the old guidelines were in effect, high school lunches would average between 900-1,000 calories per lunch.

“When we were planning our kids’ meals at school, we would figure about one-third of the calories they would eat were at lunch,” Kramer said. “However, studies have shown that an active average teenager will burn about 3,000 calories per day, and if a kid does sports, this could be up to 6,000 calories each day.”

Another change officials have had to deal with is that kids now must have a fruit or vegetable on their plate at lunch. Schools must serve different vegetables every day, including serving one dark green vegetable each week, which could include broccoli. Schools must also serve a bean each week.

“I have been experimenting with different bean recipes for the kids’ lunches,” Kramer said.

Kramer noted that officials from the USDA have been telling schools there is not that big of a change from the old guidelines, except now students are getting the fruits and vegetables they need.

“If you just looked at the minimum amounts, there really is not a whole lot of difference, but if you look at the maximums and what we served before, there is a big difference,” she said. “The new guidelines were hard to plan for because there were so many different components that we needed to absorb. I think that if we could rewind this whole thing, I wish they would have given us a year or two to transition between the old and new guidelines to make it easier on the kids.”

Kramer said it takes her a lot more time to work out the menus now with the new guidelines. She is also required to send worksheets to the USDA with the weekly menus to be approved, a process that is very time consuming.

A concern that she has is whether lawmakers in Washington took the time to read the bill when it was on their desks.

“This was a bill that was passed by the House and Senate and was about 288 pages long. I doubt that very many representatives actually really read the bill and absorbed it all, so now we are feeling the repercussions of it,” Kramer said. “Somewhere, we need to find a medium here. Lunch is a lot of the kids’ main meals for the day, so when you start cutting back from their lunch, it is difficult to keep the kids from going hungry.”

She said that parents have called her office to complain about some of the changes. One parent asked why she was not serving the full amount of allotted calories in a given meal. Since the call, Kramer said she has concentrated on serving the maximum amount of calories each meal.

“I’m always trying to think of ways I can squeeze in 50 or 70 more calories to give kids the maximum amount of calories they are allowed to have,” Kramer said.

She added that, even with the changes, students are allowed to have an unlimited amount of fruits and vegetables during lunch.

“I really prefer that kids take what they can eat and not waste it, then come back and get more if they want,” Kramer said. “Middle school kids have always done that, but more high school kids are doing it now.”

Although it is unlikely the USDA will change the law, officials are still taking comments and concerns that students, parents and school officials have with it. Officials from the USDA will meet with concerned citizens in Brandon Valley on Oct. 10.

Despite the new guidelines, Kramer said there has not been as big of a change in the lunches at YSD as some other schools in the state have felt.

“Some small schools have offered their students unlimited bread or milk, but we didn’t do that here,” she said.

Kramer said the changes have all been a work in progress, and some schools around the state have been confused by the new guidelines and what qualifies as a fruit or vegetable. However, she hopes everything will be figured out within the next several months.

“The bottom line is the USDA wouldn’t be making these changes if they thought there was not a problem,” she said. “I just wish we could have a little bit more flexibility with how we feed our kids.”

Kramer added that parents and children must be patient because the schools will eventually find a balance with the new guidelines and the food being served. However, she thinks that the guidelines may be too strict on schools.

“School lunches didn’t necessarily make children obese; there are other factors there, including what happens after school. But we need to all set good examples for our kids,” she said. “This isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing, but there is nothing wrong with a kid putting a fruit or vegetable on their plate as part of their lunch.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal