Child Nutrition Services

Dear Families:
The start of school is just around the corner and we are excited to welcome your children back to the cafeteria.  This year will bring some exciting changes in the Child Nutrition Department.  Many of you have probably heard about the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was signed into law last year.  This Act has requires us to make some changes, nationwide, to what we serve as well as what the kids are required to take as part of their school meals.  We have known these changes were on the way, so we started making changes many years ago to meet the new requirements.  A few of the changes already in place are:

• All-you-care-to-take salad bars
• Low-fat white milk and nonfat chocolate milk
• Whole grain pastas and brown rice
• Whole grain and whole wheat breads, with few exceptions
• Whole grain breading on all breaded products
• Lower fat menu options, as they are made available

We are proud, as a department, that we have already made these changes to help our kids eat better and to be healthier. 

The biggest change, this year, will be a requirement that the kids who eat breakfast or lunch with us take a ½ to 1 cup serving of fruits or vegetables along with their meal.  Of course, they are always welcome to take more, but this is the minimum amount that must be met to qualify as a meal.  We are training our cashiers to know what the portion sizes look like and they will assist the kids in choosing items to make a balanced meal.  We are working to expand our fruit and vegetable choices to include items such as kiwi, butternut squash, garbanzo beans and fresh berries. 

The kids in cafeterias will also see some changes in the serving sizes of various products, including bread.  Up until this year, we had calorie and fat levels that we were required to meet but no specific maximum serving sizes for carbohydrates or proteins.  This year we have minimums and maximums for both.  To this end, we have spent months looking for new products and recipes.  We will start the school year with new pizza, different bread choices on the sandwich lines, and slightly smaller serving sizes of pasta and rice.  We know that these changes will offer the kids different options and more variety in their diet.

We hope, with your help, we can make these changes easy for the kids to understand.  We have invested in digital menu boards at all secondary schools as well as a variety of signs and posters to make the choices clear.  It is very important to us that the kids embrace the changes and understand why they are being made. 

Thank you for your continued support.

Karen Brown, Child Nutrition Services

Comparison of Current and New Regulatory Requirements under Final Rule “Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs”

Comparison of Current and New Regulatory Requirements

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