Reflections from LAC: Operators express frustration to USDA officials

Several directors from California expressed concern over food-based menu planning. The directors would like for the state’s SHAPE nutrient analysis to be allowed.

Smoothies: If one cup of fruit is blended with one cup of low-fat yogurt, that blended item can not be used as components that meet the new meal pattern regulations. So the fruit in that smoothie can not be counted as the fruit component. This is because the fruit is no longer recognizable as a fruit when it is blended. Long said the goal behind the new meal pattern regs is to teach students what real foods look like.

One director asked why there wasn’t an exception for naturally occurring sodium like there is for naturally occurring trans fat. The USDA’s response to that was that the sodium ranges included in the regs takes into account all sodium served, even naturally occurring sodium.

Whole grains: If an item has water as the first listed ingredient and whole grain as second, that item is counted as a whole grain-rich item.

One attendee said it wasn’t as easy as had been suggested by USDA officials to train cashiers as to what constitutes an acceptable portion size of a fruit or veggie on a self-service salad bar.

Another director asked for clarification on the requirements that calls for an average taken during the course of a five-day week. Some school weeks are not five days, so she asked how she should proceed. USDA officials told the director that guidance on that was forthcoming, but that for a general principle, if a week is four days instead of five, that one-fifth of the week’s total should be eliminated from the total to get the amount for the shortened week.

The HealthierUS School Challenge has been changed. Breakfast is now a part of the challenge. After July 1, there will be new criteria for the program. Districts will have 22 different options, ranging from nutrition education, physical activity, and school and community involvement in wellness efforts, that they must select from and complete to become certified under the program. In addition, average daily participation will now be calculated based on attendance and not enrollment.

The professional standards as mandated under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act is a major goal to be completed by this year, according to Thornton.

Thornton said the 6-cent rule is currently in the Office of Management and Budget, so she was unable to comment on that. She hopes that rule will be addressed in greater detail soon.

SNA’s 2012 Legislative Issue Paper calls for Congress to act on the following points: the increase in the amount of unpaid meal balances; the cost of collecting and verifying income data that is then used by other agencies for non-meal purposes; adding 10 cents per breakfast in USDA commodities; giving the USDA secretary the ability to develop a standard contract that districts may use between local school districts and foodservice management companies; and require the USDA secretary to determine which indirect costs incurred by a school district that can be charged to school foodservice accounts.