SNA fills Congress’ ears about new lunch rules

Although the School Nutrition Association supports many of the reforms in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, school feeders represented by the group would like greater funding, more discussion of the regulations’ restrictions, and the flexibility to plan more appealing, healthy meals, SNA president Julia Bauscher testified before Congress last week.

Bauscher, a foodservice director herself, testified on the group’s behalf before the House Education and Workforce Committee, which convened the hearings to discuss implications and results of the 2010 Hunger-Free Kids Act, a prelude to reauthorizing the legislation later this year.  Bauscher’s day job is serving as director of school and community nutrition services at Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Ky.

“In some cases we’re hearing from our members that under the new standards, there has been an increase of food being turned away [by students],” said Diane Pratt-Heavner, director of media relations for the School Nutrition Association.

Pratt-Heavner noted that one of the association’s specific requests is in regard to a new mandate that requires every child to take a fruit or vegetable with their meal—whether they intend to eat it or not. Often, the children end up throwing the items away.

“While SNA strongly supports offering students larger servings and a wider variety of fruits and vegetables—really encouraging kids to take those items—we have seen a real problem with trying to force kids to take those items. We’ve found it counterproductive and wasteful,” she said.

One of the SNA’s biggest concerns is that the program changes were underfunded.

“The programs are really struggling with the higher costs of meeting the new standards,” Pratt-Heavner said. “So where we can, let’s eliminate the waste so that the schools have as much resources as possible with improving menus.”

The USDA estimates that schools must absorb $1.2 billion in added costs as a result of the new rules.

“When the USDA released the new nutrition standards they estimated that by this fiscal year, 2015, schools would face $1.2 billion in added costs under the new standards,” Pratt-Heavner said. “Congress did provide an additional 6 cents for lunch to accommodate those standards, but the USDA estimated the higher costs equaled 10 cents more for lunch and 27 cents more for breakfast. So it’s still not enough money to help schools manage the costs.”

The added costs of the new standards will certainly be a task to incorporate for school meal programs as they operate on extremely tight budgets.

“We were requesting an additional 35 cents for every lunch and breakfast served back in 2010 when the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed,” Pratt-Heavner noted. “So now with rising food costs and the new standards, there is an even greater need for additional funding.”

Despite those challenges, there are successful initiatives by school nutrition professionals to increase access to nutritious meals and promote healthier diets for students—like Farm to School grant program and Cornell University Smarter Lunchroom techniques.

“Schools are doing a tremendous amount in the farm to school area,” Pratt-Heavner said. “Farm to school is a broad term, so the USDA considers it as simple as trying to source more fruits and vegetables locally. They are either partnering directly with local farmers to bring fresher produce into the cafeteria or working with their distributors to establish clauses in their contracts for preference of locally sourced foods.”

Some schools are using farm to school programs to teach kids how their food is grown and what food is produced locally.

“In many cases, they are bringing farmers into the cafeteria and classroom to talk about those items,” Pratt-Heavner said. “When kids have a greater appreciation for how these foods are cultivated, they are more likely to give them a try. Not only in the cafeteria but at home as well.”

The good news is that school cafeterias have had a tremendous amount of improvement due to a lot of the new standards, Pratt-Heavner noted, as they are working hard to offer kids healthier options, encouraging them to try more whole grains, and introducing them to less familiar fruits and vegetables.

“SNA is not looking to gut any of those standards,” Pratt-Heavner added. “We are looking for flexibility on some of the most stringent of the regulations so that we are really keeping kids in the cafeteria, enjoying healthy school meals that offer them fruits and vegetables in every meal.”