USDA briefs school food service directors on meal rules
March 03, 2014 | 03:59 PM
The Agriculture Department is trying to deal with complaints from school food service directors about parts of the new school meals rules and questions about declines in school meal participation, a key USDA official said today.
But members of the School Nutrition Association are heading to Capitol Hill Tuesday to ask Congress for legislative fixes in the 2015 reauthorization of the child nutrition programs.
The school nutrition directors will also present members of Congress and their staffs with a model letter to send to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to ask for the Obama administration’s support for the rollbacks they want. (See following story)
About 33 million students eat school lunch. A recent Government Accountability Office study showed that participation in the school lunch program declined by 1.6 million students in recent years, but the reasons were varied. (See following story)
Janey Thornton
Janey Thornton, the deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, who briefed the school nutritionists today on USDA’s proposed regulations, called for more communication between the schools and USDA.
She also told The Hagstrom Report that she did not know what role Vilsack or the White House plans to take in child nutrition reauthorization. First Lady Michelle Obama has championed the changes to school meals as part of her “Let’s Move” campaign against childhood obesity.
The Agriculture Department is implementing change to school meals that were authorized under the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. In general, the new rules call for reducing added sugars and sodium and serving more whole grains, lean dairy and meat products and more fruits and vegetables.
In the briefing, which was held despite the government closure due to snow, Thornton said that 86 percent of schools serving 91 percent of school meals have complied with the changes and are eligible for the additional 6 cent reimbursement per meal that Congress authorized for schools that met the new standards.
The certification rate signals that most of the nation’s school children are getting healthier meals, Thornton said. Most of the schools still out of compliance are “extremely small” or private, she said.
Thornton said that the criticism of the new school rules varies by state, but she declined to say which states are the most critical.
Asked whether the southern states are critical, Thornton said, the South is “trying more” because obesity is so high and because they have a high rate of needy kids.
Thornton noted that USDA reacted to the food service directors’ complaints about the maximum number of calories from proteins and grains by writing a rule to eliminate those calorie maximums and making the rule permanent.
The mimimum and maximum rule on calories per meal are still in place, Thornton said, and she emphasized that school meals are not only supposed to provide the right amount of food for students’ age groups, but also to teach them healthy portion sizes.
“We have come to think in portion sizes the bigger the better,” Thornton said. It’s OK for children to eat “humongous meals” once in a while, she said, “but in general portion sizes need to be controlled.”
Next school year, schools have to begin to reduce sodium in school foods, but USDA will not proceed with the full reduction in sodium until more research is done.
Work must be done to convince society as a whole to reduce sodium consumption she said. If that’s not done, “we will end up with contraband salt shakers in schools, “ she added. Some restaurants no longer put salt shakers on the tables, she added.
Thornton also stressed that schools should offer students foods rather than serving them all foods if possible. Schools are required to offer students foods from five food groups — milk grain, fruit and vegetable and meat/meat alternative — but each student has to take food from only three groups to get federal reimbursement. Offering food rather than serving a entire meal on a tray cuts down on expenses and waste she said.
Thornton also said USDA’s studies have shown that children take more fruits and vegetables if they can serve themselves than if they are served.
“It is amazing how kids will take more fruits and vegetables if they serve themselves,” Thornton said. “As we move forward we are going to think about how we operate, not just food-wise, but how we operate with kids.”
Children eat more fruits and vegetables when they raise them in school gardens and when classroom teachers explain the unfamiliar ones, she said.
Kids have taken to eating some fruits and vegetables such as Brussels sprouts and baked kale, and put such pressure on their parents to buy them that grocery store executives have asked if they can be informed what fruits and vegetables will be served in the schools so that they can stock up for the weekends that follow, she said.
Thornton said there is still federal money available for equipment grants. Last year, states turned back $9 million in equipment grants that they had been unable to spend.
“You would be shocked at all the money that comes back to us,” Thornton said, adding that the returned money makes it difficult for USDA to urge Capitol Hill to provide more.
She noted that USDA did get another $25 million in it fiscal year 2014 appropriation and will be taking applications for that money.
Cooking from scratch is not a USDA requirement, Thornton noted, but it is “great” if schools are doing it.
Over the coming years, schools will have to write and implement wellness policies that address nutrition promotion and education and physical activity, and change marketing of snack foods so that products no longer allowed in the schools cannot be sold there.
States will decide what kind of school fundraisers involving unapproved foods are allowed. Thornton said she knows of fundraisers that went on all year, which meant that a lot of foods that were not good for children were sold all year long.
Thornton also urged the food service directors to ask the state legislatures for longer lunch periods. It takes longer to eat healthier foods than processed foods, she noted.
Program integrity will be in an issue in the coming years but a hard problem to solve, she said.
The school meals program has the second highest rate of payment error in the federal government, Thornton said, but improving it will be difficult because certification for full price, reduced price or free meals depends on income information provided by parents.
Thornton also noted that the errors include children who do not get free or reduced lunches when they qualify for them, as well as those who are getting them when they should not.
USDA is also engaged in programs to improve school food service directors’ professional standards, Thornton said, because so many different skills ranging from nutrition to finance are required.
“No one is going to lose their job” in this effort at professionalization, Thornton said.
But members of the School Nutrition Association are heading to Capitol Hill Tuesday to ask Congress for legislative fixes in the 2015 reauthorization of the child nutrition programs.
The school nutrition directors will also present members of Congress and their staffs with a model letter to send to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to ask for the Obama administration’s support for the rollbacks they want. (See following story)
About 33 million students eat school lunch. A recent Government Accountability Office study showed that participation in the school lunch program declined by 1.6 million students in recent years, but the reasons were varied. (See following story)
Janey Thornton
Janey Thornton, the deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, who briefed the school nutritionists today on USDA’s proposed regulations, called for more communication between the schools and USDA.
She also told The Hagstrom Report that she did not know what role Vilsack or the White House plans to take in child nutrition reauthorization. First Lady Michelle Obama has championed the changes to school meals as part of her “Let’s Move” campaign against childhood obesity.
The Agriculture Department is implementing change to school meals that were authorized under the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. In general, the new rules call for reducing added sugars and sodium and serving more whole grains, lean dairy and meat products and more fruits and vegetables.
In the briefing, which was held despite the government closure due to snow, Thornton said that 86 percent of schools serving 91 percent of school meals have complied with the changes and are eligible for the additional 6 cent reimbursement per meal that Congress authorized for schools that met the new standards.
The certification rate signals that most of the nation’s school children are getting healthier meals, Thornton said. Most of the schools still out of compliance are “extremely small” or private, she said.
Thornton said that the criticism of the new school rules varies by state, but she declined to say which states are the most critical.
Asked whether the southern states are critical, Thornton said, the South is “trying more” because obesity is so high and because they have a high rate of needy kids.
Thornton noted that USDA reacted to the food service directors’ complaints about the maximum number of calories from proteins and grains by writing a rule to eliminate those calorie maximums and making the rule permanent.
The mimimum and maximum rule on calories per meal are still in place, Thornton said, and she emphasized that school meals are not only supposed to provide the right amount of food for students’ age groups, but also to teach them healthy portion sizes.
“We have come to think in portion sizes the bigger the better,” Thornton said. It’s OK for children to eat “humongous meals” once in a while, she said, “but in general portion sizes need to be controlled.”
Next school year, schools have to begin to reduce sodium in school foods, but USDA will not proceed with the full reduction in sodium until more research is done.
Work must be done to convince society as a whole to reduce sodium consumption she said. If that’s not done, “we will end up with contraband salt shakers in schools, “ she added. Some restaurants no longer put salt shakers on the tables, she added.
Thornton also stressed that schools should offer students foods rather than serving them all foods if possible. Schools are required to offer students foods from five food groups — milk grain, fruit and vegetable and meat/meat alternative — but each student has to take food from only three groups to get federal reimbursement. Offering food rather than serving a entire meal on a tray cuts down on expenses and waste she said.
Thornton also said USDA’s studies have shown that children take more fruits and vegetables if they can serve themselves than if they are served.
“It is amazing how kids will take more fruits and vegetables if they serve themselves,” Thornton said. “As we move forward we are going to think about how we operate, not just food-wise, but how we operate with kids.”
Children eat more fruits and vegetables when they raise them in school gardens and when classroom teachers explain the unfamiliar ones, she said.
Kids have taken to eating some fruits and vegetables such as Brussels sprouts and baked kale, and put such pressure on their parents to buy them that grocery store executives have asked if they can be informed what fruits and vegetables will be served in the schools so that they can stock up for the weekends that follow, she said.
Thornton said there is still federal money available for equipment grants. Last year, states turned back $9 million in equipment grants that they had been unable to spend.
“You would be shocked at all the money that comes back to us,” Thornton said, adding that the returned money makes it difficult for USDA to urge Capitol Hill to provide more.
She noted that USDA did get another $25 million in it fiscal year 2014 appropriation and will be taking applications for that money.
Cooking from scratch is not a USDA requirement, Thornton noted, but it is “great” if schools are doing it.
Over the coming years, schools will have to write and implement wellness policies that address nutrition promotion and education and physical activity, and change marketing of snack foods so that products no longer allowed in the schools cannot be sold there.
States will decide what kind of school fundraisers involving unapproved foods are allowed. Thornton said she knows of fundraisers that went on all year, which meant that a lot of foods that were not good for children were sold all year long.
Thornton also urged the food service directors to ask the state legislatures for longer lunch periods. It takes longer to eat healthier foods than processed foods, she noted.
Program integrity will be in an issue in the coming years but a hard problem to solve, she said.
The school meals program has the second highest rate of payment error in the federal government, Thornton said, but improving it will be difficult because certification for full price, reduced price or free meals depends on income information provided by parents.
Thornton also noted that the errors include children who do not get free or reduced lunches when they qualify for them, as well as those who are getting them when they should not.
USDA is also engaged in programs to improve school food service directors’ professional standards, Thornton said, because so many different skills ranging from nutrition to finance are required.
“No one is going to lose their job” in this effort at professionalization, Thornton said.
