The USDA last week announced its final rule on school meal flexibility, which relaxes federal requirements around whole grains, sodium and milk, giving K-12 operators more leeway in what counts as a federally reimbursed meal. Here is what some K-12 operators are saying about the changes.
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Minneapolis Public Schools in Minnesota says it will not make any menu alterations in light of the changes, noting in a statement that its move back to scratch cooking brought about “an extraordinary increase” in the number of meals it served under the National School Lunch Program, which jumped by more than 1.2 million meals from the 2012-13 school year to 2017-18.
“MPS will continue our commitment to offer foods that are fresh, high quality and minimally processed,” the district said.
The nutrition team at Lima City Public Schools in Lima, Ohio, is happy it will no longer have to apply for a waiver to offer some items with refined grains, but it doesn’t plan on making further changes to its menu. While the district considered reintroducing 1 percent milk, it says ultimately decided against the move, feeling it would not provide the healthiest option for students.
At Cincinnati Public Schools, Food Service Director Jessica Shelly is happy that the final rule will allow for a little more leeway in dishes, though she doesn’t foresee “taking any steps backwards in our menu planning.”
Shelly says the whole-grain flexibility will allow the district to “provide regional and cultural preferences for certain foods” such as biscuits and gravy and its Cincinnati-style chili 3 ways, while other menu items like flatbreads, French bread rolls and brown rice will remain unchanged. In addition, the district may also slightly increase the sodium used in some of its vegetable sides.
“While Cincinnati Public Schools is very close to Target 2 sodium standards already, this new flexibility will allow us to experiment with more unique vegetable sides that are not usually palatable to our students without a small amount of salt, like kale chips, says Shelly. “We expect that we will continue to be very close to Target 2 standards even with the minor addition of salt to some of our vegetable sides.”
Like Minneapolis Public Schools, Los Angeles Unified School District will not be making any changes.
“Los Angeles Unified chooses to keep its excellent nutritional standards despite the United States Department of Agriculture’s recent rollback,” the school said in a statement. “We are still serving at the least 51% whole grains and have no intention of going back to white bread or white rice. All school meals meet USDA reduced sodium level requirements.”
Students at Cajun Valley Union School District in El Cajon, Calif., will also not see any alterations to the menu.
“Our charge is, and always will be, offering our students and staff fresh healthy choices with lots of fruits, vegetables and whole grains,” says Food Service Director Mark Mendoza. “The current USDA/NSLP nutrition standards are a bold step in the right direction and we feel these changes will positively affect our communities well into the future.”
While Mendoza says that some of the requirements have been “hard to achieve,” the district has seen a 20% increase is fresh fruits and vegetables served and about the same reduction in waste.
“We have also made some fundamental changes to our menus, our purchasing models and to the perception of school food—all for the better,” he says.
Director of Food and Nutrition Services Joe Urban says that his team will continue to serve chef-driven items that are on trend while focusing on the procurement of local products, produce and minimally processed proteins.
“Greenville County Schools has been a leader in school food reform for over a decade and we have been very successful in implementing menus that are widely accepted by our students while at the same time far exceeding USDA regulations, both pre and post the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act,” says Urban. “Our program provides our students with the highest quality school meals possible and we have a very high participation rate; therefore, we do not feel any changes are needed to our current menus allowed by this new final rule.”
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