Washington D.C. welcomed hundreds of school nutrition professionals this week for the School Nutrition Association’s (SNA) Legislative Action Conference (LAC). Top of mind for attendees this year were meal reimbursement rates, changes to the school nutrition standards and more.
Here are three takeaways from the conference.
1. Meal reimbursement rates remain a pain point
As SNA members head to Capitol Hill this week to meet with their representatives, raising school meal reimbursement rates will likely be a topic of discussion.
The low rates were a major subject throughout the conference. During a session on Sunday afternoon, members of SNA’s Public Policy and Legislation Committee urged their peers to bring up the rates with their representatives.
Reimbursement rates were brought up again at a separate session with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials, who also encouraged attendees to bring the topic up on Capitol Hill since the USDA is not able to change rates without congressional action.
In a recent survey of school nutrition professionals conducted by the SNA, a majority (99.3%) of respondents said that increasing costs are a challenge and fewer than 1 in 5 said that the current reimbursement rate is sufficient to cover the cost of producing a lunch.
The SNA is urging Congress to increase the rates for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Program by 40 cents per lunch and 15 cents per breakfast.
2. Changes to school nutrition standards are causing worry as well
Another topic of high importance for attendees during the conference was the impending changes to the School Nutrition Standards which could introduce added sugar limits and place further restrictions on things like sodium in school meals.
Similar to last year’s LAC, members of the USDA fielded questions and comments from operators who were concerned that the proposed changes would discourage students from participating in school meals and cause food to wind up in the trash.
The USDA members reiterated that they want to work with school nutrition professionals as the new standards are introduced and that resources for operators would be forthcoming once the final rule is published.
“We will have new recipes that we're revising or new ones that we're adding to try to help [school food authorities] have recipes that taste good and that meet the requirements. And so, we are working on a couple of different tools to help with that process,” said Director of the Nutrition Education, Training and Technical Assistance Division Sheldon Gordon.
The USDA says it is expecting to release its final rule for the School Nutrition Standards next month.
3. The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture reiterated his support for universal healthy meals for all
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack addressed attendees in person Monday morning where he thanked them for all the work that they do to keep kids fed and reiterated his support for healthy school meals for all.
“We know that it's important that we ultimately, as a country, recognize the significance of nutrition and make sure that it's not just some kids, it's all kids, who have access to school meals,” he said.
Vilsack also announced the first recipients of the Healthy Meals Incentives Recognition Awards, a USDA program launched in partnership with Action for Healthy Kids, to recognize school districts that are making strides in school nutrition.
The winners include Clear Lake Community School District in Iowa; Sandy Valley Local School District in Magnolia, Ohio; Petersburg School District in Alaska; and Regional School Unit 89 in Stacyville, Maine.
Each district will receive a travel stipend to attend a Healthy Meals Summit in Las Vegas and will also receive national and local recognition.