Nutrition-guideline revision made permanent by USDA

A temporary rule made permanent this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture will give Arkansas schools more flexibility in their lunch and breakfast offerings to students.

The rule changes to the National School Lunch Program will allow schools to serve larger portions of whole grains and lean proteins, according to the department.

Sen. Mark Pryor and the School Nutrition Association were among those supporting the rule changes after some schools reported difficulties in meeting the standards under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which mandated changes in school meal programs that receive federal funding.

The law was enacted in December 2010 and sparked protests from some students,parents and teachers. With childhood obesity on the rise in recent years, new rules limited the number of calories that a school meal could contain.

It also required schools to provide increased servings of fruits and vegetables.

Some critics said the 2010 standards didn’t allow enough meat to be served. Others said the calorie limits left many students hungry.

After the protests, the USDA made temporary rule changes in 2012 to allow for the larger servings, but kept the nutrient requirements in place. Those changes were made permanent and published in the Federal Register on Friday.

For grade school students, a school lunch can have no more than 650 calories. The government limits high school lunches to a maximum of 850 calories. Grade school lunches must have a minimum of 550 calories; high school lunches must contain at least 750 calories.

“Earlier this school year, USDA made a commitment to school nutrition professionals that we would make the meat and grain flexibility permanent and provide needed stability for long-term planning. We have delivered on that promise,” said Kevin Concannon, agriculture undersecretary for the USDA’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services.

The Maryland-based School Nutrition Association said that without the rule changes, some schools would not have been able to offer sandwiches or salads topped with chicken or cheese. The meals would have exceeded the grain and protein limits under the law, the group said.

“School Nutrition Association members are pleased that USDA has provided this permanent fix, acknowledging the need for greater flexibility in planning well balanced school meals,” the group’s president, Leah Schmidt, said in a statement. “With school nutrition professionals already planning menus and inventory for the 2014-15 school year, eliminating the grain and protein limits is a key step to providing healthy menus that appeal to students.”

Pryor said in a statement that he had prepared a bill with Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., to make the school meal changes permanent. The bill had bipartisan support and was cosponsored by several other Republicans and Democrats, he said.

“After hearing from educators, parents, and students, Senator Hoeven and I stepped in to help school districts who were frustrated with the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program’s strict new rules. I’m glad the USDA followed our lead and made these much-needed administrative changes that will give our school districts the permanent flexibility they need to keep our kids healthy and successful,” Pryor said.

In January 2012, the Pew Charitable Trusts and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation began to survey school authorities and found that 94 percent expected to meet the new nutrition standards by the end of the 2012-13 school year, the first year of implementation. The results were released in September 2013.

A USDA survey from the same month found 0.15 percent of schools surveyed, or 146 schools, decided to leave the National School Lunch Program because of the new meal-pattern standards. A report on the White House website estimates the USDA will spend more than $15 billion on the school breakfast and lunch programs in fiscal 2014.

Suzanne Davidson, the director of the Arkansas Department of Education’s Child Nutrition Unit, said the department has not had “significant issues” in implementing the rules. The department has held more than 60 workshops for districts on meeting the standards, and only five of the 254 public and charter school districts on the National School Lunch Program have not had their district’s menus certified to meet the meal pattern and nutrient requirements.

Davidson said the department is supportive of the USDA making the rule permanent.

“The temporary flexibility since 2012 has allowed Arkansas schools to adjust to meeting the new meal pattern. Even though this rule has allowed for flexibility in planning for the portion size within the meat and grain requirements of the new meal pattern, the nutrient content for the meals still have to be met,” Davidson said.

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 01/04/2014

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