School lunches, long saddled with an unhealthy reputation, are getting a makeover.
Instead of salt-doused fried foods, highly processed white bread and sugar-laden desserts, cafeteria trays will be carrying whole wheat pizza, leafy green and orange vegetables and fresh fruit.
The changes, announced Wednesday by first lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, mark the first major nutritional adjustment to the $11 billion school meal program in 15 years.
Under the new guidelines, which were directed by the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, schools must limit calories, trans fat and sodium, while serving students a wider variety of fruit, vegetables and whole grains.
The nutritional overhaul reflects both a societal shift toward a more health-conscious diet and a growing concern about childhood obesity, which affects 17 percent of the country’s children.
“When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won’t be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home,” Obama said in a statement.
The updated regulations were first proposed a year ago, giving school districts the opportunity to make comments and revamp their menus.
After opposition by potato growers and food companies, Congress blocked proposed changes that would have limited starchy vegetables to two servings a week and required pizza makers to increase the amount of tomato paste to qualify as a vegetable serving.
Hoping to cut down on “plate waste,” in which students throw away uneaten food, the new meal guidelines allow schools to give students the option of choosing fruits or vegetables, said Kevin Concannon, USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services.
The provision, as well as the removal of a meat requirement at breakfast, helped cut the cost of implementing the new guidelines in half, to $3.2 billion over the next five years, Concannon said.
The 2010 bill also includes the first increase in funding for school meals in 30 years, with schools getting an additional 6 cents per meal.
That’s good news for many districts, which found themselves dishing out more cash for healthier meal options.
