Paper
The Public Needs to Know – School Breakfast and Lunch Programs 1
Jamellia Harrison
Professor Camper
English 115
6/24/2013
The Public Needs to Know – School Breakfast and Lunch Programs 2
The school breakfast and lunch programs make nutritionally balanced low cost or free meals available to school children each day. School breakfast and lunches must meet the dietary guidelines for Americans and federal nutrition standards.
The new school regulations have implemented adding the new fresh fruit and vegetable program to ensure that kids have healthier food choices to choose from. By adding this new program they make sure the schools can create a more conscious healthy environment and increase the consumption as well. These changes present the schools with a chance to make a difference in their diet and impact their present health and diet. This rule passed by the Food & Nutrition Service Agency requires most of the schools lunch and breakfast programs to have fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat free and low fat fluid milk in the meals served in schools. They must also reduce sodium levels and meet calorie requirements. These changes will help the dietary needs and help reduce the large scale of childhood obesity.
The proposed rule in 2011 required these following changes to be implemented to the school menus:
Offer vegetables daily at lunch including specific vegetable subgroups weekly (dark green, oranges and others as defined in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines) and a limited quantity of starchy vegetables throughout the week;
• Offer whole grains: half of the grains would be the whole grain rich upon implementation of the rule and all grains would be whole grain rich two years post implementation;
• Offer a daily meat/meat alternate at breakfast;
• Offer fluid milk that is fat-free (unflavored and flavored) and low fat (unflavored only);
The Public Needs to Know – School Breakfast and Lunch
Jamellia Harrison
Professor Camper
English 115
6/24/2013
The Public Needs to Know – School Breakfast and Lunch Programs 2
The school breakfast and lunch programs make nutritionally balanced low cost or free meals available to school children each day. School breakfast and lunches must meet the dietary guidelines for Americans and federal nutrition standards.
The new school regulations have implemented adding the new fresh fruit and vegetable program to ensure that kids have healthier food choices to choose from. By adding this new program they make sure the schools can create a more conscious healthy environment and increase the consumption as well. These changes present the schools with a chance to make a difference in their diet and impact their present health and diet. This rule passed by the Food & Nutrition Service Agency requires most of the schools lunch and breakfast programs to have fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat free and low fat fluid milk in the meals served in schools. They must also reduce sodium levels and meet calorie requirements. These changes will help the dietary needs and help reduce the large scale of childhood obesity.
The proposed rule in 2011 required these following changes to be implemented to the school menus:
Offer vegetables daily at lunch including specific vegetable subgroups weekly (dark green, oranges and others as defined in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines) and a limited quantity of starchy vegetables throughout the week;
• Offer whole grains: half of the grains would be the whole grain rich upon implementation of the rule and all grains would be whole grain rich two years post implementation;
• Offer a daily meat/meat alternate at breakfast;
• Offer fluid milk that is fat-free (unflavored and flavored) and low fat (unflavored only);
The Public Needs to Know – School Breakfast and Lunch
References: Child Nutrition Fact Sheet whitehouse.gov Kelly, Megyn (26 September 2012). "Students Choose to Go Hungry Rather than Eat Healthy School Lunches Fox News Insider. FOX News Network. Retrieved 13 February 2013. "Michelle Obama 's Low-Calorie School Lunches Slammed By 'Hungry ' High Schoolers" Huff Post Black Voices. TheHuffingtonPost.com. 2 October 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2013. Will McMahon, Tim Marsh (1999). Filling the Gap: free school meals, nutrition and poverty. Child Poverty Action Group. p. 48. ISBN 1-901698-25-4