Health Hunger-Free Kids Act

As many of you are aware, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 has been met with resistance, by not only parents and students, but by elected officials as well.

Recently, Congressional delegates from many states (including North Dakota and South Dakota) have introduced legislation that would eliminate the caps on grains and lean-meat protein sources that are currently limited in the new guidelines.

Although these are great steps in making the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act a better tool to tackle issues with school lunch, I personally feel that focusing on just those two limitations is not enough to make a change in the program. Calorie caps cannot be mandated on a national level. There are too many variables that can be better addressed locally.

These boys come in all shapes and sizes, and there appetites and nutritional requirements do, too!

And isn’t that what we strive for? Local control over local issues?

So, if the federal mandates on school lunch are not satisfactory, what do they tackle next? School snacks. That’s right, we now have proposed guidelines that address items that are sold in school, including fundraisers and items sold during the school day (including seconds, or ala carte items).

Here are some of the changes that are proposed:

– Limiting the amount and use of accompaniments used with food, such as cream cheese, salad dressing and butter. They also propose that accompaniments be pre-portioned and included in the “nutrient profile” when served. For example, if a bagel were served they would possibly include a pre-determined amount of cream cheese, and those calories would be included in the calorie limit, whether or not the student would want to use cream cheese.

– Limiting the calories allowed for snacks. The proposed limits are 200 calories for snack items, 350 calories for entrée items. Remember when the solution to hungry athletes was to allow them to purchase seconds if they needed more food to get through the day? Well, now those seconds will be limited as well.

– School fundraisers would be encouraged to not involve food items. Those items that do not fall into the proposed guidelines would be limited. Although, there is some confusion in this section of the proposal, since the guidelines would not apply to non-school hours.

– All schools could sell plain water, plain low-fat milk, plain or flavored fat-free milk and milk alternatives and 100% fruit or vegetable juice, but elementary school could only sell up to 8-ounce portions, while middle schools and high schools could sell up to 12 ounce portions. Ironically, you could not sell a regular cola, but a diet cola would be OK.

The list continues on, and gets even more complicated. But the beauty of it all, is that this is just a proposal. It is open for public comment until April 9, so let’s be sure that our voices are heard, loud and clear, before the final recommendations are set.

Our kids are depending on us to make the right decisions, and we cannot rely on anyone else to make them for us.

Need more information? There will be a public webinar on Thursday, March 28 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. EST.

I’ve been pretty vocal about my disdain for the changes made to the school lunch menu. On that note, let’s take a look at a sample menu:

Fresh apple
Spanish omelet
Potatoes
Pkg. Cream of Wheat
3 slices bread
2 cups skim milk
2 pkg jelly
2 margarine
Kosher beverage

Sounds good, right??? That’s what I thought. Unfortunately, that’s the menu being served to our prisoners in federal prisons. That’s right. Prisoners are being fed better than our
own children.

Let’s take a look at another menu:

Mango, ginger and curry soup
Mediterranean pasta salad
Tarragon farmers salad
All natural turkey BLTs with basil mayo
Grilled Portobello Ciabatta with roasted red pepper spread
Ginger glazed carrots
Red, white and blue chips
Farmer’s market melon
Organic milk, greens station, all natural deli bar, whole fruit always available

Sounds pretty extravagant, right? That’s the menu being served at the private school where the Obama’s children attend. I understand that not all schools are on a level playing field when it comes to school lunches, but it the new mandates are so great, why aren’t all schools expected to follow them? Especially this school.

Here’s the last sample menu:

Hamburger
Baked beans
Fruit
Milk

Doesn’t sound like much, does it? A little lacking in a few areas? That’s the menu that is offered to my children.

And we wonder why kids that have the option to leave campus are now eating at the local gas station and bakery shops. I’m sure the local businesses are enjoying the boom, but it would be nice if the children that would like to eat at school actually felt like the food was able to meet their needs. And as a parent, I agree.

I enjoy the fact that our schools are now expected to serve fresh fruits and vegetables, but to require it is ridiculous. Where are we supposed to get fresh fruit from in December? What will it take to ship it in? What will the shelf life be for it? What do we do if no one eats school lunch that week?

Yes, changes may be needed to our school lunch menu, but those changes need to be made at the local level, with no ties to federal funding.

So many have stated that if you aren’t happy, if your children aren’t fed, just pack a lunch. There’s nothing you can do once it’s implemented.

Wrong.

We can fight for those that cannot fight for themselves. And we can work for a sensible change that can actually help our children throughout the day, not set them up for failure.

Soon our school won’t be needing many of these, as the number of students eating at school drops.

Due to the widespread claim that these new, improved lunches are the best thing since sliced bread (which, by the way, is no longer offered as an alternative to the main entree at our school) (oh, and pun intended), and that we need to use these guidelines to curb the rampant obesity in our schools, my 10-year-old is no longer eating much of anything. He was never a big eater, but always ate what was needed through the day. He’s now concerned that he’s overweight, because “the news says that most kids weigh too much.”

Thank you, main stream media, for giving my child a food complex that didn’t exist before…and thank you, current administration, for taking children that are impressionable and at-risk for food disorders for making it impossible for kids not to stress over what they eat.

My solution: Let food decisions be made at the local level, where the school lunch experts know their students, know the climate and know what will work. Educate about nutrition, teach proper eating habits, but please, do not tell our children that they are fat. (Oh, and most children over the age of 7 know what the word obese means…that doesn’t make it better.) If you want to see real change, start at home. Make an effort to reach those parents that don’t understand, or just don’t care what they are feeding their children.

School lunch is not to blame for the childhood obesity issue, and putting our children on a diet during the school lunch day will not solve the problem. If anything, it has encouraged binge eating and unhealthy food choices after school.

It’s time to start using common sense…but unfortunately, it’s not so common.