School district lunch programs flex with new guidelines

School district lunch programs flex with new guidelines
Districts meeting nutritional guidelines

Many of the school districts in the area have been proactive in offering students healthy, nutritional lunches so the Healthy Schools Act proposed by Governor Eliot Spitzer will fit in easily with what they have been doing all along.

Maureen Watt, director of food service at Brockport Central School, said the schools have known this was coming down the road and she feels it is a very good thing. "Some districts needed the structure as proposed in the Act," she said. "A lot of states and districts are dealing with nutrition issues but Brockport has been traveling this road for many years now."

She and Julie Kirby, RN, school nurse at the Holley Central School District, cite proactive school boards and administrations with being able to offer more nutritious meals and snacks for students.

"A few years ago, Brockport adopted an obesity prevention mission statement and has been adhering to that," Watt said.

Nancy Armocida, who serves on the Wellness Committee at the Hilton Central School, said in addition to increasing the wellness of students by offering healthy lunch alternatives Hilton has been awarded a Physical Education Program grant as a way to offer more PE classes and fitness equipment. "We are also constantly reviewing the nutritional value of our food offerings and have opted to participate in the New York State Nutrition Association's Choose Sensible program in the elementary schools," she said.

Brockport also undertook a breakfast assessment and looked at ways to encourage students to eat healthy breakfasts. "For years it was mandated that breakfast had to be offered to kindergarten through sixth grade students but we felt that the program needed to be opened up for kindergarten through 12th grade, so we started offering breakfast (both free and reduced and paid) for all the students," Watt said.

The districts have moved away from offering fried foods and have gone to baked products with zero trans fat and have been introducing more whole grain products. "Every time the federal dietary guidelines change, the school criteria changes as well," Watt said.

Offering healthy alternatives is one way to teach the children better nutritional habits, but teaching healthy habits also has to be a part of the curriculum, Kirby said. "Every day I offer a Wellness Wake Up call to the students and offer a healthy tip for the day to reinforce what they may be seeing in the lunchroom or just as a way to help them incorporate some healthy alternatives," she said.

While Watt and Kirby feel that offering healthy lunches and healthier snack alternatives is the way to go, it isn't without some additional costs. Watt also felt that Spitzer's policy, as written, would be hard to police. "Also, if the program isn't supported with some sort of federal or state money it will be very hard for districts to balance what they need to be offering the students without causing a burden on the taxpayers to fund it," she said.

"We're really on a roll in the district and it is certainly one of our priorities now and will continue to be in the future," Watt said. "You can't change the thinking or eating habits of an individual overnight, but with baby steps you can introduce and reinforce healthy habits.

Governor Spitzer's Healthy Schools Act includes provisions that say that meals served in schools must be trans fat free and must meet limits on sodium and cholesterol; entrees sold separately from reimbursable school meals will have standards set for fat, sugar and sodium and will limit the types of beverages that can be sold in the schools to water, 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice, low- or non-fat milk, among other provisions.

The bill also aims to improve the school environment by encouraging healthy eating behaviors and physical activity. Among those initiatives is one that makes available ideas for healthy fundraising and classroom celebrations.