When President Obama commented on staying committed to food-based regulations during the State of the Union address on Tuesday, he was not messing around. 2012 has only just begun, and the USDA is already moving ahead and upping the ante with new school lunch guidelines that call for nutritional upgrades like brown rice, whole grain pastas, and a wider variety of fruits and vegetables.
As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, those in favor of getting our next generation healthier and combating childhood obesity are enthusiastic about the new standards and the difference it could make for the 32 million children partaking in school breakfast and lunch programs:
"Parents can now imagine their children coming home from school with a newfound love for spinach, sweet potatoes and whole-wheat spaghetti," said Dawn Undurraga, staff nutritionist with Environmental Working Group, which works on public health issues, in a statement. "That's a positive development that will have a lasting impact as they grow into strong, fit young adults."
A lot of schools, on the other hand, are somewhat less enthused. Federal funding for public schools demands that they comply with these new regulations – but the Chronicle reports that each healthier meal is expected to cost an additional 10 cents per lunch and 27 cents per breakfast for each of those 32 million students. The USDA is offering an additional 6 cents of funding for schools per meal, but that’s still millions out of pocket from public schools that are already facing financial troubles as it is.
"Our schools will just have to absorb the shortfall, as they always have, driving the deficit for our (district's) student nutrition department even higher," said Dana Woldow, founder of PEACHSF.org, a school food advocacy site. "We must decide whether it is worth it to spend a little more money now to adequately fund school nutrition programs, so that children can learn to make healthy eating habits a way of life. ... There is no free lunch."
But some schools (the Chronicle article references the Berkeley school district) have already begun implementing similar healthy school lunch plans ahead of time – such districts are making it work financially through the contributions of families who can afford to pay the full school lunch price. Hopefully this kind of success can be replicated across the country by the time the guidelines go into effect this fall.
[Source: San Francisco Chronicle]
