USDA Releases New School Meal Patterns
Nine Mile School District Is Ahead Of The Game
The new nationwide nutrition standards for school meals are great news for our kids. They will help school nutrition professionals build on the work we are already doing to provide more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthier entrees in our school cafeterias.
In Nine Mile school district, we have already made progress toward meeting the new nutrition standards.
• We serve fruits & vegetables every day.
• Our power salad is full of fresh spinach
• We already serve only fat-free or 1% milk
• Our rice, pasta, breads, pizza crusts, tortillas, and cookies are whole grain
• Our cafeterias use low fat cheese and have reduced the sodium in many entrees
• All weekly menus are <10% saturated fat of total calories
Over the next few months, we’ll be building on the progress we’ve made and planning our menus for next school year to meet these new nutrition guidelines.
We’ll face challenges to meet all the new requirements on a tight budget, but our school nutrition program will work hard to make these healthy changes for our students.
We hope parents will support this effort by encouraging their students to give the healthier meals a try. Students are far more likely to pick up a fruit or vegetable in the lunch line if they have been introduced to those foods at home.
For more specific information on the new meal patterns go to: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Governance/Legislation/nutritionstandards.htm