Sugar and salt will be reduced from the foods served at schools around the country. This comes as the U.S. Department of Agriculture issues new nutritional guidelines for schools — and Montgomery County Public Schools says it welcomes the updated rules.
“We are excited about the direction these new rules bring our school nutrition programs,” said Elizabeth Leach, director of the MCPS Division of Food and Nutrition Services.
Some of the changes proposed include reducing the amount of added sugar in meals, so that by 2027, added sugar does not exceed 10% of the total calories per week for school meals.
Leach said the school system already meets the requirement when it comes to milk and cereal and will soon do the same with yogurt.
“We actually started tasting reduced sugar yogurt this school year. We didn’t tell the students, of course, that it had less sugar in it, we just asked them if they liked it or not,” she said.
That yogurt will be on the menu full time in the fall.
With sodium, the new rules call for a near 30% decrease in the amount of salt in meals, but schools will have the ability to phase in the changes.
“We want to taste test recipes with students, we want to make sure our new recipes are things that students are going to be excited about,” Leach said.
She said at schools, 45% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and for many of the children who fall into that category, the meals they get at school will be the most nutritious meals they’ll have — so making sure they like the meals is important.
After all, if what is served isn’t tasty, it turns into waste.
“We want to feed their bellies, not our trash cans,” Leach said.
Another new rule that allows the schools to serve grain or a protein — or a mix of the two for breakfast — is another part of the changes Leach welcomes.
“Right now, we wouldn’t be able to serve a yogurt smoothie, which is really popular with the kids for breakfast, and then wouldn’t meet the full requirement,” she said.
She said the school system is already taste testing some varieties of smoothies, including blueberry, strawberry and peach.
With more from-scratch cooking, Leach said the price tag jumps for meals, so the current federal reimbursement rate would need to go up as well.
“The $4.35 for lunch and $2.28 for breakfast is not enough for school districts to purchase quality food, to provide culinary training to staff and pay a competitive wage, and purchase and maintain kitchen equipment,” Leach said.
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