USDA proposes healthier school lunches, Redding schools already meet standards

REDDING, Calif. — — The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced proposals that would update school meal standards, including reducing sugar and adding more whole wheat options. There is also a focus on helping rural school districts.

In 2022,USDA issued transitional nutrition standards for School Years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 to give schools clear guidance after requirements were temporarily loosened during the height of the pandemic.

The USDA said they listened to concerns of parents, nutrition experts, and public health leaders to create the new guidelines.The Food and Nutrition Service made a few key proposal to be gradually implemented over the next few years.

Nutrition updates include:

• Limiting added sugars in certain high-sugar products and, later, across the weekly menu;
• Allowing flavored milk in certain circumstances and with reasonable limits on added sugars;
• Incrementally reducing weekly sodium limits over many school years; and
• Emphasizing products that are primarily whole grain, with the option for occasional non-whole grain products.

"Research shows school meals are the healthiest meals in a day for most kids, proving that they are an important tool for giving kids access to the nutrition they need for a bright future," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. "We must all step up to support child health if we are to achieve the Biden-Harris Administration's goal of ending hunger and reducing diet-related diseases by 2030, in accordance with the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. Strengthening school meals is one of the best ways we can achieve that goal.”

Tawny Cowell, Director of Nutrition Services and Facilities at Redding Elementary School District, said they are already meeting those new standards and they work to source as much of their food locally as possible.

"I'm proud to say that at Reading School District, we are actually already meeting all of the new requirements that have been put out by USDA and we have been for some time, but that's not the case for everywhere," Cowell said. "So we get the reduced sugar, the whole grains, locally sourced fruits and vegetables. We've even gotten the extra step to grow what to some have coined as hyper local and that we grow half of our lettuce right at one of our middle schools that goes on all our salad bars."

The USDA also said they are going to continue to assist small and rural school districts in improving the nutritional quality of school meals. Cowell said this is important because while their district has the tools, not ever small school does.

"We live in an area where for some kids this is the only meal they get a day and so it's so important that they get something that's well balanced, nutritious that give some options," Cowell said. "The other thing that's really important about school lunch is exposure. We expose them to all different kinds of things. We do different fruits and vegetables each month."

FNS encourages all interested parties to comment on the proposed school meal standards rule during the 60-day comment period that begins February 7, 2023.