First Time In 15 Years U.S. Public School Menus With Higher Healthier Nutrition Standards

Over hauling a national school diet of mostly greasy, over-processed foods with little nutritional value, First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack have unveiled new healthier meal requirements that will raise nutritional standards for the first time in 15 years.

Photo courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel.

“As parents, we try to prepare decent means, limit how much junk food our kids eat, and ensure that they have a reasonably balanced diet. And when we are putting in all that effort the last thing we want is for our hard work to be undone each day in the school cafeteria,” said the first lady.

“When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won’t be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from at home. We want the food they get at school to be the same kind of food we would serve at our own kitchen tables,” she added.

The new healthier meal requirements – which will start phasing in this summer – are a key component of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was championed by the first lady as part of her Let’s Move! campaign and signed into law by the president.

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Parents and Schools: Joining Together to Make Food Allergy Management Work

Image courtesy of Chelsey Amer NutritionMaking sure students with food allergies are safe in schools is always a community effort, joining everyone together- parents, the allergic children, schoolmates, medical providers, school faculty, and public officials who make policy.

The greatest advocates though for allergic children must always be their parents. This was a key theme of the third and final session of the School Nutrition Foundation’s webinar series dealing with food allergies.

Parents are the ones who need to both inform everyone else about their children’s medical issues as well as become educated about what benefits their children are entitled to have.

Emphasizing this position was Deb Scherrrer, vice president of education programs at the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, who said, “The parents educate the school staff about the child’s medical condition. They collaborate with the school chain to establish avoidance strategies and participate in the development of the emergency plan.”

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Education Experts Share Ways of Developing Food Allergy Policies for Schools

Graphic courtesy of achooallergy.com.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.- Witnessing the number of school age children with food allergies increase “dramatically” over the last decade, “schools now have a critical role to play in preventing medical emergencies as well as responding to such emergencies,” said Brenda Z. Greene, director of school health programs at the National School Board Association, Alexandria, Va.

Ms. Greene gave her comments during the second session of the School Nutrition Foundation’s three-part webinar series. In this second session dealing with food allergy management policy making, Ms. Greene added that, “policy is the underpinning of the government in the local school districts and schools.

“The 15,000 school boards across the country are governed by the policies they adopt, which must comply with federal, state, and local laws.”

Ms. Greene though cautioned, saying, “We learned that one size does not fit all and policy needs to protect, but it also needs to be flexible. Local conditions and capacities vary.”

As part of developing policy strategies that can be incorporate into school districts around the country, the NSBA is working with the Division of Adolescent School Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network.

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