Our Commitment to Good Nutrition for Your Kids Just Keeps Getting Stronger.
This school year, we're reinforcing our commitment to new USDA guidelines for even
healthier meals for your kids. We're using the message pictured here to keep reminding
kids of the basic change they still need to be aware of—that they must choose at least
one fruit or vegetable among the three meal components they need to take for a complete
lunch—but there's more to the on-going changes that we want to share with parents.
Here are the major differences:
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Calorie maximums per average meal were new at the start of the last school year.
Since then, USDA has given us more flexibility within the calorie maximums, so that
we can serve more grains and proteins when that makes more sense in a given day's
menu. The calorie maximums per average meal have not changed, but we're able to
serve more grains and proteins within the maximums.
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Students still must choose at least one fruit or veggie serving, and we encourage
them to choose more if they like.
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Students have a greater selection and variety of fruits and veggies to choose from,
too. Every day, we're offering at least ¾–1 cup of veggies plus
½–1 cup of fruit.
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We're emphasizing the healthiest veggies more often, with weekly offerings of
healthy dark green and red/orange vegetables, as well as beans and other legumes.
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Whole grains are up again. At least 50% of all grain foods we serve are
whole-grain rich, and within another year, all of the grains we serve will be
whole-grain rich.
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Bad fats are down. Meals average less than 10% calories from saturated fat, and
every item contains zero grams per serving of trans fat.
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We're serving only fat-free unflavored, 1% unflavored, and fat-free flavored milks.
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We're meeting new standards for limiting sodium until we reach a final maximum of
740 mg sodium per meal on average.
Putting these changes in place over the last year has required careful planning on our
part, especially as we (and our customers!) have been getting used to the new
guidelines. But the end result is healthier meals for our kids—and well-nourished kids
do better in school!
Please visit www.travtalk.org
for more details.
Wellness Policy - Section E - EFA