Nutritional Requirements

In order to receive reimbursement, each school is expected to meet requirements set by the USDA in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

To meet USDA requirements the average school meal, analyzed weekly must:

contain no more than 30 percent of calories from fat;
contain no more than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat; and
provide one-third of the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) for protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium, and calories.

Many doctors and nutritionists argue that these guidelines, while a good start, still fall far short of what is needed to plan truly healthy meals for children.

The 2004 reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act requires every school receiving federal funds for food service programs to adopt a wellness policy by the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year. Each school’s wellness policy must include:

goals for nutrition, education, physical activity, and other school-based activities to promote student wellness;
nutrition guidelines for all foods available on each school campus during the school day;
a plan for measuring the implementation of the wellness policy; and
plans to involve the parents, students, and other school faculty and the public in the development of the policy.

A reimbursable lunch must include at least three menu items. These items must include entrée and cow’s milk as a beverage. All menu items or foods offered as part of a reimbursable lunch will contribute to meet the nutrition standards and must be included in the nutrition analysis. Foods served a la carte and foods of minimal nutritional value are not to be included in the menu analysis, unless offered as part of school lunch meal.

Schools may use one of five types of menu planning systems to guarantee meals meet nutritional requirements: food-based menu planning, enhanced food-based menu planning, nutrient-standard menu planning, assisted nutrient standard menu planning, and alternate menu planning.

Recent findings of the second School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study (SNDA II) show that schools are falling far short of meeting USDA requirements. For starters, meals are too high in fat. The school year 1998/99 survey shows that, on average, 33 percent of calories in elementary school lunch come from fat and only 20 percent of all schools meet the from the guidelines for total fat in the average lunch, and only 14 percent of schools meet the guidelines for saturated fat.