School Lunch Makeover

Students headed back to school this fall will notice changes in their school lunches. The USDA has released new nutritional requirements for public schools to follow starting this year. Schools must offer more whole grains and make sure that every student has a fruit or vegetable on their tray before they can get through the line. For those of us who grew up in the fifties and sixties this sounds like a no brainer. Who didn’t have to sit in the lunchroom at least once while the other kids went to recess because we had yet to eat our peas, green beans, broccoli, or brussels sprouts. My husband has his own grade school story about green beans and projectile vomiting. Now days though I guess the government has to lay down the law when it comes to healthy school lunches. Flavored milk, we just had the plain white variety in school when I was a kid, now has to be skim, and 1% is to be unflavored. Schools will now have to meet minimum requirements on dark green vegetables, as well red, orange, and yellow fruits and vegetables and legumes a week. Coming in the near future will be sodium and caloric level requirements for school lunches, and probably a lot of missed recesses.