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Schools

New Federal School Lunch Rules? Minneapolis Beat Them To It

The rules try to fight childhood obesity, but the transition to healthier foods hasn't always been smooth.

Last month, the federal government finished collecting comments from school districts on its new school lunch guidelines, but as it turns out, Minneapolis has been ahead of the curve on providing its students with nutritious breakfasts and lunches.

The obesity-fighting federal guidelines direct school districts to limit calories and sodium, and add more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat-free and low-fat milk. The Department of Agriculture has produced this hypothetical menu showing ways districts could meet the new guidelines, compared to ways districts met the old rules.

Two years ago, though, Minneapolis’ school board voted to approve new school meals rules that go just about as far as the federal guidelines, said Rosemary Dederichs, Minneapolis Public School’s Director of Food Services.

Like the federal guidelines, MPS has been trying to work additional fruits into its breakfasts and lunches, and offer more “fresh” foods like sandwiches or salads that are prepared the day they’re served. In an effort to cut the sodium and other additives in school meals, Dederichs said, this year her department eliminated all processed foods like hot dogs and chicken nuggets.

Dederichs said that she and her staff have even tried to work organic and locally-grown food into the meals when they can, given its sometimes-higher costs. Still, this doesn’t happen too often, Dederichs said, because of the sheer volumes of food MPS buys every day.

“Last fall we were planning on using locally grown watermelon twice in september and marketing [to students] it as ‘locally grown,’” Dederichs said, laughing. “The problem was, just for the first time we used 700 watermelons and wiped out the guys’ crop so we couldn’t put it on the menu a second time!”

The bill that directed the Department of Agriculture to create the new federal regulations also included a modest increase in school meals funding for school districts, but some districts have openly worried about the cost—$6.8 billion for local districts over the next five years, according to Education Week. Dederichs says that Minneapolis’ similar regulations aren’t adding much in the way of costs.

That's partly because her office has consciously eliminated less-healthy things like dessert and fast food. They've also centralized all the cooking at one building. The food is packaged and sent out to every school in the morning.

“If the kids needed to eat at school they should be eating healthy meals,” Dederichs said.

That’s not to say that every student has immediately cottoned on to the district’s good intentions. For example, a black bean and corn salad that Dederichs described as “wonderful” hasn’t caught on yet, she said.

In another example, Washburn High School principal Carol Markham-Cousins banned a student and parent-run store outside the lunch-room from selling candy bars and soda, partly in response to the district’s new nutrition guide. Profits went towards student activities.

“They were basically selling alternatives to the lunch-room food,” Markham-Cousins said. “I said that OK, you can sell Washburn Wear, and maybe some juice.”

Some students at the school protested, even taking their case to Associate Superintendent Theresa Battle at a March parents’ meeting at Burroughs Elementary.

“Of course we do fundraising all the time because we don’t get adequate funding from the state and federal government,” she said. “But we were making money off of our own students filling them with what?”

Markham-Cousins is holding firm on the sweets.

“Oh, kids always complain about the food; sometimes for good reasons, sometimes not,” Markham-Cousins said. “The bottom line is that we’re working towards healthy food and healthy kids.”

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