Proposed Nutrition Standards for the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Programs

The USDA has recently released a proposed rule that would change the nutrition standards for meals served through the NSLP and SBP. These would update the nutrition standards created in 1995 based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Some of the proposed changes include the following:

Fruit: At breakfast students would be offered 1 cup for each grade. At lunch 1 cup per day would be offered for grades 9-12.

Vegetables: Grades K-8 would offer ¾ cup and 9-12 would offer 1 cup per day. These would include more dark green leafy and orange vegetables in addition to more legumes.

Grains: Half the grains offered should be whole grain rich

Milk: Students would be offered 1% milk and skim unflavored and flavored milks

Meat or Meat Alternatives: At lunch students will be offered 2 oz. on most days, with local flexibility for higher grades.

Other changes would include banning trans fats, calorie minimum and maximum requirements, and reducing sodium

Maschio's is already on the forefront of this movement:

We currently offer fresh fruits and vegetables daily, in addition to nutrient rich vegetables such as spinach salads, carrot dippers and baked sweet potato fries. In most schools we currently offer more than the required ½ cup serving for fruits and vegetables.

Maschio's has been promoting the health benefits of whole grains for quite some time, in fact most of our schools use at least half whole grains, and some even use only whole grains.

We menu legumes as well, with black beans and chickpeas being the students favorites.

1% and skim milks are offered in all schools

Two Registered Dietitians review our school menus to ensure they meet the nutrition and calorie standards for each grade level, and ensure that no products we use contain trans fat.

Our staff works closely with vendors to encourage the creation of low sodium, low fat, whole grain products for our schools.

These changes are expected to be required in the 2012-2013 school year, however, as Maschio's strives to be constantly ahead of the nutrition curve, you will see these changes being made in Maschio's programs much earlier.