Reactions differ on less-restrictive school lunch nutrition guidelines

HILO — When Hawaii’s public school students return to classes in the fall, the program which serves up chicken burgers, pizza and nachos onto their lunch trays each day will have undergone a few changes.

The Trump administration earlier this month issued a proclamation that scales back milk, salt and whole-grain requirements in the National School Lunch Program, a longstanding federal meals program which reimburses public schools for lunches served each day, so long as they adhere to established U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrition guidelines.

About 95 percent of public schools throughout the country participate in the program, including every Hawaii Department of Education school.

In recent years, the program’s nutrition guidelines have become more stringent: Congress passed in 2010 the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, a law promoted by former first lady Michelle Obama that aimed to curb the nation’s growing child obesity rates.

Critics have said those Obama-era guidelines are too costly and have hampered participation. This month, Sonny Perdue, newly appointed USDA secretary, announced the proclamation, which he touts will “make school meals great again.”

Specifically, Perdue’s proclamation suspends sodium restrictions in lunches — which were set to be reduced in the next year — at current levels. It also allows schools experiencing “hardship” a continued exemption to serving 100 percent whole grain. Some schools reportedly have had “challenges in finding the full range of products they need,” Perdue said in a recent USDA news release.

And it allows schools to begin serving 1 percent fat flavored milk again. Under tightened nutrition guidelines, schools currently are limited to serving 1 percent regular or nonfat flavored milk.

With the interim rule in place, Perdue said the USDA will be working with schools to develop low-sodium menus while working out a “long-term solution.”

“If kids aren’t eating the food, and it’s ending up in the trash, they aren’t getting any nutrition – thus undermining the intent of the program,” Perdue said in the release.

The reform doesn’t change meals drastically to start — but opponents worry it could be the first of more changes that they say are ultimately unraveling progress made. Some research shows participation in the lunch program has increased among low-income students.

The proclamation didn’t go unnoticed by Michelle Obama, who said during a national summit this month she’ll continue pushing for strict nutrition guidelines.

“You have to stop and think, ‘Why don’t you want our kids to have good food at school? What is wrong with you, and why is that a partisan issue?” Obama said at the summit.

Perdue has pointed to an overall drop in participation, however, as a sign more flexibility is needed.

USDA data shows the number of lunches served nationally through the program declined from 5.21 billion in 2012 to 5.05 billion in 2016.

In Hawaii, there were 19.3 million meals served in 2012, compared to 17.95 million last year, a nearly 7 percent decline, though public school enrollment also dropped in that time (about 1.8 percent statewide).

Perdue said scaling the requirements back also will help lower costs. The federal school lunch budget increased $1.22 billion in fiscal year 2015 alone, he said.

The decades-old lunch program has weathered plenty of changes since it was established in 1946, an effort at the time to help improve the nutrition of post-World War II-era youth. Many were deemed unfit for military service because of poor nutrition.

In the 1980s, for example, the program’s budget was slashed dramatically. Portions were trimmed and eligibility requirements for low-income children to receive free and subsidized meals were tightened.

East Hawaii food service employees said the 2010 nutrition guideline changes have been aggressive.

“When new requirements came out, the plate looked really full,” said Peggy Kealoha, food service manager at Waiakea High School, noting Waiakea also prepares meals for a neighboring elementary school. “It was a lot for a kindergartner at 5 years old.”

The 2010 law curbed salt and fat allotments and upped fruit and veggie requirements, among other things. For example, every menu item on the Waiakea lunch menu — from cheeseburgers to spaghetti — is now prepared using 100 percent whole grain.

All items also meet strict salt limits, which have progressively tightened through the years and, before the proclamation was issued, and they were slated to continue decreasing — to half of current levels — by the 2022-23 school year.

Milk at Waiakea was limited this past school year to 1 percent regular or nonfat chocolate, and entrees served with up to 1 cup of fruit and 1 cup of vegetables per day. For example, pizza was dished with baby carrots, hummus and garden salad.

Kealoha, along with other food service managers, say new requirements have meant a lot of tweaking and adjusting in order to prepare menu items in a way students will still eat.

For example, Kealoha said, as spaghetti noodles changed over from a “regular white” to a “brown whole-grain noodle,” cafeteria staff vetted preparation options to keep entrees as appealing as possible.

“The thing for me is, I want to let the community know what we face,” said Napoleon Kailiawa, food service manager at Keaau High School. “(The food) their kids are getting served in our programs is not just like one school lunch. There are a lot of things we’ve got to provide to give nutritional meals to their kids. Some say, ‘Oh, yeah, I know my kids are going to be fed in school, but there’s a whole process to why we’re serving these things.”

Kailiawa and Kealoha are both leaders in the Hawaii School Nutrition Association, the state chapter of a longstanding nonprofit that represents about 57,000 school nutrition employees nationally, including several hundred in Hawaii.

The School Nutrition Association has applauded Perdue’s interim rule. The association has long argued nutrition guidelines established in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act are too restrictive and has instead requested “practical flexibility.” It says too-stringent nutrition rules result in lower participation, higher cost and more food waste.

“With these changes, I hope it will help our kids want to eat the food instead of end up in the garbage,” Kealoha said.

Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.