School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children

Ensuring that the food provided to children in schools is consistent with current dietary recommendations is an important national focus. Various laws and regulations govern the operation of school meal programs. In 1995, Nutrition Standards and Meal Requirements were put in place to ensure that all meals offered would be high in nutritional quality.

School Meals reviews and provides recommendations to update the nutrition standard and the meal requirements for the National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs. The recommendations reflect new developments in nutrition science, increase the availability of key food groups in the school meal programs, and allow these programs to better meet the nutritional needs of children, foster healthy eating habits, and safeguard children's health.

School Meals sets standards for menu planning that focus on food groups, calories, saturated fat, and sodium and that incorporate Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Dietary Reference Intakes. This book will be used as a guide for school food authorities, food producers, policy leaders, state/local governments, and parents.

• Front Matter
• Summary
• 1 Introduction and Background
• 2 Foundation for Revising Nutrition Standards and Meal Requirements
• 3 Schoolchildren's Food and Nutrient Intakes and Related Health Concerns
• 4 Process for Developing the Nutrient Targets
• 5 Process for Developing the Meal Requirements
• 6 Iterations - Achieving the Best Balance of Nutrition, Student Acceptance, Practicality, and Cost
• 7 Recommendations for Nutrient Targets and Meal Requirements for School Meals
• 8 Food Cost Implications and Market Effects
• 9 Projected Impact of the Recommended Nutrient Targets and Meal Requirements
• 10 Implementation, Evaluation, and Research
• 11 References
• Appendix A: Acronyms, Abbreviations, and Glossary
• Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members
• Appendix C: Critical Issues for Consideration by the Committee on Nutrition Standards for National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, as Submitted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Appendix D: January 2009 Workshop Agenda and Summary of Public Comments
• Appendix E: Standards for the Current Food- and Nutrient-Based Menu Planning Approaches
• Appendix F: Data Used to Calculate Estimated Energy Requirements
• Appendix G: Data Tables Containing Examples of New SNDA-III Analyses
• Appendix H: Uses of MyPyramid Food Groups and the MyPyramid Spreadsheet
• Appendix I: Dietary Intake Data and Calculation of the Target Median Intake for Iron
• Appendix J: Target Median Intake (TMI) Tables
• Appendix K: Use of the School Meals Menu Analysis Program
• Appendix L: Baseline Menus
• Appendix M: Sample Menus
• Appendix N: Evidence Considered Related to the Definition for Whole Grain-Rich Foods
• Appendix O: Comparison of Recommended Nutrient Targets to Various Nutrition Standards for School-Aged Children
• Appendix P: Comparison of *Dietary Guidelines for Americans* with Recommended Meal Requirements
• Appendix Q: Regulations Related to the Sodium Content of Foods Labeled Healthy