Back to School -- and Back to the School Lunch Debate

These past few weeks, children across the country have donned their new school clothes, shouldered their backpacks and returned to classrooms. They also returned to cafeterias where they will encounter healthier meals and less junk food. Since the new U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines went into effect in 2012, schools have been incorporating changes in their food service programs to combat the obesity epidemic that continues to plague this generation of children ( not to mention adults). And while the politicking around this issue has been relatively quiet over the summer, the debate remains active, and the fate of school lunch still hangs in the balance.

In May, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee passed a bill that would allow school districts to opt out of the USDA regulations for up to one year if they can show financial difficulty in meeting them. This would ensure that schools that need the most help will be the ones falling even more behind. The bill, which was up for a House vote earlier this summer, was tabled and still awaits action. According to a September 5 article in AgWeek, "The Agricultural Appropriations Bill is mired in conflicts over whether the healthier meals rules for the school lunch and breakfast programs should be changed."

The USDA rules regarding school meals should never have been part of the appropriations process, which is used to allocate federal funding. The USDA is charged with determining the best strategies to ensure that health and nutrition are the central goals of school food. House representatives shouldn't override decisions based on years of scientific research conducted by experts. But because of lobbying efforts by the School Nutrition Association, they are doing just that. The SNA cites district difficulties in meeting the new guidelines, but some experts in the field wonder if their efforts are the result of corporate donors' interests, not their members' interests.

The possibility of the setback is one more case of politics and corporate interest trumping science and the well-being of our most vulnerable population: our children. And it is without merit. School districts that are struggling need -- and should receive -- help in the form of technical assistance and grant funding. But the truth is that the vast majority of districts are successfully meeting the guidelines. Armed with the foresight that came when the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed in 2010, school food service directors across the country have been using innovation and creativity to create healthy meals. And students are eating them. Mother Jones reports that a recent study published in Childhood Obesity reveals that 70 percent of 537 elementary school administrators say kids like their new lunches.

A quick glimpse at just a few school innovations shows why:

Aurora Public Schools, Colorado

Scratch-cooking has been key to Aurora Public Nutrition Services for four years. "The more we can cook from scratch, the more we can control what the students are eating -- the fat, sodium and sugar. And it must taste good as well," food service director Mona Martinez-Brosh said in a recent story by CBS Denver.

Brosh has also incorporated all-you-can-eat salad bars at most of her 59 schools, and she prioritizes a culturally-diverse menu for her students, who speak more than 100 languages at home. She's noticed an improvement in eating habits as a result of more choice: "We have discovered our students really like fresh fruits and vegetables."

[Read: The Future of School Food Means the Future Health of the Nation's Children .]

Cincinnati Public Schools, Ohio

Food service director Jessica Shelly achieved $2.7 million in profits during the first year of the new USDA guidelines. In a FoodService Director article, Shelly says part of the reason incorporating the new guidelines was easy was because her team was already serving all the vegetable subgroups required every day.

Shelly made salad bars a big part of her food service program, at no extra cost to the district. Through grants, donations and partnerships, each one of her 55 schools now has a salad bar, and she attributes an increase in student participation to them. She also cites marketing and nutrition education to her success. Her "Mentoring Monday" program offers lunch for free to all faculty members who will eat it with students in the cafeteria, serving as role models.

Challenges, like reducing sodium, provided opportunities for creativity. Shelly's "Flavor Stations" at the high schools allow students to season their own vegetables. "[W]e're putting out lemon pepper, cayenne seasoning, parsley flakes and red pepper flakes so the kids can season things themselves. They can create whatever they want in terms of flavor palate for that vegetable, so the sodium loss isn't noticed as much because they are creating a new flavor."

[Read: Why Kids Are Eating Fewer School Meals and Wasting More. ]

Minneapolis Public School District, Minnesota

Meeting the new USDA guidelines can be financially challenging, but Bertrand Weber, director of culinary and nutrition services at Minneapolis Public School District, shows it can be done on a small budget.

When Weber came on board in January 2012, his food budget was $15.6 million, compared with $23 million for the neighboring St. Paul school district, which was slightly bigger. According to Education Week, Weber is "steadily phasing out prepackaged meals assembled in a central kitchen and trucked to school lunchrooms, and replacing them with meals made from scratch and featuring fresh fruit, vegetables and meats and other ingredients that are locally sourced. Butternut-squash turkey chili, heirloom-tomato salsas and fresh salad bars are becoming fixtures in Minneapolis' school lunchrooms."

By raising the image of his program, Weber is increasing student participation, which increases revenue. To attract more students, he incorporated taste-testing of new menu items one day a week. Students were quick to dub that day "Real Food Day." In just two years, Weber has increased student participation by 8 percent.

There are hundreds of food services directors like these three around the country. T he Kids Safe and Healthful School Foods Project highlighted 13 school districts that are using creative strategies to successfully meet the USDA guidelines.

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act and the new USDA guidelines are inspiring school food services directors to be creative and innovative -- and successful -- in their approaches to healthier meals and snacks. The 2014-15 school year is going to be a great one for school food ... as long as Congress supports the new guidelines and stops trying to squash them.

[Read: The Sea Change in School Food .]

Chef Ann Cooper is a celebrated author, chef, educator and enduring advocate for better food for all children. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Ann has been a chef for more than 30 years, over 15 of those in school food programs. Her books, Bitter Harvest and Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children, established her as a leading advocate for safe, sustainable food. Known as the Renegade Lunch Lady, Ann has been honored by The National Resources Defense Council, selected as a Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow and awarded an honorary doctorate from SUNY Cobleskill for her work on sustainable agriculture. In 2009, Ann founded Food Family Farming Foundation (F3), a nonprofit focusing on solutions to the school food crisis. F3's pivotal project is The Lunch Box, a web portal that provides free and accessible tools, recipes and resources to support school food reform.