Healthier Options to Appear on Hingham School Lunch Menus

When Hingham students return to school in September they will see healthier options on their lunch menu

Hingham school cafeterias will serve more fruits and vegetables and less sodium to meet new federal nutrition standards for school meals.

School lunches will meet age-appropriate calorie limits  and cafeterias will offer larger servings of fruits and vegetables. The cafeterias will now also offer more whole wheat options, less foods with high levels of sodium, and offer only fat free of 1 percent milk.

Every  meal will also include one serving of produce and the schools are pushing to serve a larger selection of fruits and vegetables,  including dark green and red and orange vegetables and legumes.

In her new blog on Hingham Patch, Kimberly Smyth, Food Service Director for Hingham Schools said the big changes that students will need to get used to are the whole grains and the reduced portion sizes of the proteins and grains. Smyth said the regulations are requiring grains to be 50 percent or more whole grain. She also noted that there will  specific types of vegetables that must be served weekly.

“We’re always working to offer our students healthier and tastier choices,” said Smyth in an email to parents last Spring.  “We are committed to bringing in the freshest tastiest products as possible.  We will be working with local chefs to help enhance the menu offerings.”

The Hingham schools are also currently in the process of searching for a company that will allow the community to have online accounts for their students.  With this new device, students will be able to view what was purchased at lunch and  will have a pin number attached to their account, Smyth said.

In addition to the changes, Hingham cafeterias are also going green.

The lunch programs at all six public schools will change their serving plates over from Styrofoam to paper.

“The school lunch program hopes to reduce the amount of trash while increasing the presentation of school lunch,” Smyth said. “Last year we tried it at the high school one day per week for approximately six weeks. It substantially reduced the amount of trash and the kids liked it. One student said, ‘It was more like eating at home.’ “