Politics & Government
Candy, Chips, Pop Gone from School Cafeterias
New statewide restrictions will mean only healthy choices for students
Students may not be so pleased when they see the new menus at their school cafeterias next year.
Jill Orris, the district’s food services supervisor, told the June 2 that the Healthy Choices for Healthy Children Act – otherwise known as Senate Bill 210 – is intended to combat childhood obesity by increasing students’ physical activity and access to healthy food and beverages.
SB 210 will restrict high fat, sugar, calorie and sodium a-la-carte items, like deep-fried foods, candy bars and canned or bottled soda from being served during school hours, Orris said.
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To determine which foods make the health cut, Orris and her team have been computing the nutritional content of various selections against the guidelines set by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.
“What we’re finding is that we’re just struggling trying to find products that meet these guidelines,” she said. “I put rice cakes in this product calculator just to see if I could sell them. I can’t even sell rice cakes. If you’ve ever had those, there aren’t a lot of calories or fat but the restriction on that particular item is sodium.
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“Everything is being restricted, so it’s a very, very time consuming process to run all the a-la-carte items through this calculator.”
The district will also be asked to conduct body mass index screenings for students at the kindergarten, third, fifth and ninth grade levels. The information will be submitted to and tracked by the Ohio Department of Education.
Mark Donnelly, the district’s business services manager, said the changes could negatively affect food sales.
The district currently makes around $420,000 a year on a-la-carte sales alone, and he’s concerned that revenues will drop if students don’t opt for next year’s state-approved health food selections.
He suggested a “three-pronged” strategy to fix the anticipated problem, which includes raising lunch prices, marketing foods to increase revenues and taking a hard look at food costs to see where reductions can be made.