Meals at the school to have more vegetables, whole grains

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First lady Michelle Obama visits the cafeteria as she has lunch with school children at Parklawn elementary school in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday, Jan., 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) First lady Michelle Obama visits the cafeteria as she has lunch with school children at Parklawn elementary school in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday, Jan., 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) First lady Michelle Obama takes a bit of her turkey taco as she has lunch with school children at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) Celebrity cook Rachael Ray has lunch with school children at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday, Jan., 25, 2012. She joined first lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at the luncheon. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) First lady Michelle Obama visits the cafeteria as she has lunch with school children at Parklawn elementary school in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday, Jan., 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) First lady Michelle Obama has lunch with school children at Parklawn elementary school in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday,Jan., 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)eval("var currentItemd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 1;");eval("var nextd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 0;");eval("var previousd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 0;"); ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The first major nutritional overhaul of school meals in more than 15 years means most offerings — including the always popular pizza — will come with less sodium, more whole grains and a wider selection of fruits and vegetables on the side.

First lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the new guidelines during a visit Wednesday with elementary students. Mrs. Obama, also joined by celebrity chef Rachael Ray, said youngsters will learn better if they don't have growling stomachs at school.

"As parents, we try to prepare decent meals, limit how much junk food our kids eat, and ensure they have a reasonably balanced diet," Mrs. Obama said. "And when we're putting in all that effort the last thing we want is for our hard work to be undone each day in the school cafeteria."

After the announcement, the three went through the line with students and ate turkey tacos with brown rice, black bean and corn salad and fruit — all Ray's recipes — with the children in the Parklawn Elementary lunchroom.

Under the new rules, pizza won't disappear from lunch lines, but will be made with healthier ingredients. Entire meals will have calorie caps for the first time and most trans fats will be banned. Sodium will gradually decrease over a 10 year period. Milk will have to be low in fat and flavored milks will have to be nonfat.

Despite the improvements, the new rules aren't as aggressive as the Obama administration had hoped. Congress last year blocked the Agriculture Department from making some of the desired changes, including limiting french fries and pizzas.

A bill passed in November would require the department to allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. The initial draft of the department's guidelines, released a year ago, would have prevented that. Congress also blocked the department from limiting servings of potatoes to two servings a week. The final rules have incorporated those directions from Congress.

Among those who had sought the changes were potato growers and food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools. Conservatives in Congress called the guidelines an overreach and said the government shouldn't tell children what to eat. School districts also objected to some of the requirements, saying they go too far and would cost too much.

The guidelines apply to lunches subsidized by the federal government. A child nutrition bill signed by President Barack Obama in 2010 will help school districts pay for some of the increased costs. Some of the changes will take place as soon as this September; others will be phased in over time.

While many schools are improving meals already, others still serve children meals high in fat, salt and calories. The guidelines are designed to combat childhood obesity and are based on 2009 recommendations by the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

Vilsack said food companies are reformulating many of the foods they sell to schools in anticipation of the changes.

"The food industry is already responding," he said. "This is a movement that has started, it's gaining momentum."

Diane Pratt-Heavner of the School Nutrition Association, which represents school lunch workers, said that many schools won't count pizza as a vegetable even though they can. Students qualifying for subsidized meals must have a certain number of vegetables and other nutritious foods on their lunch trays.

"Most schools are serving fruit or vegetables next to their pizza and some schools are even allowing unlimited servings of fruit or vegetables," Pratt-Heavner said.

Celebrity chef Ray said she thinks too much has been made of the availability of pizza and French fries. The new rules will make kids' lunch plates much more nutrient dense, she said.

"The overall picture is really good," she said. "This is a big deal."

The subsidized meals that would fall under the guidelines are served as free and low-cost meals to low-income children and long have been subject to government nutrition standards. The 2010 law will extend, for the first time, nutrition standards to other foods sold in schools that aren't subsidized by the federal government. That includes "a la carte" foods on the lunch line and snacks in vending machines.

Those standards, while expected to be similar, will be written separately and have not yet been proposed by the department.

___

Online:

USDA school lunch rules: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Governance/Legislation/nutritionstandards.htm

___

Find Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

Associated Press

Source AP

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USDA recalls beef headed for Georgia school lunches

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U.S. Department of Agriculture issues recall for 40,000 pounds of beef productsRecall is due to possible E. coli contaminationBeef products were shipped to two warehouses in GeorgiaBeef products were intended for six school systems in Georgia

(CNN) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a Class I recall for 40,000 pounds of ground beef products intended for Georgia school lunches, due to possible E. coli contamination.

The beef was produced by Palo Duro Meat in Amarillo, Texas, by September 9, according to a statement released by the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service Friday. It was shipped to two Georgia warehouses, where it was to be distributed to a variety of institutions, including six school districts associated with the National School Lunch Program.

However, USDA authorities say they are not aware of the beef having been served as part of any school lunches, adding that the bulk of the beef products have not left the warehouses.

The beef was shipped in 40-pound boxes. Each case contains the mark "Est. 7282" and a production code of 19110.

The contaminated products may have gotten mixed in with commercial products due to a sample tracking error, according to the USDA statement. Neither the company nor the USDA has received any reports of illnesses related to consumption of the beef.

E. coli bacteria can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and, in severe cases, kidney failure, according to the USDA statement. Babies and toddlers, seniors, and persons with weakened immune systems are the most susceptible to food-borne illnesses, the statement says.

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Does your child have a school nurse?

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Adalyne Rose tests her blood glucose levels with the help of her school nurse, Carla Moore.Michigan has the highest student-to-school nurse ratio in the country, at 4,411 to 1Nurses are handling bigger caseloads as students' medical needs become more complexParents should ask who is in charge of their kid's health while at school, expert says

(CNN) -- As a school nurse in Rochester, Michigan, Ronda Harrison has more than 15,000 students in 23 buildings under her care. She works out of the district's administrative offices and spends her days giving PowerPoint presentations to educators and communicating with parents over the phone.

"[It is] scary the fact that I'm responsible for so many schools," Harrison said. "I miss being 'Nurse Ronda.' "

The 16-year veteran has seen a lot of changes during her career as a nationally certified school nurse, but most notable is the shrinking ranks of her colleagues. Michigan has the highest student-to-school nurse ratio in the country at 4,411 to 1, according to the National Association of School Nurses. Utah isn't far behind, with a ratio of 3,637 to 1.

This means nurses are handling bigger caseloads, Harrison said, while students' medical needs are becoming more complex. And educators are now the ones doling out daily medication.

It's not all bad news, said Linda Davis-Alldritt, president of the National Association of School Nurses. Overall, there has been an increase in funded school nurse positions in the U.S. in the last decade. But the numbers vary significantly by state, and some districts have no school nurses at all.

School nurse Ronda Harrison has more than 15,000 students in 23 buildings under her care.

The bottom line, Davis-Alldritt said, is that the school nurse's job tends to be at risk during budget cut time.

"The big question for parents to ask when they drop their child off at school is, 'Who's going to be taking care of my kid's health care needs?' " Davis-Alldritt said. " 'What if my child gets sick? Who's going to take care of them? What are their qualifications?' That's an important question for parents to ask, and the school needs to have the answers."

It was certainly a question Wendy Rose asked when she and her husband moved their three children to Peoria, Arizona. Their 8-year-old daughter, Adalyne, has type 1 diabetes and celiac disease. The first requires constant monitoring of Adalyne's blood glucose levels; the second a gluten-free diet.

"Our school nurse has been invaluable," Rose said. "Insulin is a really tricky hormone -- a little in either direction can have drastic results. In reality, it could kill her. I would be very, very nervous sending her to a school environment for a large chunk of her day [with] no one there to monitor her."

Ever year before school starts, Rose meets with Adalyne's nurse, a member of the administration and all the educators she will be encountering -- from the art teacher to the librarian. A registered nurse herself, Rose had no qualms about putting up fliers around the school with her daughter's photo that said, "My name is Adalyne. I have diabetes" to alert staff if they noticed her wandering around looking confused because of low blood sugar.

Adalyne is not alone. One in every 400 children has type 1 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and children are more frequently developing type 2 diabetes, normally an adult disease linked to obesity.

In addition, the prevalence of reported food allergies in children increased 18% between 1997 and 2007. That's not to mention children with asthma or mental health issues.

Often, the people administering medication in schools are secretaries, principals or teachers. They're given instructions by parents or the district's supervising nurse but have little understanding of what the results should be, Davis-Alldritt said.

"Yes, they can give the medication -- that's not really hard," she said. "But it is really difficult to teach someone how to assess how that medication is working, or how it's not working."

Anecdotally, Davis-Alldritt has heard about mistakes made by untrained staff: the child who got ADHD medication twice from a busy principal; the secretary who didn't know how to properly work an insulin pen and ended up giving none; the child in Washington who died because no one knew to reach for her allergy autoinjector.

She recommends that parents advocate for more school nurses in their district and check in with the staff that handles any health needs.

"Parents have a strong, powerful voice, and they want to make sure their child goes to school and comes home and in the interim is protected and safe."

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HEALTH MANAGEMENT. Does your child have a school nurse?

School nurse Ronda Harrison has more than 15,000 students in 23 buildings under her care.

Adalyne Rose tests her blood glucose levels with the help of her school nurse, Carla Moore.Michigan has the highest student-to-school nurse ratio in the country, at 4,411 to 1Nurses are handling bigger caseloads as students' medical needs become more complexParents should ask who is in charge of their kid's health while at school, expert says
(CNN) -- As a school nurse in Rochester, Michigan, Ronda Harrison has more than 15,000 students in 23 buildings under her care. She works out of the district's administrative offices and spends her days giving PowerPoint presentations to educators and communicating with parents over the phone.
"[It is] scary the fact that I'm responsible for so many schools," Harrison said. "I miss being 'Nurse Ronda.' "
The 16-year veteran has seen a lot of changes during her career as a nationally certified school nurse, but most notable is the shrinking ranks of her colleagues. Michigan has the highest student-to-school nurse ratio in the country at 4,411 to 1, according to the National Association of School Nurses. Utah isn't far behind, with a ratio of 3,637 to 1.
This means nurses are handling bigger caseloads, Harrison said, while students' medical needs are becoming more complex. And educators are now the ones doling out daily medication.
It's not all bad news, said Linda Davis-Alldritt, president of the National Association of School Nurses. Overall, there has been an increase in funded school nurse positions in the U.S. in the last decade. But the numbers vary significantly by state, and some districts have no school nurses at all.
The bottom line, Davis-Alldritt said, is that the school nurse's job tends to be at risk during budget cut time.
"The big question for parents to ask when they drop their child off at school is, 'Who's going to be taking care of my kid's health care needs?' " Davis-Alldritt said. " 'What if my child gets sick? Who's going to take care of them? What are their qualifications?' That's an important question for parents to ask, and the school needs to have the answers."
It was certainly a question Wendy Rose asked when she and her husband moved their three children to Peoria, Arizona. Their 8-year-old daughter, Adalyne, has type 1 diabetes and celiac disease. The first requires constant monitoring of Adalyne's blood glucose levels; the second a gluten-free diet.
"Our school nurse has been invaluable," Rose said. "Insulin is a really tricky hormone -- a little in either direction can have drastic results. In reality, it could kill her. I would be very, very nervous sending her to a school environment for a large chunk of her day [with] no one there to monitor her."
Ever year before school starts, Rose meets with Adalyne's nurse, a member of the administration and all the educators she will be encountering -- from the art teacher to the librarian. A registered nurse herself, Rose had no qualms about putting up fliers around the school with her daughter's photo that said, "My name is Adalyne. I have diabetes" to alert staff if they noticed her wandering around looking confused because of low blood sugar.
Adalyne is not alone. One in every 400 children has type 1 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and children are more frequently developing type 2 diabetes, normally an adult disease linked to obesity.
In addition, the prevalence of reported food allergies in children increased 18% between 1997 and 2007. That's not to mention children with asthma or mental health issues.
Often, the people administering medication in schools are secretaries, principals or teachers. They're given instructions by parents or the district's supervising nurse but have little understanding of what the results should be, Davis-Alldritt said.
"Yes, they can give the medication -- that's not really hard," she said. "But it is really difficult to teach someone how to assess how that medication is working, or how it's not working."
Anecdotally, Davis-Alldritt has heard about mistakes made by untrained staff: the child who got ADHD medication twice from a busy principal; the secretary who didn't know how to properly work an insulin pen and ended up giving none; the child in Washington who died because no one knew to reach for her allergy autoinjector.
She recommends that parents advocate for more school nurses in their district and check in with the staff that handles any health needs.
"Parents have a strong, powerful voice, and they want to make sure their child goes to school and comes home and in the interim is protected and safe."

Read More