BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer

Across the nation, millions of students will be getting more fiber in their diets, as new federal standards for nutrition in school lunches come into effect this year.

Schools that receive federal funding for meals must now follow a new set of nutritional guidelines launched by the U.S. Department of Agricul-ture. The standards call for healthier options in food available at schools and also aims to entirely eliminate sodas and candy at school functions.

The guidelines that schools across the nation will follow include standards for meals, standards for snacks and standards for drinks.

Meals provided by a school will contain one-third of the recommended daily allowance of calories, protein, calcium, iron and vitamins A and C. Up to one-third of the calories of these meals can come from fat, and of those calories, only 10 percent is allowed to come from saturated fat. Furthermore, the state, through the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, has also mandated that districts monitor cholesterol, sodium and fiber content in meals.

Snacks available at schools must not have sugar as their first ingredient, which means that a food is primarily made of sugar. Snacks may also not contain more than 8 grams of fat or 2 grams of saturated fat. The standards also include a generalized call to reduce the amount of trans-fat in the food served. Candy was also banned. In general, foods deemed to have minimal nutritional value are banned.

Food of minimal nutritional value, as defined by the USDA, include sodas, water ices, chewing gum, hard candies like lollipops and cough drops, jelly beans and all their gummy cousins, marshmallow candies like Peeps, fondants like candy corn, licorice, cotton candy, and finally, candy-coated popcorn.

Drinks also come under the purview of the new standards. No drinks offered in the district will be more than 12 ounces. The kinds of drinks available will be restricted based upon age group. In elementary school, the only accessible drinks will be reduced-fat milk, water and 100 percent fruit and vegetable juice. In middle and high schools, at least 60 percent of every beverage offered, besides milk and water, have to be 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice.

The standards will be in effect during school hours and will cover food served by the cafeteria, student-accessible vending machines, school stores and food served during after-school programs.

"What's restricted more is candy and soda, foods of minimal nutritional value, things that have the first ingredient as sugar. All types of candy, soda, those types of things, you're not going to be [allowed to have] those even during school celebrations," said Anthony Tonzini, South Brunswick school district business administrator.

Tonzini said that groups wishing to fund-raise by selling candy will also need to restrict such activities to after-school hours, such as during sporting events. He also said that the rules only apply to what schools offer.

"We can't dictate to parents what their kids are allowed to bring. A child could bring candy and soda for lunch," said Tonzini.

The new policy comes from the USDA's most recent update of nutritional standards. The last time the agency changed the nutritional standards was 1990, according to Kim Jabat of the USDA. The new standards were enacted as a way to combat an increase in the number of obese children and to promote healthy eating habits.

Districts say they're ahead

Many districts, including South Brunswick, have reacted to the new guidelines by saying that they're way ahead of them.

During a presentation on the new standards at a recent Board of Education meeting, it was stated that South Brunswick has for two years already had a policy called Balanced Choices, which encompasses both meals and snacks. The nutritional standards of the program exceeds the standards set by the USDA already, according to Anita Schafer, the corporate dietitian for Chartwells, the company contracted by the district to provide food for the schools. The Balanced Choice Meals emphasize individual meals to meet nutritional goals and uses things such as stickers and posters to guide people to the healthiest foods available.

The district, under this program, has already gotten rid of foods of minimum nutritional value, already only serves low-fat milk and already pays attention to portion sizes. The district plans to expand the use of whole grains, get rid of salt shakers and also do monthly promotions of certain healthy foods to create awareness. Further, there will be changes to the health curriculum to accommodate more nutritional education as well as additional training for workers in the cafeteria in nutrition and food allergies.

According to North Bruns-wick Schools Superintendent Geri Margin, that district has also been enacting its own nutritional policies before the USDA's new standards came about. North Brunswick, which also contracts with Chartwells, has also been working with a similar program for the past two years.

"Chartwells, who is our food service provider, has been modifying the menus to match our nutritional standards," said Margin. "Our student body has been gradually weaned off the junk food and really we've had great success, and the amount of students purchasing lunches has only increased. So I anticipate we will have very little change in what students eat because [they have been] used to healthier foods for a while."

Meanwhile officials in East Brunswick's school district also say that they are well ahead of the game, having been engaged in changing their school lunches and snacks toward more healthy fare for the last two years.

"For the past two years, we've had a nutrition mandate and we reviewed all the state and federal guidelines, so we are very much aware of what we should and should not be serving as far as healthy choices," said Trish LaDuca, the public information officer for the district.

According to LaDuca, it is expected that the district will be in compliance with the federal standards by Sept. 1.

Nutrition in the classroom

East Brunswick's district has been making changes not only to its health curriculum, but to other classes as well.

"For two years, we reviewed the entire health curriculum with nutrition, and added instruction at the secondary school that dealt with the new food pyramid. We also looked at the elementary health curriculum but on more interactive programs. What we're also doing is incorporating nutrition in other subject areas, not only in health but also in science and math," said Frank LoPresti, the supervisor of student services for East Brunswick.

Some examples of working nutrition into other classes, according to LoPresti, included using math to figure out caloric content of foods and social studies to look at the food of different cultures.

In South Brunswick, the plan was met mostly with approval, though board member Dr. Matthew Speesler pointed out that with all the emphasis on baked goods, he felt it was unwise to send the message that all fried foods are bad.

"What we don't want to do is send a message home to the kids that we don't want them to eat french fries because they're no good," said Speesler, who emphasized that there are healthy ways to have fried foods.