Read more about the new school lunch guidelines here.
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Kid after kid skipped over the baby carrots, celery sticks, cucumber slices and jicama sticks.
Then second-grader Ethan Edwards stepped up to the salad bar Wednesday at West Dodge Station Elementary School.
He grabbed some cucumbers and threw on the carrots and celery.
The fresh vegetables filled out Ethan's tray, already carrying mini corn dogs, kettle chips and baked beans.
He and his classmates had four vegetables to choose from on the salad bar, along with 1 percent or skim milk, to accompany their main meal at the school, near 184th Street and West Dodge Road.
Millions of students across the country should have similar healthy options in the years to come under the first major nutritional overhaul of school meals in more than 15 years.
The changes, some of which will go into effect in September, mean most offerings will have less sodium and more whole grains, with a wider selection of fruits and vegetables.
The guidelines will also limit the total number of calories in an individual meal and require that milk be low in fat. Chocolate milk will have to be nonfat.
Kids' beloved pizza won't disappear from lunch lines but will be made with healthier ingredients.
First lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the new rules during a visit Wednesday to an Alexandria, Va., elementary school.
Mrs. Obama, also joined by celebrity chef Rachael Ray, said youngsters will learn better if they don't have growling stomachs at school.
“We have a right to expect the food (our kids) get at school is the same kind of food we want to serve at our own kitchen tables,” she said.
The new rules aren't as aggressive as her husband's 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 prohibited that.
Congress also blocked the department from limiting 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, including Omaha-based ConAgra Foods.
The company is still reviewing the final rules but looks forward to working with its customers to comply with the new guidelines, Jeff Mochal, a ConAgra spokesman said Wednesday.
Conservatives in Congress called the guidelines an overreach by government and said the government shouldn't tell children what to eat. School districts also objected to some of the requirements, saying they went too far and would cost too much.
A child nutrition bill signed by President Obama in 2010 will help school districts pay for some of the increased costs.
The rules 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.
Around the Omaha metro area, some school district nutrition directors said the new rules won't change much for them.
The Westside Community Schools district has long provided only nonfat white or chocolate milk or 1 percent plain milk. The district also has a fresh fruit or vegetable on the menu every day, said Diane Zipay, the district's director of nutrition services.
The buns and sandwich bread the district serves are at least 51 percent whole grain, Zipay said.
Other than a few tweaks to the district's menus, she said, “there is very, very little difference than what we're already doing.”
The new guidelines apply to all schools participating in the federal school lunch program. Both public and private schools can participate.
In the Elkhorn Public Schools, officials have also taken steps to give students healthier options.
Cooks and food service workers pre-dress salads with reduced-calorie ranch dressing, said Kim Becker, Elkhorn's food service director. The district also got rid of regular ranch dressing as a separate condiment. When spaghetti is served, the noodles are whole wheat.
Every day, students can choose from at least four vegetables, a fresh fruit and a canned fruit.
“It is the push of the (food service) industry, and it is the right thing to do,” Becker said. “We feel that we have been, in many ways, very proactive in the health of our students.”
But, she said, offering healthy choices doesn't guarantee that they will actually eat those foods. “How do you make them eat it?” Becker asked.
No problem for Ethan. He eats vegetables all the time at home.
“I like all of them,” he said.
Not so for his classmate Matthew Xiques. His tray had mini corn dogs, applesauce, baked beans, kettle chips and two skim chocolate milks. But no veggies.
“I tried them, but I didn't really like them,” Matthew said. “They don't have any taste.”
What do vegetables taste like to this 8-year-old?
“Water.”
This report includes material from the Associated Press.
Contact the writer: 402-444-1074, jonathon.braden@owh.com twitter.com/jonathonbraden
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