Healthy Foods in Schools

Salty snacks, sugary drinks, pizza, ice cream, and french fries may soon be hard for students to purchase in school vending machines, school stores, and cafeteria à la carte lines. In the coming weeks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is expected to issue its new national nutrition standards for foods (snacks and beverages) sold in schools. These standards could limit the amount of sugar, salt and fat foods could contain. 

Any food or beverage that “competes” with the school lunch program is considered a “competitive food”.  Today, kids are consuming more than half of their daily calories in school – unfortunately, more and more students are getting most of their calories from competitive foods like snacks and drinks, not meals.

A lot has changed since the USDA last updated there guidelines in 1979.  The school food environment has dramatically altered and so has the health of our children.  Students have access to a lot of varieties of foods and often they are not the healthiest.  The soon proposed national nutrition standards comes at a time when more than one-third of U.S. children are overweight or obese.  

A recent poll by the Kids’ Safe & Healthful Foods Project  finds that the vast majority of voters are in favor of national nutrition standards for snacks and beverages sold in schools. 

• 80 percent of voters favor national standards limiting the calories, fat, and sodium in snack and  à la carte foods sold in U.S. schools; and
• 81 percent of voters are concerned about childhood obesity, including more than half (54 percent), who say they are very concerned.

Watch this video to learn more about the issue of snacks and beverages sold in schools.

What do you think – do sugar-sweetened beverages, candy bars and other unhealthy foods deserve a place in schools?