School meals are required to meet specific nutrition standards to operate the school meals programs. The standards align school meals with the latest nutrition science and the real world circumstances of America’s schools.
The new standards will allow schools to offer healthier snack foods for our children, while limiting junk food served to students. Students will still be able to buy snacks that meet common-sense standards for fat, saturated fat, sugar, and sodium, while promoting products that have whole grains, low fat dairy, fruits, vegetables or protein foods as their main ingredients.
In middle school, you have more say in deciding things for yourself. You can also help to make your school healthier. There’s a lot you can do to get more healthy food choices and more opportunities for physical activity for everyone.
There are short-term and long-term advantages to making healthier foods and regular physical activity priorities at your school.
At home you do what you can to make sure your kids eat healthier and stay active. But since they spend so much of their day in middle school, your influence is needed there, too. Parents are key to making middle schools healthier. Together we can influence.