Federal nutrition standards spur new school meals

MURFREESBORO — Local students eating at school cafeterias are consuming less salt and being offered more fruits and vegetables than in previous years because of federal guidelines.

While Murfreesboro City Schools continue to see a rise in meals served in its cafeterias with an across-the-board free meal program, fewer students in Rutherford County Schools are choosing to buy their lunch on campus, officials said.

Lunch participation dropped 5 percent at Rutherford County Schools in the 2014-15 school year from the year before, said Fred Blair, the director of school nutrition. Breakfast participation also dropped 6.6 percent in the first year for new federal standards.

Murfreesboro City Schools, which takes part in a federal program in which all students can receive free meals, saw 78 percent of students, a 16 percent increase, eat school lunches in 2014-15, said Sandy Scheele, nutrition supervisor for the city school system.

City Schools participates in the Community Eligible Provision, a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that allows schools and districts with a certain number of students eligible for free and reduced lunches to provide free breakfast and lunches to all students.

The opportunity to feed all children has allowed City Schools the ability to try different programs to increase the number of students eating at school.

The district implemented a "Breakfast in the Classroom" initiative, so students can eat breakfast in their classrooms before the school day starts. Breakfast participation has risen since the start of the program, Scheele said.

"By feeding the kids, that means we're doing our jobs," Scheele said.

Rutherford County Schools is not eligible for the USDA program but must administer the new federal requirements that are part of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act passed in 2010.

For the school system to have its meals reimbursed, students must choose a fruit or fruit juice at breakfast or a fruit or vegetable during lunch. The standards also require whole grains be used in meals and less sodium to be included in food.

The drop in Rutherford County Schools' meal participation in 2014-15 came as other school systems sold fewer meals as well.

Fewer meals were served as part of the Federal School Lunch Program for four straight fiscal years, according to USDA data.

The participation drops in Rutherford County were the first since the 2012-13 school year, the first year that whole-grain requirements were introduced to the school system, Blair said during a presentation to the Rutherford County Board of Education in October.

"It's tough, especially at the high school level," Blair said.

The standards also require cafeterias to offer a wider variety of produce to students during the week. Fruits and vegetables such as kiwis and cucumbers have started to appear as options for students, and cafeteria workers in both school systems are encouraging students to try them.

"It's trying to introduce products to kids to show them there are more than fries," Blair said in an interview last week.

Nutrition workers are trying to get students to adapt to the new standards while lobbying for changes in the law when it's reauthorized by Congress.

Scheele said fryers were taken out of City Schools cafeterias five years ago and local produce has been brought in through a federal farm-to-table grant.

Students at Overall Creek Elementary School are about to start eating spinach grown at the school's greenhouse built earlier this year.

"That's one way we're luckier because we get them pre-K through sixth, the little ones," Scheele said. "We need to work to instill healthy habits in them."

As students who start school with the new federal requirements get older, both Scheele and Blair said students would become accustomed to the new, healthier meals and continue to eat school meals.

"As we go through the years, this is what they're expecting," Blair said. "This is what they know."

Reach Brian Wilson at 615-278-5165. Follow him on Twitter @brianwilson17.