Horry County Schools on board with changes to school meal requirements

Myrtle Beach Primary School students filed through the cafeteria line Wednesday to grab their trays and pick out what they wanted for lunch.

Their menu included a choice of a turkey or peanut butter and jelly sandwich, squash or salad, and an orange or baked apples, along with milk, which also came in chocolate or strawberry flavors.

New federal requirements announced last week for school meals will mean diffrent food choices for the students and, according to the U.S. Deparmtment of Agriculture, will help raise the meal standards for the first time in more than 15 years.

Horry County schools officials say they already have begun making changes to meet the new standards and more changes are coming.

Dawn McKinney Assistant Principal at Myrtle Beach Primary said each child during Wednesday’s lunch required to have three items on their tray – an entree, a vegetable and a fruit to consume during their 25-minute lunch break, but pickier eaters often bring their lunch.

“How many kids like squash or salad?” said McKinney, but she added that as time allows, teachers encourage students to try foods they may not be used to eating. Still, she said, they always are eager for fried chicken on Thursdays, pizza on Fridays and spaghetti, which is on next week’s menu.

Those items might remain on school menus, but the flavors may be changing over the next few years, due to the Department of Agriculture’s new requirements for school meals. The agency said the new changes are part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, and in addition to raising meal standards are expected to improve the meals that are served to almost 32 million students every day.

Highlights from the new requirements include:

• an increase in whole-grain foods.

• offering students both fruits and vegetables.

• having only fat-free or low-fat milk.

• limiting calories based on student age to ensure proper portion size.

• increasing the focus on reducing saturated fat, trans fats and sodium.

Laura Farmer, director of food services for Horry County Schools, said she is still going over the material, which totals 280 pages of requirements, comments and explanations. Different requirements will be phased in over several years, but she said the district is ahead of the curve on implementation.

“Horry County Schools knew all this was coming,” Farmer said. “We’ve already made some of the changes.”

Over the last few years, the district has changed milk requirements so that all flavored milk must be fat free and no milk has more than 1 percent fat. Bread also has undergone a change, getting away from refined grains and requiring that it be made with 51 percent whole grains.

Farmer said the district is in good shape as far as fruit and vegetable offerings, which already are more than what USDA minimum requirements allow, but all colors of vegetables must be represented, and legumes – dried beans and peas, which contain fiber – will be added back to the menu.

Servings and portion sizes will increase to meet a change in what students must select at mealtimes. The district is on a program called Offer Versus Serve, where students can refuse two of the four components served at breakfast, and two of the five served at lunch.

Farmer said at lunchtime, students usually will take a vegetable or a fruit, but they have the option to refuse both. Next year, they will have to choose one vegetable or one fruit, or both, which Farmer said may be difficult for high school students, who already know what they like.

Some of the changes will be less noticeable, such as the change in caloric requirements for meals, which now will be different by age levels: kindergarten to fifth grade, sixth through eighth and ninth through 12th.

But taking away the salt is another matter. Sodium must be reduced by more than 25 percent in the breakfast program and by more than 50 percent in the lunch program by 2014.

“Salt is one of the bigger issues. I think of all the regulations, that’s the toughest,” Farmer said. “It’s not very much salt at all, and it’s going to require us to be real creative with combining seasonings to flavor the food.”

While students could react negatively if the flavors aren’t what they’re used to, Farmer noted there is a lot of nutritional education in the schools, with five schools winning grants to use for gardens and healthy eating programs: Palmetto Bays and Socastee elementary schools received Fresh Fruit and Vegetables grants, and Burgess Elementary School, Myrtle Beach Intermediate School and Loris Middle School received Farm to School grants.

But schools can’t do it alone without parents helping to reinforce good habits.

“We see fast food on a daily basis, and as a principal, you would like to see that dwindle down,” said Dana Penick, principal at Myrtle Beach Intermediate.

She said that some parents bring it in and have lunch with their child, but the food choice gets away from habits the students are learning through programs such as the Covey Leadership Initiative and working with the school garden, which deal with what students put into their bodies.

“We don’t mind them coming in but just ask that they might bring a meal from home – a sandwich or a thermos of soup – and have milk, water or juice, rather than a carbonated drink,” Penick said.

Farmer said the new requirements represent some big challenges, but she is proud of what the district already has accomplished.

“I’m just really proud of our meals,” she said. “We’ve come a long way already.”