On Jan. 26, the USDA released a set of rules to raise school meal standards as laid out by the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act” signed into law  in late 2010. This final set of rules, called the Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, aims for schools to offer kids healthier lunch options on a daily basis.

According to the press release, the rules aim to do a number of things, including substantially increasing offerings of whole grain-rich foods; ensuring students are offered both fruits and vegetables every day of the week; limiting calories based on the age of children being served to ensure proper portion size; offering only fat-free milk; and increasing the focus on reducing the amounts of saturated fat, trans fat and sodium.

The original set of rules was passed last summer, and the public was given a 60-day period to comment on the bill. The USDA made the decision to make changes to the rules after an enormous influx of complaints and comments came in from people in both cafeterias and manufacturing industries, saying they would be unable to adjust to these new requirements. The USDA based the final set of rules on these complaints.

Linda Bickett, assistant food service director for Carmel Clay Schools, said she believes the new set of rules is much better.

“I think they definitely improved the bill, but a lot of what is required Carmel Clay Schools already does,” Bickett said. “We’ve updated our fruits and veggies, we’re 50 percent whole grain, we’re ahead of the curve.”

However, many school districts might not be able to react to the changes as quickly. The bill accommodates those districts by not instituting all the changes at once. Rather, the changes are made effective in a step-by-step fashion, building until the entire bill is in effect. This begins next year and becomes entirely effective in the 2022-2023 school year, giving schools ten years to make the changes.

For districts that do not meet these new requirements, there are consequences. Districts not complying with the new rules will lose government funding for meals and lose government subsidized staple foods, such as pork and beef. This would drastically raise lunch prices. In addition, without government funding, schools would be unable to provide students from low-income families with free or reduced lunches, forcing those students to go hungry.

Cafeteria manager Anne Marie Woerner said there will be menu changes to next year’s lunch menu regarding the new legislation, including larger servings of fruit and vegetables. However, she tells students not to worry about school lunches becoming less appealing.

She said, “Our goal is to meet these requirements with as little change in taste and appearance as possible.”