Federal

New School Lunch Rules Spur Student Protests

By Nirvi Shah — October 23, 2012 3 min read
Dressed as a pea pod, Anne Fritz, an intern with the Farm to School program in Eugene, Ore., encourages students to eat their vegetables during lunch at El Camino del Rio Elementary School in Eugene. Elsewhere around the country, though, some students are protesting the healthier lunches schools are required to serve as the federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act kicks in.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Schools across the country are serving new cafeteria entreés and side dishes and lower-fat versions of flavored milk now that the regulations under the federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act have kicked in. Despite the excitement some districts are trying to generate about the new meals, a few months into the revamped menus, some schools are facing criticism about what they’re serving—and how much of it.

Among the protests is one originating at Wallace County High School in Sharon Springs, Kan., where students created a parody of “We Are Young,” by the band Fun, and posted it on YouTube. In the “We Are Hungry” parody, students bemoan the calorie limits set by the new regulations—a maximum of 850 calories for high school lunches. (Since that initial posting last month, the students have added a message saying they are excited about the opportunity to eat more fruits and vegetables, but insist that the meals they are served at their 70-student school are too small.) Their video received about a million views as of last week.

At Parsippanny Hills High School in Parsippany, N.J., students boycotted school lunches for several days. A high school principal in Mukwonago, Wisc., told The New York Times that school meal participation is down 70 percent this school year.

Are those schools outliers? Yes, says the School Nutrition Association.

Kenmari Williams, a 5th grader in Clinton, Miss., shows his dislike of the whole-wheat flatbread on his sandwich, one of the healthy changes his school has made to lunches under new federal school meal rules.

“While some schools are legitimately struggling to meet (and their students struggling to accept) these complex regulations, there are many school districts where students have welcomed or not even recognized the changes under the new standards,” Diane Pratt-Heavner, a spokeswoman for the Oxon Hill, Md.-based SNA, said in an email.

Schools in Collegeville, Pa., and Montclair, N.J., for example, celebrated last week—National School Lunch Week—by putting out a spread of fresh fruits and vegetables for students to sample.

Time to Adapt

The new rules require a wider variety and more servings of fruits and vegetables at each meal, less salt, less fat, and more whole grains, and they set minimum and maximum calorie ranges for meals. Previously, there was no ceiling on calories.

Ms. Pratt-Heavner said what many parents can attest to: It takes time for young people to accept new foods, and sometimes they have to be presented repeatedly before children will try them.

But the early protests have prompted U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, to introduce the No Hungry Kids Act, which would ban the USDA from implementing calorie limits in school lunches.

Margo Wootan, the director of nutrition policy for the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, said she didn’t think the bill would get much traction. The USDA’s plans for cutting back on potato servings and banning counting tomato paste on pizza as a vegetable serving, however, were thwarted by congressional action.

Last week, some Republican members of the U.S. House education committee asked Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to re-examine the new meal rules because of news reports about students going hungry, food being wasted, and increased costs for schools.

The National School Lunch Program was created because of concerns that many young men were too malnourished to serve in World War II. Now, one in three American children is obese, and the children who are so active their caloric needs exceed nutritional guidelines are outnumbered by their overweight counterparts.

The program’s premise is to feed low-cost or no-cost meals to children who otherwise might not have enough to eat. As children’s-food blogger Bettina Elias Siegel noted, many of the students protesting the new rules have the means to bring or buy their own meals, or supplement them.

The USDA’s rules about the calories and contents of school meals were developed on the basis of recommendations from the Institutes of Medicine—a federally chartered group that advises policymakers—and other experts. Pizza, fries, and other favorites are still available every day at many schools on unregulated a la carte menus. The 2010 federal law authorizes the USDA to regulate those items and what’s sold in school vending machines, but it hasn’t done so yet.

In any case, the agency said that if a school “encounters significant hardships employing the new calorie requirements, we stand ready to work with them quickly and effectively to remedy the situation with additional flexibilities.”

Nirvi Shah, Writer contributed to this article.
A version of this article appeared in the October 24, 2012 edition of Education Week as New School Lunch Rules Spur Student Protests

Events

School Climate & Safety Webinar Engaging Every Student: How to Address Absenteeism and Build Belonging
Gain valuable insights and practical solutions to address absenteeism and build a more welcoming and supportive school environment.
Student Well-Being K-12 Essentials Forum Social-Emotional Learning 2025: Examining Priorities and Practices
Join this free virtual event to learn about SEL strategies, skills, and to hear from experts on the use and expansion of SEL programs.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Professional Development Webinar
Inside PLCs: Proven Strategies from K-12 Leaders
Join an expert panel to explore strategies for building collaborative PLCs, overcoming common challenges, and using data effectively.
Content provided by Otus

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal Trump Threatens Funds to Schools That Let Trans Athletes Compete on Girls' Teams
The sweeping order is a reversal from the Biden administration, and continues efforts from Trump to roll back protections for transgender youth and adults.
4 min read
President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order barring transgender female athletes from competing in women's or girls' sporting events, in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Washington.
President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order barring transgender female athletes from competing in women's or girls' sporting events, in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Washington.
Alex Brandon/AP
Federal Can Trump Ax the Education Department Without Congress?
Trump has been flexing his power through executive orders, and there's the potential for one targeting the Education Department.
7 min read
The U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Feb. 21, 2021.
The U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Feb. 21, 2021. President Donald Trump could issue an executive order to downsize the department. It would have limitations.
Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via AP
Federal Top House Lawmaker Supports Trump's Bid to 'Depower' Education Department
The House education committee chairman believes "even the best-meaning bureaucrat" can't understand what's happening in local schools.
5 min read
Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., speaks during an event at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit on Dec. 9, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., speaks at the U.N. Climate Summit on Dec. 9, 2023, in Dubai. Walberg, the newly minted chair of the U.S. House's education and workforce committee, said at a Tuesday event that he wouldn't stand in the way of President Donald Trump's efforts to diminish or close the U.S. Department of Education.
Joshua A. Bickel/AP
Federal Title IX, School Choice, ‘Indoctrination’—How Trump Took on Schools in Week 2
It was a week in which the newly inaugurated president began wholeheartedly to act on his agenda for schools.
8 min read
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center on Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Donald Trump arrives at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center on Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. Trump's second week in the White House featured his first direct foray into policymaking aimed directly at schools.
Evan Vucci/AP