Improve Brantley County's School Nutrition Program

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services offered that “One of the Nation's most pressing health challenges is poor diet and inactivity. Over 19 percent of children and 66 percent of adults are overweight.

If current trends continue through 2020, treating the consequences of obesity may consume up to one-fifth of health care expenditures - a trend with serious implications not only for the health of the Nation, but for the fiscal welfare of State governments that must bear a substantial share of these costs (N. Montanez Johner, 2008).

The State of Georgia does not have updated information on the USDA web site, but as of FY 2006, across the state there were over 1.2 million children who participated in school lunch programs and over 501,000 who participated in school breakfast programs (“Georgia FNS Nutrition Assistance Programs Fact Sheet,” 2006).

It is important to the parents, citizens, voters, and taxpayers of Brantley County that, to the extent practical, the nutrition programs throughout the Brantley County Board of Education system are in sync with the rest of the nation. Recently we have become concerned about portion size, food safety, and the nutritional value of menu offerings made throughout the system.

There are reports that some children go home inordinately hungry and seemingly undernourished. Some parents claim to have supplemented their children’s lunches by sending snacks to school to be eaten with their lunches, but teachers or other personnel have not allowed those students to consume those additional foods. Some parents report their students don’t get enough to eat during the day. As much as a car requires gasoline or diesel fuel to operate, so do our children require adequate calories from food to fuel their daily activities. Simultaneously these parents are concerned with having healthy choices, but healthy choices that taste good and are attractive to the students. This obviously requires some age-specific tailoring of menu selections. There have also been reports of lunchrooms running out of foods during meals.

Some say the children get 2 ounces of meat and one half cup or less of vegetables and fruit a day, and parents are concerned that does not meet current USDA nutrition standards. The food pyramid has been recently updated (see http://teamnutrition.usda.gov/Resources/mpk_poster2.pdf ), and there are worries that the schools’ foodservice programs are not up to speed with those updated nutritional requirements.

References:

Montanez Johner, N. (2008). Overview and vision. State nutrition and action plans. Washington: U.S. Department of Agriculture. Retrieved August 31, 2008, from http://www.fns.usda.gov/oane/SNAP/Overview.htm.

Georgia FNS Nutrition Assistance Programs Fact Sheet. (2006). Washington: U.S. Department of Agriculture. Retrieved August 31, 2008, from http://www.fns.usda.gov/oane/SNAP/Facts/FY2006/Georgia.htm.