Hunter DI Ellen Passov gave me permission to share with you her response to my earlier post, which addresses why some school districts don’t participate in the NSLP http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2014/05/letter-from-the-editor-the-big-petri-dish/.


"This is really interesting.  When I began working on the food service issues in our district we were not part of the NSLP.  As we tried to make our lunches more healthy and provide more healthy choices we found that it was too expensive without the subsidy so we joined. Our efforts to be healthy resulted in the institution of regulations that are basically  identical to the ones now imposed by the NSLP. In my ( humble) opinion any school that says they will be healthy needs to be pretty much following those guidelines and may find it hard to do without the subsidy. There are some definite issues with the new regs.  We also struggle with the portion sizes.  On one hand we americans are just used to eating more than we need to. On the other hand high school athletes do require an incredible number of calories.  There is no accommodation for shared middle school high school cafeterias which is a problem.  The nutritional needs of a pre-pubescent 6th grader and an 18 yr old football player are hugely different!  Saying that you can’t serve hard boiled eggs because of the fat is ridiculous.  There are numerous exemptions for fat and sugar in things like nuts and dried fruit.  Also not everything has to be reimbursable.  We have been working closely with our provider to come up with meals that can be reimbursable ( like how to make a hearty homemade soup a reimbursable meal)

"It seems to me that most of the push back is occurring around the high school issues.  Maybe they need to re-look at the high school requirements and not throw the baby out with the bath water!!

"Can you tell I have spent too much time on this   :)  "