Federal nutrition standards for school meals will change in August 2025, limiting how much added sugar is allowed, but Springfield Public Schools is not waiting a year to alter menus.
Missouri’s largest district will voluntarily enact many of the new guidelines for the 2024-25 year with the support of the administration and school board.
“We’re being proactive this next school year,” said Kim Keller, general manager of student nutrition.
The new standards were announced in late April by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They include:
- Placing limits on added sugars in school meals starting in 2025 with full implementation by 2027. Added sugars are most commonly found in typical school breakfast options;
- Updating limits on added sugars in flavored milk starting in 2025. However, both flavored and unflavored milk will still be permitted as they provide essential nutrients such as calcium, vitamin D and potassium;
- Slight reductions in sodium content will be required by 2027.
“In the fall, we will have an altered menu addressing some of the concerns with sugars,” Keller said, noting the prior USDA guidelines were less specific. “The USDA never really had any (standards) that pertained to added sugars. They had calorie limits but not added sugar limits.”
The biggest changes will be at breakfast — where grains, fruit, vegetables and milk were regularly offered. Keller said the guidelines did not specify the offering of a protein, a meat or meat alternative.
“You’re going to see a significant change in offerings across the board, where there will be high protein items,” she said.
Keller said many of the grains are high in protein but more lean meat options will now be offered.
“They see a grain and assume it’s just carbs. They don’t know there is protein in those items. Some of them have as much protein as an egg but it’s the perception,” she said. “So we’re going to be changing a lot of those things and having more lean meat offerings at breakfast for students as a choice.”
Each year, the district serves nearly 4 million school meals.
The district is taking chocolate milk off the breakfast menu and only offering it Tuesday and Thursday, on days when cereal is not an option.
Keller said the milk purchased by schools is heathier than what most people buy in the grocery store but the district will restrict that item to reduce the amount of added sugars possible at breakfast.
“We are going above and beyond what the USDA requires,” Keller said.
She acknowledged there is a balancing act. The district wants to provide nutritious food that meets or exceeds the federal standards while also providing a variety of options. “At the end of the day, we want them to have nutritious, delicious meals that they are actually going to eat.”
This spring, as the new standards were under review at the federal level, the district piloted changes in select sites at breakfast and lunch.
“We wanted to see how it would affect our program,” Keller said.
She said while largely successful, the district record a slight drop in participation when the options with less added sugars were offered. One of the big changes was no chocolate milk at breakfast.
In the high participation pilot sites, the district was down an average of 35 meals a day.
“So 35 when you’re feeding 400, in the big scheme of things, isn’t a whole lot. It’s minuscule,” she said. “I think over time, kids will get used to it.”
Kelly Byrne: ‘Let’s not wait for the USDA’
Board member Kelly Byrne started asking questions about the nutrition level in school meals in late February. He was specifically focused on the amount of added sugars available at breakfast.
He noted the federal guidelines and the pilot program while advocating for change during the May 21 meeting.
“The USDA must have been listening to me and they announced that in a year or two they’re going to be reducing the requirements that are allowed on sugar in our school lunch meals. Happy to hear that, although I don’t think it takes the USDA for us to … be the best versions of ourselves,” Byrne said at the May 21 meeting. “I don’t think we need a mandate from the federal government to do that.”
Byrne said the pilot program showed the district was able to make changes with its existing facilities, staffing and funding.
“We were able to reduce sugar in our breakfast,” he said. “They shared some menu items with us and what those look like. It was an improvement, which I think is all that I asked for before,” Byrne said. “I wasn’t trying to get every kid to eat carrots and hard-boiled eggs every meal … it’s just can we do better, can we reduce the sugar content and we showed that we can within the constraints of what we have.”
His comments were made at the end of the meeting, during a time when board members can bring up any topic. It did not involve a presentation from Keller, or nutrition services, about plans for the upcoming year.
“If we can do it, let’s try to do it soon. Let’s not wait for the USDA,” he said.
Byrne said he was not concerned that the pilot showed a slight dip in participation and questioned why that was the measure highlighted.
“I just have concerns with us focusing too much on the participation as a reason to do or not to do something, if we can reduce sugars in our meals,” he said. “And I think it’s objectively true that that would be a good thing for kids.”
Board member Susan Provance, a retired Springfield teacher and coach, said she agreed with Byrne’s push for meals with less added sugar.
“It’s great for kids. I think there’s kids wired on sugar in the morning,” she said.
Provance said she supported the idea of making changes before they were required by the USDA but cautioned that a balance was needed.
“A lot of times adults, we know the answers. We just need to convince the kids that we have the answers,” she said. “And I don’t want to make the foods unacceptable so that the kids don’t eat it and go hungry.”
She added the district needs to provide options that the students will “like, that they will eat.”
The district has long contracted with Aramark, an outside company, to manage nutrition services. Typically, nutrition services at any district have two primary sources of funding — federal reimbursement for meals and payments made for student meals.
Byrne said a system that generates revenue based on the number of student meals served is flawed.
“The more meals we put in (students’) hands, the more they profit. Therefore, we are incentivizing them putting meals in hands and why would I be concerned with this? One is the amount of food that ends up in the trash. When you incentivize them putting (meals) in their hands, what are they going to do? They’re going to try and … obviously make it taste good so they’ll take it,” Byrne said.
“What may that cause you to do? Well, put the sugar content as high as you can within what is allowable by the USDA, even if we know it’s not good that we have … kids drinking chocolate milk every morning with a honeybun.”
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In previous board meetings, Keller has said the district closely follows the USDA guidelines for school meals to give students nutritious options.
She said the food purchased by schools for meals often has less sugar than similar items families can buy in stores.
Byrne said as the district looks at “renegotiating a contract or looking at new options,” he’d like to see less emphasis on meal participation in how revenue is generated.
Support purchase of locally grown food
The National School Lunch Program provides free or low-cost meals to students based on family income guidelines. The meals must comply with nutrition standards set by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which is what will be updated.
The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service administers the program and reimburses participating schools for the meals served to students. The amount is used to buy food and pay staff.
The USDA made changes based on the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Every school day, public schools serve nearly 30 million meals.
More:How to access free summer meals for children in Springfield schools, other sites
“We all share the goal of helping children reach their full potential,” said U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, in an April 24 news release. “Like teachers, classrooms, books, and computers, nutritious school meals are an essential part of the school environment, and when we raise the bar for school meals, it empowers our kids to achieve greater success inside and outside of the classroom.”
The updated standards will continue to encourage the use of whole grains, although no change was proposed, and to support the purchase of locally grown food.
They also support other food preferences, making it easier for schools to serve protein-rich breakfast foods such as yogurt, tofu, eggs, nuts and seeds.
