School Meals
Meals served through the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs will:
- be appealing and attractive to children;
- be served in clean and pleasant settings;
- meet, at a minimum, nutrition requirements established by local, state and federal law:
- Offer low-fat (1 %) and fat-free milk and nutritionally equivalent non-dairy alternatives
- Encourage the consumption of whole grain.
- Share information about nutritional contect of meals with parents and students
Breakfast
To ensure that all children have breakfast, either at home or at school, in order to meet their nutritional needs and enhance their ability to learn, schools will:
- operate the breakfast program, to the extent possible;
- notify parents and students of the availability of the School Breakfast Program, through the use of the website, newsletter, etc...; and,
- encourage parents to provide a healthy breakfast for their children if the parents choose not to use the School Breakfast Program. This can be done through newsletter articles, take-home materials or other means.
Meal Times and Scheduling
The school district:
- will provide students with at least 10 minutes to eat after sitting down for breakfast and 20 minutes after sitting down for lunch. When occasions arise in which the students do not get this amount of time, procedures should be in place to allow longer eating times;
- should schedule meal periods at appropriate times, e.g., lunch should be scheduled between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.;
- should not schedule tutoring, club or organizational meetings or activities during mealtimes, unless students may eat during such activities;
- will provide students access to hand washing or hand sanitizing before they eat meals or snacks; and,
- Have accessible drinking water available during school meals;
- should take reasonable steps to accommodate the tooth-brushing regimens of students with special oral health needs (e.g., orthodontia or high tooth decay risk).
Qualification of Food Service Staff
Qualified nutrition professionals will administer the meal programs. As part of the school district’s responsibility to operate a food service program, the school district will:
- provide continuing professional development for all nutrition professionals; and,
- provide staff development programs for cafeteria workers and nutrition managers according to their level of responsibility.
- In school year 2015-2016, the first year of implementation, program directors must complete 8 hours of training; program managers, 6 hours of training ; and program staff, 4 hours of training.
Sharing of Foods
The school district discourages students from sharing their foods or beverages with one another during meal or snack times, given concerns about allergies and other restrictions on some children’s diets.
Beverages
- Encouraged:Water, seltzer, water without added caloric sweeteners, fruit and vegetable juices, fruit-based drinks containing 100% fruit juice, unflavored or flavored low-fat or fat-free milk..
- Discouraged: All soft drinks, sports drinks, beverages with caffeine excluding low-fat or fat-free chocolate milk
Foods
A food item sold individually should have:
- Less than 10% of calories from saturday fat and zero grams of trans fat
- No more than 35% of weight from added sugars
- No more than 200mg of sodium per serving for chips, cereals, crackers, and other snack items
- No more than 480mg of sodium per serving for pizza, sandwiches, and main dishes.
- The inclusion of at least one fruit or non-fried vegetable at any location on a school site where foods are sold. Grain products must include 50% or more whole grain by weight or have whole grain as the 1st ingredient.
Portion Size
The Wapello School District will strive to limit serving sizes to these recommended standards:
- One and one-quarter ounces of chips, crackers, popcorn, cereal, trail mix, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, or jerky
- One ounce for cookies.
- Two ounces for cereal bars, granola bars, pastries, muffins, doughnuts, bagels, and other bakery items
- Eight ounces for non-frozen yogurt
- Twelve fluid ounces for beverages, excluding water and milk
Food Safety
All foods made available on campus adhere to food safety and security guidelines.
All foods made available on campus comply with the state and local food safety and sanitation regulations. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plans and guidelines are implemented to prevent food illness in schools.