School lunches to get healthier under new guidelines

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Even when pizza is on the menu, school lunches are going to be healthier.

The first major nutritional overhaul of school meals in more than 15 years will mean that most of them will have less sodium, more whole grains and a wider selection of fruits and vegetables on the side.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the new guidelines during a visit with elementary school students Wednesday in Alexandria, Virginia. They were joined by celebrity chef Rachael Ray.

Under the rules, pizza won't disappear from lunch lines, but it will be made with healthier ingredients. Entire meals will have calorie caps for the first time, and most trans fats will be banned.

Sodium will gradually decrease over a 10-year period. Milk will have to be low in fat, and flavored milks will have to be nonfat.

The rules aren't as aggressive as the administration had hoped. Congress last year blocked the Agriculture Department from making some of the desired changes, including limiting French fries and pizza. Conservatives in Congress said the government shouldn't tell children what to eat. School districts also objected to some of the requirements, saying they would cost too much.

Fort Wayne Community Schools Director of Nutritional Services, Candice Hager, says they've already implemented some of these changes.  They serve fruit and vegetables on an almost daily basis.

"We use a lot of fresh vegetables either a fresh vegetable or fresh fruit almost every day," Hager said.

Hager and other dieticians will have to make sure they offer different varieties of fruits and vegetables.

"We have to serve a certain number of green leafy vegetables, a certain number of red-orange vegetables, a certain number of starch vegetables and those kinds of things."

On top of that more whole grain breads and pastas will be used. The FDA's also requiring schools to not serve anything with trans fats. That's forcing school nutritionists to modify some recipes.

"We're re-developing all of our recipes to include liquid shortenings, non-hydrogenated shortenings so that we can get away from those trans fats."