nutrition and physical activity in our schools - Environment & Human ...

The State of Nutrition and Physical Activity in Our Schoolsthe schools to which commodities were available, food servicedirectors responded with a 4 or 5, indicating that they thoughtthat the commodities they received helped them to providehealthy lunches. They cited items such as ground turkey, lowfatcheese, chicken products, and frozen green vegetables as beingparticularly helpful. Many food service directors and cafeteriamanagers reported cheese to be the main commodity theyreceived. Some felt that this made it difficult to meet the federalregulations regarding fat content, while other cafeteria managersand food service directors stressed the importance of the calciumcontent of cheese, especially given the increasing rates of calciumdeficiency in teenagers.Fresh fruits and vegetables currently are not available to schoolfood service programs through the federal commodities program.A majority of food service directors and cafeteria managers,including those who felt strongly that the commodities helpedthem provide healthy lunches, reported this to be a major gap inthe federal commodities program. Research has suggested thatchildren often prefer fresh, raw vegetables to those that arecooked. 14 A study of plate waste in school children’s lunchesfound that more cooked vegetables were thrown away than freshvegetables, salad, or fresh fruit. 15USDA’s currentprocurement anddistribution system is“woefully inadequateto handle freshproduce for thefederal child nutritionprograms.”— Thomas Stenzel,United Fresh Fruit andVegetable AssociationThe federal government has, in the past, provided fresh fruitsand vegetables as part of the NSLP commodities program. Thecurrent lack of fresh fruits and vegetables in the program may bedue to difficulties with transportation. Thomas Stenzel, presidentand CEO of the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association,has described USDA’s current procurement and distributionsystem as “woefully inadequate to handle fresh produce for thefederal child nutrition programs.” 1631