A Minnesota school is losing out on $170,000 in federal and state funding for deciding not to take part in the controversial National School Meals Program.
Students presented a petition in the fall, outlining their issues with the federal standards. That led to Prior Lake High School abandoning the federal program — and losing out on a six-figure sum of money. Janeen Peterson, the district’s director of food services, told the Washington Examiner that opting out of the federal program benefits the students, especially those with active lifestyles.
“Under the federal program, the serving sizes did not meet the needs of our students,” she said.
She added that students can now take the serving sizes they want, free from constraint. Fruits and vegetables will be available but not required, as is the case under the federal guidelines.
“Hopefully it will reduce some waste,” she said.
While students may benefit, the decrease in federal funding hurts the school financially. Peterson said that the school will increase meal prices from $2.45 to $2.95 “to cover the cost of going off the program.” The possibility of disappearing federal dollars has left many cash-strapped school districts will little choice but to participate in the program.
But among those who have left, the complaints strike many of the same chords. Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that other schools have left the federal program because of increased food preparation costs, poor student responses and the difficulty in planning menus, among other issues. Three Minnesota schools have opted out of the program thus far. Other states have fewer schools participating, with 30 Wisconsin districts leaving it. More than 600 schools have left the program since the USDA last counted over a year ago, according to Pratt-Heavner.
All of this comes at a time when there’s been an increase in the conversation about school lunches and federal involvement, particularly in the wake of Michelle Obama’s high profile efforts to encourage healthy eating among children. Just this May, the USDA’s blog post “Photo-Worthy Meals” and #realschoolfood trend was forced to respond to the many comically unappealing photos of school lunches tweeted by students, accompanied by the hashtag #ThanksMichelleObama.
