Mary Pat Fortson, a food service official in the Florida Department of Education, said schools would work to improve their lunches during the extra two years they would have to meet the guidelines. She said the extension was needed because of troubles finding computer programs to check compliance and trouble getting such basics as the right-sized muffin to meet the requirement for serving more grains. In the two-year waiver period, she said, cafeteria workers are being trained and children will be better fed. Cindy Schneider, child nutrition consultant for California public schools, said most districts are seeking one-year waivers to work out the kinks or get the computers, software, standardized recipes and information from suppliers. Many schools are seeking brief extensions to work out the kinks in their plans, Haas said.
Many poor students rely on a free school lunch as their main meal of the day.
That includes serving the basic school lunch of the past five decades, with set portions of milk, meat, bread, fruits and vegetables, but changing the way foods are typically prepared to cut the fat content - such as cooking chicken without the skin and baking it instead of frying it. The Public Voice survey of more than 900 school food service directors found that only 15 percent knew the percentage of total calories that come from fat and only 9 percent claimed to know the saturated fat content. When the Agriculture Department first proposed an overhaul of school lunches in June 1994, it wanted schools to rely on a computer analysis of menus to show that children were getting the right nutrients. After school officials complained that the shift was too burdensome, Congress intervened, telling the department to modify the plan. The department responded in January 1995 with an alternative based on the old meal pattern but requiring schools to serve more grains, fruits and vegetables.