Healthy Changes in Your School Cafeteria

This fall, Kent City school cafeterias are meeting tough new federal nutrition standards for school meals, ensuring that meals are healthy and well-balanced and provide students all the nutrition they need to succeed at school. Now is a great time to encourage your kids to choose school lunch!

Your Children will experience the new USDA requirements when they eat in the school cafeteria. One important change is the requirement for a child to select at least ½ cup of fruit or vegetable to make up a complete meal. There are five food groups to select from: vegetable, fruit, protein, whole grains and milk. Students must choose three items with one choice being a fruit or vegetable.

School meals offer students milk, fruits and vegetables, proteins and grains, and they must meet strict limits on saturated fat and portion size. Starting in School Year 2012-2013, school lunches will meet additional standards requiring:

• Age-appropriate calorie limits – this means some grains and protein items will be smaller

• Larger servings of vegetables and fruits (students must take at least one serving of produce)

• A wider variety of vegetables, including dark green and red/orange vegetables and legumes

• Fat-free or 1% milk (flavored milk must be fat-free)    • More whole grains       • And less sodium

We’re always working to offer Kent City students healthier and tastier choices.

School meals are a great value and a huge convenience for busy families too! Sendmoneytoschool.com  is our online link to deposit money to your child’s meal account.

We also offer an online link to fill out a new Free/Reduced meal application. The link is Lunchapp.com . The Free/Reduced meal application needs to be completed NEW EACH YEAR! The school office will have a paper application if you would prefer to fill one out this way.

We look forward to welcoming your children to the cafeteria this fall.

Thank you!

Questions or concerns about meals at Kent City Community Schools please contact: