School cafeterias are notorious for serving up chicken nuggets and pizza that resemble fast food more than nutrition, but millions of schoolchildren across the nation will soon have a better chance of eating healthy, sustainable meals. New nutrition standards for child nutrition programs just released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will help schools improve menus.
The updated standards establish stricter limits on sodium and added sugar and provide greater flexibility for school districts to serve entrees with beans, peas, and lentils. They also allow nuts and seeds to count as meats/meat alternates in school meals and bean dips like hummus to count as a smart snack. The standards also allow more flexibility to offer traditional Indigenous foods and make it easier for schools to purchase local food.
This is great news not just for child nutrition, but for the health of the planet too. Plant-forward menus, which offer fiber-rich vegetarian dishes and plant-based proteins alongside animal-based foods, have a significantly lower environmental footprint when it comes to greenhouse gases, water and land use, manure pollution, and harm to wildlife and native habitats.
The USDA’s announcement is a positive step toward ensuring students have healthy and sustainable food at school, but there’s still room to grow. For the past few years, the Healthy Future Students and Earth Coalition, made up of thousands of students, parents, school staff, foodservice professionals and advocacy organizations, has advocated for access to plant-based milks, especially for students of color who experience high rates of lactose intolerance.
Students are required by law to take dairy milk in their school meals, despite the high numbers of students who can’t digest it. The USDA has clarified that schools must provide a fluid milk substitute in cases where students have a disability. And yes, lactose intolerance is considered a disability even though it’s perfectly normal for many races and ethnicities.
The new standards also emphasizes that schools may provide a milk substitute in non-disability cases with written request from a parent. But there are still unnecessary hurdles to serving plant-based milks in schools. The USDA needs to provide further guidance to simplify the process for plant-based milk options, regardless of the reason a student may choose them.
Dairy products also produce a tremendous amount of greenhouse gases. Cattle are the leading contributor of food-based emissions and the top agricultural source of water use. Skipping just one glass of milk per week for a year would save 1,238 gallons of water—enough to fill 10 full-size refrigerators. Imagine how much water could be saved if dairy wasn’t forced on millions of students who don’t want it or can’t drink it and simply throw the milk away (45 million gallons of milk is wasted in schools annually).
Beyond milk, there are more ways the USDA can help schools integrate appetizing, climate-friendly and plant-forward meals into their menus.
Nut butter and jelly sandwiches are too often the fallback for “plant-based options” in schools. While they are a cheap, convenient, and an easy option, especially for underfunded schools with staff and equipment shortages, the agency could support and encourage daily plant-based options beyond peanut (or other nut) butter and jelly sandwiches.
That’s why the Coalition is also urging the USDA to allow pulse-based pasta to count as a meat alternate, regardless of whether it is served alongside a visually recognizable meat/meat alternate. We’re also asking the USDA to allow beans, peas and lentils—as well as tofu and soy products—to qualify as a meat alternate even if they don’t look like one.
Many culturally diverse food traditions are based in beans, peas and lentils. These foods are healthy and good for the Earth. They’re rich in fiber and protein and vastly lower in emissions and water use. The USDA needs to recognize that the path to sustainable, Earth-friendly menus also looks a lot like the road to nutritious meals.
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Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
