LEWES, Del. - Students, teachers and district administrators gathered Friday at Lewes Elementary School to celebrate School Lunch Hero Day. Along with U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small and U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, the group participated in a garden harvest.
"My favorite part is getting to go out there daily with a little bowl and collect the strawberries," said Joseph Bradshaw, a fifth grader at Lewes Elementary School.
The harvest was in partnership with Healthy Foods for Healthy Kids and aligns with a USDA update on nutrition standards for school meals. The update is a step toward advancing the Biden-Harris administration's national strategy to end hunger and reduce diet-related disease by 2030. This initiative was set in stone at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in September 2022. One of the major nutrition updates will be including less sugar in school lunches, which is set to begin during the fall in 2025. These changes come after listening to public feedback and taking the latest science-based recommendations from the Dietary Guideline for Americans into consideration.
"Like teachers, classrooms, books, and computers, nutritious school meals are an essential part of the school environment, and when we raise the bar for school meals, it empowers our kids to achieve greater success inside and outside the classroom," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Expected changes include limited added sugars in breakfast items and flavored milk, and slightly reduced sodium content in the meals. Starting this fall, the goal is to make it easier for schools to serve protein-rich breakfast foods such as yogurts, tofu, eggs, nuts, and seeds, though it is not a new requirement. Schools will also have the option to require unprocessed agricultural products to be locally grown, raised, or caught when making purchases for school meal programs. Schools will continue to emphasize fruits and vegetables, ensuring kids have the right balance of many nutrients for healthy and tasty meals.