Summarize this article please:
Houston ISD Nutrition Services Breakfast Program and Challenges in Minimizing Sugar Content:
Feeding a population of students, 80% of which are from economically disadvantaged homes, is a significant responsibility. Many of our students receive the majority of their nutrient intake from school meals. Students may receive up to three meals and a snack each day at school. The Houston ISD menus are developed through a collaboration of dietitians, chefs, cost analyst, operations, and production teams. Breakfast is especially important in providing nutrition and improving academic performance, according to research cited by the Food Research and Action Center.4 In an effort to improve access to breakfast at Houston ISD, in 2009 we began implementation of a program called First Class Breakfast that offers free breakfast to all students at all of our schools. Currently, we serve more than 118,000 students each morning. Serving breakfast in the classroom ensures students have the opportunity to eat breakfast if they did not eat at home. Often parents and school buses drop off students just before the bell rings, making it impossible for students to eat a traditional school breakfast in the cafeteria. In addition, most of the cafeterias are not designed to accommodate service to the entire student body in a single breakfast period. Serving breakfast in the classroom also removes the stigma that school breakfast is exclusively for economically disadvantaged students. Regardless of the roadblocks, we make every effort to provide one of the most important “school supplies” children need to be successful in school and beyond.
School nutrition programs follow the strict guidelines set forth by the USDA and within that framework of the meal pattern and the nutrition guidelines is a limit to how much the sugar content at breakfast can be decreased. In the solutions outlined above, we strive to reduce added sugars while operating a program within our budgetary constraints and with menu items that the students will consume. Our breakfasts provide nutrition for growing bodies and fuel for the minds of our students so that they can achieve their academic potential and therefore require special consideration and attention. If the public and parents desire more reduction in the sugar content of breakfast, seeking policy changes at the federal level would be required. These changes could be to require meat/meat alternates, reduction in fruit requirement, and an increase in funding to include more protein items and higher quality products. Parents can impact the nutrition standards by providing feedback during USDA public comment periods for the School Breakfast Program and voicing opinions to local, state, and federal policy makers. Changes in the Nutrition Facts Labels to distinguish added sugars would also aid in our selection of food items with less added sugar for our menus. New labeling could also drive the food industry to reformulate items with less added sugar and develop new savory products with higher protein, adequate calories, and lower sugar content. We will continue to listen to our communities concerns and to seek solutions in order to serve students the most nutritious breakfast meals.
