http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/6657243

State monitoring of national school lunch program nutritional content

As part of the School Meals Initiative (SMI), the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Food and Nutrition Service (USDA-FNS) now requires each state to regularly review the nutritional content of food served by each School Food Authority (SFA) as part of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). While states must monitor the nutritional content of school meals, they are not required to forward any information to USDA-FNS. However, USDA-FNS is required to measure progress against Objective 2.1 of FSN's 1997-2002 Strategic Plan, which states that it will "ensure that school meals are consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans DGA and the Recommended Daily Allowances RDA." In September 2000, FNS issued a completely revised Strategic Plan, which established goals for school lunches under a new Objective 1.3: "Improved nutritional quality of meals, commodities, and other program benefits." The "target" established under Objective 1.3 is "By 2005, reach less than or equal to 30% calories from total fat and less than 10% calories from saturated fat; maintain calorie, vitamin and mineral content at greater than or equal to 33% of RDA." To measure progress, USDA-FNS needs to produce state and national aggregations of the nutrient content in school lunches to show that meals in a given state or in the country as a whole are consistent with the DGA and RDA. In addition, FNS needs to do this while imposing minimal reporting burdens on the states.

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