New York School Nutrition Association

New York School Nutrition Association

125 Wolf Road

Albany, New York 12205

The New York School Nutrition Association (NYSNA), which represents members in over 1200 school districts, is appreciative of USDA’s thoughtful consideration of the many comments received in response to the proposed rule to amend the nutrition standards of competitive foods.

We stand by our original comments presented back in March 2013, and at this time, we would like to emphasize a few issues that we feel are worth repeating. We certainly support USDA’s efforts to encourage healthier school environments and address childhood overweight and obesity concerns. However, we feel that imposing competitive food standards during the school day but eliminating them after school sends a very mixed message.The unintendedconclusion is that healthy eating is only for school meals/snacks.This undermines the goal of healthier youth and cultivating dietary patterns for life. We also view exempted fundraisers as an area that will be problematic and difficult to enforce. With schools having dozens of clubs, afterschool sports teams, parent groups etc., even if each interest were allowed one fund raiser a month, the possibility of multiple fund raisers per week is not unlikely. And with the new standards, treats in the cafeteria will be rare (if existing at all) thus making the fund raiser treats more appealing than ever.

New York State strongly supports our “Choose Sensibly” Program and we urge USDA to consider this option as a way of rolling out new standards. It has been a very successful program that has been easy for the operator to offer and easy for the consumer to understand. Although we know that our standards are different from what is being proposed, we would embrace the new standards that would be based on a number in grams or milligrams, rather than having to formulate percentages. It also would allow the student/consumer to be educated on how to look at a label anywhere and know if it is a good choice. The extra burden for school personnel to get the weight in percentages for every item they serve would be unbearable. If the items fit in the set parameters, limits on calories wouldn’t have to be a factor as we would already know that the item is acceptable.

Education must have practical applications in order to become a permanent part of a child’s life. Choose Sensibly, developed by NYSNA and begun in NYS in 2003 as a voluntary means for schools to help teach students how to choose a healthier snack,encourages students to apply what they are being taught in the classroom in order to make sensible snack choices. Reading nutrition labels to make sensible choices is a skill which students need to develop and practice. Learning to make sensible choices will provide children with the ability to use their knowledge of nutrition throughout their life. Here’s a reminder of what NYS currently has in place for its Choose Sensibly Standards:

The snack standards (per serving):

7 grams or less of fat

2 grams or less of saturated fat

0 grams of trans fat

15 grams or less of sugar

360 milligrams or less of sodium

One serving per package

We also feel that establishing the standards in this format can also be used for the new limits placed on entrées and side dishes, while leaving the exemption for NSLP and SBP entree items.

USDA asked for clarification for breakfast entrées. We do feel that this is an area of concern, as most breakfast entrees typically served in the school meal programs are not combination foods, or protein items, but all aregrain items. We would request that typical breakfast foods, such as a bagel and itsaccompaniments be considered an entrée rather than a snack at breakfast time or at lunch time.

With respect to beverages, although we certainly appreciate USDA’s change to allow all allowable beverages to be served within the food service areas, we are opposed to allowing diet soda as an acceptable beverage for high school students. NY schools have worked hard to eliminate this beverage not only during the school day, but also completely from their campuses. Even though schools can institute their own stricter wellness policies, many will turn to this beverage, because it will be a profit maker. We feel the parameters that are specified will encourage manufacturers to use non-nutritive sweeteners resulting in students consuming more of these beverages that have ingredients in them with dubious health consequences. USDA should take a stand against diet sodas and artificial sweeteners.

A final concern is for the fiscal health of our programs. Almost every school in NYS has lost money this year, serious money - a loss that threatens the viability of many programs. The six cents per meal we are receiving for meeting the new meal regulations, does not cover the cost of implementing the regulations by far. The proposed limits on our a la carte sales will increase the financial damage our programs are currently sustaining. We are hopeful that student acceptability of the new meal pattern will grow a little this year and continue to improve as the years go by. Only time will tell. Meanwhile, it would help our programs if USDA would extend the start date for implementation of the competitive food regulations to school year 2015-16. NYSNA hopesUSDA will consider a later implementation date as an option while we attempt to hang on to our programs during this period of adjustment to the new HHFKA meal pattern.

We, as operators of school nutrition departments, are happy to be part of the child hood obesity solution. We sincerely hope that USDA will be mindful of not only the students we serve, but how the final rule will affect our programs and the people who operate them on a daily basis.

We appreciate the opportunity to submit these comments for your review prior to publication of the Final Rule.

Respectfully submitted,

Debbi Beauvais, RDN, SNS

New York School Nutrition Association President