Liverpool (WSYR-TV) -- Kids and teachers are still adapting to the new Federal school lunch guidelines. Lunch directors need to find nutritious food that students find tasty enough to buy.
On Wednesday, school representatives from across the state came to Liverpool to taste-test hundreds of new products catered for school lunch programs.
Baldwinsville’s school lunch director says his students are passing up hamburgers now that they can’t have more than two ounce patties.
“The big thing is the size of some of the entrees, of burgers and things, that we had to shrink down were not well accepted,” said Baldwinsville School Lunch Director Brian Wright.
Kids everywhere have had to adapt to new nutrition requirements in school, so lunch directors are fishing for the tastiest, healthiest alternatives on the market.
“If what we’re offering is not appealing, we lose our customer base, lose our customers and we lose income,” said Executive Director of the New York School Nutrition Association Carol Beebe. “We’re not supported by local tax dollars the way the rest of the school is, we have to make our programs self sufficient.”
School lunchrooms are competing with bagged lunches from home and drive through restaurants that do not have to follow the same requirements, so the food has to be delicious and a great value.
“You can change the guidelines all you want, but if the kids don't eat it, it's really not nutrition at all,” continued Wright.
Some of the Federal guidelines include more whole grain and less sodium in meals and students now have to take a fruit or vegetable with their lunch.
