Orono students’ access to a wider variety of nutritious foods at lunch in the Orono Schools has increased as Sept. 4 marked the first day of new lunch requirements in conjunction with the federal Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.

The federal act was initiated in January by First Lady Michelle Obama as a central focus of her Let’s Move! campaign, which did not go into effect until this school year.

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act now requires schools to offer students both fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, and skim or low-fat milk.

Schools are now required to “focus on reducing the amounts of saturated fat, trans fats and sodium” in lunches according to the USDA.

In addition to meeting the act’s required standards, Orono has added their own guidelines, “requir[ing] students to take a vegetable or a fruit with their meal each day.” Students will now have access to “a wider variety of vegetables, including dark green and red/orange vegetables and legumes; fat-free or 1 percent milk; more whole grains; and lower sodium,” according to the district website. Orono is also trying to provide more locally grown foods.

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act is a “revamping of our school’s meal program,” adding healthier lunch requirements to “address childhood obesity,” which has tripled throughout the past three decades, said Kris Diller, Orono Schools Supervisor of Child Nutrition.

Although the act did not go into effect until the start of the
2012-2013 school year, Diller had progressively made Orono meals healthier in past years by offering a variety of fruits and vegetables. Diller said that “Orono has [had] more of a gradual process” in updating their menu in response to the act,
and now Orono lunches “have changed slightly” since the act went into effect because “Minnesota, in general, has been ahead of the change,” as compared to other states in the country.

Since the act, Orono has worked to provide even more fresh fruits and vegetables that are locally grown. Diller said that Orono is “taking advantage of locally grown produce in the community.” For example, apples available in A la Carte were grown from the Dumas Apple Orchard on old Highway 12.

School lunches now offer the “same amount of meat [as before], a larger variety of fruits and vegetables, and 51 percent of bread offered is whole grain,” said Diller. Orono has already switched to whole grain noodles for pasta and is using sweet potatoes instead of plain oven potatoes. By the 2013-2014 school year, all of the grains offered “will be whole grain,” said Diller.

According to the USDA, the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids act limits “calories based on the age of children being served to ensure proper portion size” and help students maintain a healthy weight. High school students are now allowed 850 calories for lunch. Orono has implemented “age-appropriate calorie limits” according to the district web page. The new maximum calorie amounts are “based on an hour’s worth of exercise per day,” said Diller.

While Diller said that “there’s nothing wrong with making products healthier,” many students are upset with the new lunch requirements and a few are taking action against the new standards.

In the high school, pretzels have replaced potato chips in the sub sandwich line, salt has disappeared, and nearly all extra toppings in the salad bar line have been eliminated. Mac Bendickson, sophomore said the new lunch requirements are,“unnecessary because if someone wanted to be healthy, they could do it themselves.”

Junior Abby Aasen agreed with Bendickson. She is against the healthier lunch requirements making each student take a vegetable or fruit each meal because the rule “makes [students] get food that they’re not even going to eat.”

Inspired by similar reactions to students at Rockford High School, junior Danny Nyquist attempted to start a boycott against the new lunch requirements because he “doesn’t like the idea of the government telling us what to eat and what choices to make.” The #BrownBagginIt Facebook page, which was created by students upset with the federal law, has nearly 3,500 followers and encourages high school students to bring home lunch instead of eating school lunches.

Unlike the successful Rockford High School lunch boycott and many other high school lunch boycotts that have been unleashed across the nation since the begininng of school, the Orono High School lunch boycott has not followed the same pattern due to lack of student support.

Nyquist said that while there was a “big motivation at first, a lot of kids at Orono don’t really care,” and the student participation has declined since the start of school. Although some students are aware of the boycott and do not like the healthier lunch guidelines many continue to get school lunch.

Both Bendickson and Aasen are against the new requirements, but said that they are,“more likely to keep buying lunch at school than bring one from home.”

While some students may disagree with the new requirements, OHS kitchen cook Betty Stang has noticed an increase in Orono students eating more fruits and vegetables since the act went into place. Students initially were reminded to select a fruit or vegetable with their meal each day, but now they are used to the new regulations, and no longer need to be reminded by the staff.

Prior to the 2012-2013 school year, Orono students were charged a main meal price ($2.55 for high school students) if they selected at least three of the five components of a lunch. Now, students at OHS will only be charged the main meal price if one of their choices of at least three of the five lunch components is a fruit or vegetable.

If students do not select either a fruit or vegetable with their meal in the main lunch line, “they get charged A la Carte prices,” said Stang. In that case, students would be “charged individual prices for each food item on their tray,” instead of the $2.55 main meal price.

Although the act’s opponents argue that students will eat whatever they want outside of school, healthy or not, Diller said that,“at least [the school is] not contributing to,” Orono students eating unhealthy meals.

Margeaux Dittrich is the Arts & Entertainment Editor for The Spartan Speaks.