School Nutrition
School Nutrition at Our School
- Pillar One: California’s State Meal Mandate is expanded to include both a nutritiously adequate breakfast and lunch for, not just needy children, but all children each school day.
- Pillar Two: High poverty schools will be required to participate in a federal provision.
- Pillar Three: The California State Legislature allocates funds to provide additional state meal reimbursement to cover the cost of the Universal Meals Program.
Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)
USDA Nondiscrimination Statement
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; or
2. fax: (833) 256-1665 or (202) 690-7442; or
3. email: [email protected]
Programs
About our Food Service Management Company - Serving Breakfast and Lunch
Unity Meals (https://unity-meals.com/)Breakfast
Universal and Second Chance Breakfast
What is Universal Breakfast?
Universal Breakfast (offering meals free to all children) optimizes the impact of switching to an alternative breakfast model. The traditional means-tested school breakfast (in which the meal is free or the child pays, depending on family income) creates a sense among children that the program is just “for poor kids.” This deters participation by children from all income groups, including low-income children who most need the school meal. This is especially problematic in middle and high school as awareness of the social context grows. By offering breakfast at no charge to all children – and children, of course, are free not to participate – free breakfast for all ends the stigma, boosts participation among hungry children, and eliminates the burden of collecting fees.
If you want to learn more about Universal Breakfast, here is a useful link:
http://frac.org/pdf/frac-facts-offering-free-breakfast-to-all-students.pdf
What is Second Chance Breakfast?
With the Second Chance Breakfast (2CB) model, school breakfast is offered in the morning before school starts and during morning recess or snack/brunch break. 2CB is effective for serving students who, due to family schedules or transportation issues, are not able to eat in the morning before school begins. 2CB is also effective for students who are not hungry first thing in the morning, but do get hungry before lunch. 2CB is one strategy that helps bring the benefits of breakfast to all students.
By serving children when and where they are ready to eat, Second Chance Breakfast benefits students and schools.
Lunch
National School Lunch Program
What is the National School Lunch Program?
The National School Lunch Program is a federally funded program that assists schools and other agencies in providing nutritious lunches to children. In addition to financial assistance, the program provides donated commodity foods to help reduce lunch program costs. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for overseeing the program nationally. In California, the program is administered by the California Department of Education (CDE), Nutrition Services Division.
What are the benefits of participating in the program?
For children, the National School Lunch Program provides a nutritious meal that contains one-third of the recommended dietary allowance of necessary nutrients. For parents, the program offers a convenient method of providing a nutritionally balanced lunch to all students. For schools, the program enhances children’s learning abilities by contributing to their physical and mental well being. Studies have shown that children whose nutritional needs are met have fewer attendance and discipline problems and are more attentive in class.
For more information about the NSLP program, please click on the link below:
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/sn/nslp.asp
Snack & Supper
http://www.ourlittlehelpers.org/
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/cc/
Wellness Policy
- The schools will engage students, parents, teachers, food service professionals, health professionals, and other interested community members in developing, implementing, monitoring, and reviewing PUC Schools-wide nutrition and physical activity policies.
- All students in grades K-12 will have opportunities, support, and encouragement to be physically active on a regular basis.
- Foods and beverages sold or served at school will meet the nutrition recommendations of the S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
- Qualified child nutrition professionals will provide students with access to a variety of affordable, nutritious, and appealing foods that meet the health and nutrition needs of students; will accommodate the religious, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the student body in meal planning; and will provide clean, safe, and pleasant settings and adequate time for students to eat.
- To the maximum extent practicable, all schools in PUC Schools will participate in available federal school meal programs (including the School Breakfast Program, National School Lunch Program [including after-school snacks].
- Schools will provide nutrition education and physical education to foster lifelong habits of healthy eating and physical activity, and will establish linkages between health education and school meal programs, and with related community services.
- A comprehensive committee, consisting of all PUC stakeholders, will participate in development, monitoring and revision of PUC Schools Wellness Policy.
- A comprehensive committee, consisting of all PUC stakeholders will assist in menu planning and reporting survey results and data to FSMC or Food Vendor, three times a year.