Food Law

I wanted to make all parents aware of the Texas nutrition policy, in very simple terms all candy and carbonated beverages are not allowed on school campuses during the school day. I will not be handing out candy to the students unless it has been approved in advance. I have also spoken to the students about the estimation jar for student of the week, they are not to put candy in them. I will send it back home if candy is brought to school. Please consider this with Halloween approaching, candy or chocolate is not a nutritonal snack choice.

In 2004, the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) implemented a much more restrictive policy on foods that are provided to students. The policy is aggressively enforced and schools found to have violated the policy will lose a day of meal reimbursement funds from the state and will be required to reimburse the food service account for the lost reimbursement. The policy applies to foods of minimal nutritional value (FMNV), and any type of candy and also restricts the provision of “competitive foods,” which are all foods and beverages not provided by school food services. The policy also limits the number of grams of fat and sugar Texas schoolchildren are served each week, restricts portion sizes for items such as chips, cookies, frozen desserts and beverages, and calls for phasing out deep-fat frying in schools. Nutrition policy exemptions allow for such events as birthday parties, pizza parties and classroom snacks (see the Exemptions section on facing page for details). The full Texas Public School Nutrition policy is available on the Texas Department of Agriculture Web site at www.squaremeals.org. Policy highlights include:

Soda water, Water ices, Chewing gum, Candies and chocolate bars are not allowed at any time during the school day.

Classroom birthday parties: Foods otherwise restricted by the policy are permitted at student birthday parties. It is recommended that such parties be scheduled after the end of the last lunch period so that these celebrations will not replace a nutritious lunch. Federal regulations do not permit FMNV to be served in the food service area during meal periods.