Running Head: CHOOSE MY PLATE

Daniella Variale
PPE 310: Health Literacy for Schools
Sarah Newsome
October 25, 2015

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These screenshots are the Food Tracker results for a Mirada Elementary School students school
breakfast and lunch. Breakfast was a frosted cinnamon roll with cup of fresh fruit. Lunch
consisted of a turkey and cheese deli meat sandwich on wheat bread, a small raw apple, 6 baby
carrots, and a pint carton of reduced fat (2%) chocolate milk.

CHOOSE MY PLATE

Introduction
It is important for both children and adults to make nutritional meal choices to contribute
to overall positive physical health. Meal quality is especially important for children because good
nutrition supports proper brain development and maintains normal cognitive function, which is
necessary to absorb learning opportunities in school (Drake, 2011). There are online resources
like the Choose My Plate Food SuperTracker made by the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy &
Promotion that make it easy to see the nutritional value in what is consumed. By using this
resource to evaluate breakfast and lunch options children eat at school, we can ensure that
schools are fulfilling the responsibility to meet the requirements of the National Standards for
School Meals and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. As educators, it is important to know if
these nutritional requirements are being met for our students so that we know where we can
begin to be change agents on their behalf in order to provide them, at least in the school setting,
everything they need to develop healthfully.
National Standards for School Meals and Local School Wellness Policies
The National Standards for School Meals were created with the purpose of providing
high-nutrient, low calorie meals that meet the nutritional needs of children in order to protect
their health and avoid childhood obesity. These standards require that schools increase the
availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free and low-fat fluid milk in school
meals; reduce the levels of sodium, saturated fat and trans fat in meals; and meet the nutrition
needs of school children within their calorie requirements (Food and Nutrition Service, USDA,
2012, p. 4088). The Mirada Elementary School breakfast and lunch menu meets the National
Standards for School Meals. It offers fruits and vegetables as two separate meal components,
leaving a spot on students trays for each. Fresh fruit is offered daily during both breakfast and
lunch. Vegetables are always offered at lunch and include a variety of subgroups, such as dark

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greens (salad, broccoli) and orange (carrots). Other vegetable options include celery, cauliflower,
and peas. Students are required to select one serving of fruit and one serving of vegetables from
the fresh fruit and vegetable bar at lunch every day. The school also offers fat-free/low-fat
milk. Among lunch options at the school, students can choose a turkey and cheese sandwich,
which incorporates whole grains into their diet with wheat bread (October 2014 elementary
breakfast and lunch menu, 2015). By meeting these requirements, Mirada generally meets the
National Standards for School Meals.
Because all schools in the Kyrene District have free-reduced lunch policies, Mirada has
to comply with local school wellness policy requirements. All local school wellness policies
must have goals for promoting student wellness, especially in the areas of physical activity and
nutrition. It must include nutritional guidelines for all foods available to promote student health
and reduce childhood obesity. It is also a policy requirement that all stakeholders, including
students, parents, staff, administration, and the general public have a part in developing,
implementing, reviewing, and updating the local wellness policy. All policies and methods of
implementation must be communicated to the public. Lastly, the policy must be measured
periodically to determine the extent of compliance within schools, and the assessment must be
available to the public (Food and Nutrition Service, USDA, 2015).
Dietary Guidelines for Americans
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are a summary of recommendations for healthy
eating that can be followed by the general public. The guidelines focus on sustaining calorie
balance over time to reach and stay at a healthy weight as well as consuming nutritious foods and
beverages. Americans following the guidelines would eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains,
and fat-free and low-fat dairy products and consume less sodium, cholesterol, saturated fats,

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trans fats, added sugars, and refined grains (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion,
2015). A student that consumes a frosted cinnamon roll and fruit for breakfast and a deli meat
sandwich with a side of fruits and vegetables for lunch at Mirada Elementary would meet some
of the requirements of a healthy diet according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This
student would have had 2.5 ounces of grain, cup of vegetables, 1.5 cups of fruit, 1.75 cups of
dairy, and 2.5 ounces of protein.
Based on these values, the only requirement the student has reached by the time she
leaves school is her daily intake of fruit. A student who ate the measured breakfast and lunch
would not meet any of the other daily food group target goals based on the Dietary Guidelines;
however, it should also be taken into account that the goal values reflect all food for the day, and
the student has not yet had dinner. The student would not have her nutritional needs met with
school lunch alone, but she should be about two-thirds of the way to the daily goal since she has
had two of three daily meals. Thinking about her intake this way, even though she has not
reached the dairy and protein goals, it would most likely be reached if there was dairy and
protein eaten at dinner because she is around two-thirds of the way to the daily goal (consuming
67 percent of the days dairy and 64 percent of the days protein).
In spite of this adjusted thinking, there are still some aspects of the school meals that do
not provide the potential to meet the daily guidelines. For example, the child is over halfway (53
percent) in meeting the daily target for whole grains after eating lunch. At that point in the day, it
would be better for her to have eaten a little more grain because she is not quite two-thirds of the
way to the daily goal. In addition, it is not the best that some of the grains that were consumed
were refined, which the guidelines suggest staying away from. A student with this diet would be
extremely deficient in her vegetable consumption because by lunch she has only eaten 31 percent

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of her daily intake, and the remaining amount needed would be difficult to make up in one meal.
The student also does not meet healthy guidelines because of the amount of empty calories
consumed. Children at the elementary age can have 121 empty calories daily, and after school
breakfast and lunch, the student is already at 346 empty calories. Lastly, the guidelines state that
Americans should consume less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day. For half the U.S. population,
including children, this is actually lowered to 1,500 mg a day. From breakfast and lunch alone,
this student would have already eaten over her daily amount of sodium by consuming 1,574 mg
(Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2015).
Nutritional Improvements
There are a number of steps that can be taken to improve the nutritional intake of students
at Mirada Elementary. These changes should be centered on reducing the consumption of refined
grains, cutting out unnecessary sugars, and decreasing sodium intake. To cut out refined grains
from the school menu, the school can replace refined products with whole grain alternatives. For
example, instead of serving frosted cinnamon rolls, the school can offer whole grain cereals. Not
only would this align the menu more to the grain recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for
Americans, but it also creates opportunity to consume more dairy products, which would be
beneficial in helping students reach the daily dairy goal. Secondly, it is really important to cut
down on the empty calories in school meals. Foods with empty calories have a lot of sugar but
little to no nutrients. Replacing foods like the frosted cinnamon roll with whole grain cereal or
eggs would decrease sugar intake and help contribute to a healthy diet with the addition of grains
or protein. Lastly, decreasing sodium intake will contribute to a healthier student diet. Presenting
more fresh food options to the students instead of prepackaged items like cinnamon rolls or deli
meats will help decrease sodium in school meals. Prepackaged foods and deli meats often have a
high amount of sodium to keep it tasting fresh. To reduce the sodium intake of students, the

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school might have fresher options like salads or whole grain wraps with baked chicken.
Decreasing the sodium intake, lessening or eliminating refined grains, and cutting down sugars
and empty calories are just a few ways that Mirada could improve its school lunch menu.
Reflection
This food tracking activity revealed data about students nutritional intake at Mirada
Elementary. This information is important because it impacts students focus inside the
classroom and their physical development outside the classroom. Since nutrition and diet play
such a big role in physical and cognitive development, it is important that teachers stress the
value of a healthy diet and that schools make it easy for students to make healthy choices, since
they are just learning to develop healthy habits. For example, Mirada Elementary, in alignment
with the National Standards for School Meals, has a fruit and vegetable bar where students
choose what fruits and vegetables they will eat every day. This strongly encourages students to
eat fruits and vegetables because they may be presented options that they actually like to eat.
When I was in school, students had no choice in what fruit and vegetable they would receive on
a given day. If I did not like that fruit/vegetable, then I would miss out on a crucial daily serving.
Ensuring that students have options of healthy foods that they enjoy will give them the
opportunity to practice healthy eating habits that will impact them for the rest of their lives.
I learned through this activity that the nutritional value of school lunches still has not
been perfected. This inspires me to be a change agent and do all that I can to continue to improve
the quality of food students receive. This means not only stressing the importance of a healthy
diet to students, but also to every person that can make a change in school lunches. Advocacy for
student health is important because students cannot or will not always speak for themselves, but
they still deserve the best.

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References

Drake, V. J. (2011, February). Cognitive Function. Retrieved from

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/micronutrients-health/cognitive-function
Food and Nutrition Service, USDA. (2012). Nutrition standards in the national school lunch and
school breakfast programs. Federal Registrar, 77(17), 4088. Retrieved from
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-01-26/pdf/2012-1010.pdf
Food and Nutrition Service, USDA. (2015, September 1). Local School Wellness Policy
Requirements. Retrieved from http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/local-school-wellness-policyrequirements
October 2014 elementary breakfast and lunch menu. (2015, October). Retrieved from
http://www.kyrene.org/cms/lib2/AZ01001083/Centricity/Domain/562/Elem.%20October
%20Menu.pdf
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2015, October 25). 2010 dietary
guidelines. Retrieved from http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2010/
U.S. Department of Agriculture. (n.d.). Food tracker. Retrieved from
https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/foodtracker.aspx

Criteria

Points (5) Exemplary

Points (3) Proficient

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Introduction

Introduction was well organized

and created a plan for the paper

Introduction was somewhat organized

and created a plan for the paper

One breakfast and one lunch (or 2

restaurant options) were
evaluated

Results reflect a hypothetical

student
Screen shot was included

Only one breakfast or lunch (or 1

restaurant option) was evaluated
Results reflected a hypothetical
student, but not enough information
was provided
Screen shot was included, but
incomplete
Contained a somewhat detailed
application of National Standards for
School Meals
Contained somewhat detailed
applications of Dietary Guidelines for
Americans
Contains somewhat detailed
discussions only 2 changes to improve
nutrition
A summary of the current state of the
school in terms of nutrition was
included
but did not align with paper
A summary of the proposed changes
was included but did not align with
paper
A general reflection of how this data
impacts your students
Most grammar and correct
punctuation is used throughout the
proposal
Most sentences are clear & developed
Paper was 1-3 pages with standard
margins, font, and size of text

APA style referencing mostly used

throughout the paper and on the
reference sheet with some errors
The file name somewhat contains the
Lastname.firstname.assignment#.cour
se#
This rubric was added but not at the
end

SCORE:x1
ChooseMyPlate
Analysis

SCORE: x1
Application of

results and proposed

changes

SCORE:x1

Summary/Reflectio

n SCORE: x1

Writing

SCORE: x1

Referencing Style
SCORE:

x1

Contained a very detailed

application of National Standards
for School Meals
Contains very detailed
applications of Dietary
Guidelines for Americans
Contains very detailed
discussions for 3 changes to
improve nutrition
A summary of the current state of
the schools nutrition was
included
Summary of changes were
included
A detailed reflection regarding
how this teacher knowledge of
students impacts your students
inside and outside your classroom
Proper grammar and punctuation
is used throughout the proposal
All sentences are clear &
developed
Paper was at least 3 pages with
standard margins, font, & text
size
APA style referencing used
throughout paper and on the
reference sheet
The file document name
contains
Lastname.firstname.assign#.cours
e#
This rubric was attached

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