
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 8, 1994                   TAG: 9409080072
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

SCHOOL GROUPS OPPOSE NEW LUNCH PLANNING

A proposal to make school lunches more healthful will require cafeterias to spend more on crunching numbers and less on serving crunchy fruits and vegetables, the PTA and other national groups said Wednesday.

But the Agriculture Department defended its proposal to change the basic structure of school menus and require that nutritional data be used.

The dispute over how best to assure that children eat less fat and salt comes as the department begins final work on overhauling the meal program, which costs federal taxpayers $4.7 billion a year.

Also, the House and Senate must reconcile differences in bills requiring changes in the program. The department's proposals would not take effect until July 1998.

Critics argued at a Capitol Hill news conference Wednesday that the 92,000 schools in the program could begin offering healthier meals in 1996 if a simpler approach to change were allowed.

At issue is a proposal to replace the so-called meal pattern with nutrient standard menu planning.

The meal pattern says each meal must include a meat or meat substitute, milk, fruit and vegetable portions, and bread or a substitute.

The new approach would require schools to analyze the nutritional content of their foods and make sure that over a week, students get no more than 30 percent of their calories from fat and no more than 10 percent from saturated fat. Sodium content would have to be reduced.

by CNB