While some local restaurants are preparing for a new and more stringent regulation on kids’ meals, schools are seeing rollbacks of Obama-era nutrition standards for meals served on campus.
A bill that requires California restaurants to serve water, unflavored milk, or a nondairy milk alternative with kids’ meals was signed into law in September 2018 and went into effect on Jan. 1. The legislation, which was introduced by Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) as SB 1192 in February 2018, is an attempt to reduce children’s exposure to sugary drinks that contain little to no nutritional value, according to the bill’s text.
While restaurants will still be allowed to sell alternative beverages upon customer request, eateries could be fined up to $1,000 for serving alternative drinks as a default with their kids’ meals.
Rather than handing out fines, Santa Barbara County officials plan to start with outreach and education during their first few rounds of enforcement operations, according to Larry Fay, director of the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department’s Environmental Health division. Environmental Health, which leads continuous health inspections at food service businesses across the county, is charged with enforcing the new law.
Although Fay said it’s unclear how many restaurants will need to make changes to adhere to the new law, most will likely do so once they’re fully informed of the amended regulations.
“Some of the chains are already doing this,” Fay said. “Others, I think, will get on board fairly quickly.”
The restriction will probably have the biggest impact on fast food chains and corporations, Fay said, and is an effort to diminish the state’s high rates of childhood obesity.
From 1990 to 2016, the obesity rate in California increased by 250 percent, according to the SB 1192 text, and recent trends suggest a continued increase in obesity among children. Nearly 14 percent of children ages 2 to 5 years old in Santa Barbara County were considered obese in 2016, according to the county’s most recent Community Health Assessment.
Obese children are at least twice as likely as nonobese children to become obese adults, according to the bill text. Obese children and adults are at greater risk for numerous adverse health consequences, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
But children don’t always enjoy healthier options, and they don’t always eat what they don’t like. That’s one of the reasons the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture cited for its recent decision to loosen Obama-era nutrition standards for meals served on public school grounds.
The rollbacks, which were announced in a press release on Dec. 12, 2018, are an effort to address “menu planning challenges” at schools, and gives administrators and school food service workers a “greater ability to offer wholesome and appealing meals that reflect local preferences.”
When the changes become effective on Feb. 11, schools will again be allowed to offer flavored, low-fat milk, and will have more time to reach lowered sodium reduction goals. While Obama-era policies required that schools serve entirely whole-grain rich foods, the new regulations will drop that to half.
The Santa Maria-Bonita School District will continue using whole-grain rich breads and pizza crust, according to Public Information Officer Maggie White, but will return to refined pasta. Most kids just wouldn’t eat whole-grain mac and cheese, White said.
The district, however, will continue everything else as usual, and White said it will not begin offering flavored milk. With 89 percent of the district’s students qualifying for free and reduced meals and many eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner on campus, the district has a very real responsibility to keep its food as nutritious as possible. White said flavored milk is too high in sugar.
“Just because it’s allowed doesn’t mean it’s healthy,” she said. “And just because it’s allowed doesn’t mean we’re going to make a practice of it.”
Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash writes School Scene each week. Information can be sent to the Sun via mail, fax, or email at mail@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 3-10, 2019.