New food regulations change cafeteria menus at many schools across the country, calling for more nutritional foods.

Biddeford High School is one of those schools, now abiding by the new set of rules put forth by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Department of Child Nutrition, responsible for supplying healthy foods to children through school cafeteria programs. Students may notice that some of their favorite things, like regular Cheese-Itz, packages of two Pop-Tarts, and cinnamon buns have been replaced with Spicy Cheese-Itz, whole wheat Pop-Tarts with only one per package, and banana bread.

Sandy Lewis, supervisor of the Food Services Department for the Biddeford School District, explains that the new regulations aim to create a healthier future for America.

“First I’d like to put all of this information in perspective,” said Lewis. “The USDA School Nutrition Program is a grand effort to educate and nourish all school age children nationally…it addresses issues like childhood hunger and child obesity which sadly are a fact of life in this day and age.”

Lewis says that with the USDA’s motives in mind, the Nutrition Department accepted the challenge of making Biddeford school cafeterias much healthier options for students.

“We, Biddeford School Nutrition Department, participate in this National Program because we are funded to provide nourishing meals to our students and model healthy eating for a lifestyle choice,” said Lewis. “There is a national epidemic where kids are at risk for unhealthy eating that later in life leads to a large array of preventable health issues.”

In order to combat these issues, Superintendent of the Biddeford School Department Jeremy Ray says that there are new rules on the sodium content of snacks, a rule that took his favorite Miss Vickies salt and vinegar chips off the menu, he said jokingly. This new regulation that the chips didn’t seem to meet, Lewis says, is very specific.

“There are new sodium guidelines that we must adhere to… less than 1,420 [milligrams] for lunch and less than 640 [milligrams] for breakfast,” said Lewis. “We have to just watch the really salty foods.”

The new regulations also state that all bread and pasta must be whole wheat and served in certain quantities and that a cup of fruit must be served at breakfast. Lewis says that they use an online calculator to ensure that food they wish to sell meet the sodium guidelines, being especially careful with snacks, something that Lewis thinks is a more dramatic change.

“More obvious than these changes are the new snack restrictions…all items available for purchase must meet the new guidelines,” said Lewis. “You’ll also notice many changes in the beverages available…each item must be approved.”

Lewis says that this change is not only necessary for the well being of the students, but because Biddeford relies “heavily on the federal funding we receive by meeting the guidelines.”

“As a school who does participate in the National Program we can’t opt to not follow the rules,” said Lewis. “The only schools who may choose to do that are either private schools or schools that are funded for their nutrition programs by other means.”

The new food in the cafeteria has students feeling conflicted, like junior Erin Martin, who misses “the old cookies” that were changed from last year but likes the banana bread that debuted in the cafeteria this year.

“Obviously it [the new food] is not as good, but I think it’s a great idea to bring healthier food to the high school,” Martin said.

Senior Amanda Kimball echoed Martin, believing that “the program is doing its job” by providing healthier food to students.

“I think that it is a good change because a lot of students don’t care what they eat and just grab whatever they see first that looks good,” said Kimball. “So I think having healthier options for students will tempt them to choose those over unhealthy ones.”

This is something that both Lewis and Ray were hoping for, that Biddeford students would make the healthy choices once they are supplied. Lewis in particular thinks that “the students will get used to the new items” and hopes that they will soon embrace them.

“We encourage student to try new foods…come on beans are awesome [and] nothing looks better on a tray than those fresh greens and those vegetables!”