VALDOSTA — Students nationwide were introduced to a revamped school lunch menu on the first day of school and according to various media reports, school systems are anticipating backlash from kids and parents alike.

Enforced by the federal government and made effective July 1, the changes are part of a healthy school lunch initiative put forth in January by first lady Michelle Obama and United States Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

“We had a major meal pattern change in the early ‘90’s,” said Lowndes County Schools director of nutrition Joyce Akins. “This is the first one since then.”

The new guidelines establish calorie and sodium minimums and maximums for meals, require schools to offer a wider selection of fruits and vegetables, mandate that all milk be 1 percent or nonfat and require the use of whole grain.

“We’ve had to reduce the size of the hamburger buns and the size of rolls,” said Akins.

The new requirements come at a challenging time for public school systems in Georgia who are struggling to function with dwindling support from the state.

“Yes, it does cost more,” said Akins. “It’s an expensive meal pattern.”

Lowndes County School system has been preparing for this overhaul for the past couple of years by following the Healthier U.S. School Challenge. The big change for Lowndes County has been the change in state level evaluations which has moved from every five years to every three years and the documentation has increased.

“It makes the paperwork very intensive,” said Akins.

According to the Valdosta City Schools director of nutrition Diane Feagle, the new regulations have been a challenge for the city school system as well.

“It’s very different. We don’t have the flexibility that we had in the past,” said Feagle.

Schools around the United States only had the summer to prepare new menus that cater to these changes.

“I went to the training

 in May,” said Feagle. “We’ve been preparing this through the summer.”

Both the city and the county school systems have not had backlash quite yet and Akins reported that the Lowndes students followed the regulations without refusal or protest.

The new federal demands represent the first major nutritional overhaul for public school systems in over 15 years.

“There’s a lot of red tape in this meal pattern,” said Akins.

Elementary and middle school students now must have a 1/2 cup of fruit and 3/4 a cup of vegetables per meal. High school students are required to have one cup of fruit and one cup of vegetables per meal. The government is also regulating the variety of fruits and vegetables and mandating that more than one kind of vegetable and fruit be served at one time.

“That’s what the major change is,” said Akins.

When it comes to grain, high school students can only have two ounces of grain per day and elementary and middle school students can only have one ounce of grain per day.

The grain requirement has posed challenging to schools who in the past served staple meals consisting of pizza, pasta, rice and macaroni.

“That’s caused a bit of a challenge,” said Akins.

However, Lowndes County and Valdosta City Schools have already been regulating their grains through the past couple of years, so this aspect hasn’t been too much of a change for their students.

“The whole grain will not be an added financial burden,” said Feagle.

In addition to changes to overall meals, students will also notice a reduction in portions with an increase in meal prices.

The federally mandated nutritional guidelines poses several questions and concerns. First and foremost, the mandate suggests that the government is making it their responsibility to regulate nutritional intake of every student in the public school systems throughout the United States. That is a large task to self appoint as there is no way to regulate students who bring their lunch and what students eat at home.

While the federal government can regulate what goes on a tray, the control ends when a student sits down and chooses not to eat.

“I don’t have a say so on whether or not it will make an impact because the government is enforcing this,” said Feagle.

While the county and the city schools are both working diligently to find nutritious foods that the students will actually eat, there is no way of knowing what students are actually eating and what they are throwing in the trash.

“We don’t want food in the garbage can,” said Feagle.

There are also questions of boundaries. Should the federal government have control over what someone eats? How can the government regulate food that a student and/or parent pays for? But schools have no choice, as those who do not comply will miss out on incentive-based funding.

If schools show documented proof that the new guidelines are being 100 percent followed and implemented by December, the government will back pay the school to October, an incentive that will pay schools an additional 6 cents per plate.

The changes have raised concerns and been given praise but to answer the question of whether or not schools can serve as ground zero for combating childhood obesity will have to come at a later date when statistics have been properly documented along with a lengthy evaluation of implementation of these regulations.

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