Same story, different year.
The school district will once again fail to meet the Connecticut Nutrition Standards for the 2014-2015 school year and, therefore, miss out on a potential $20,000 in federal food subsidies.
“Connecticut State law governs the sale of healthy food and beverages in schools,” wrote Paul Hendrickson, the district’s business manager, in a memo to the Board of Education. “In order to exempt the sale of food and beverages during non-school hours from these laws, the Board of Education must take formal action for such exemption on an annual basis.
“If formal action is not taken, the sale of food and beverages at schools during non-school hours — including PTO functions — would have the same restrictions that are in effect for school lunches,” he added. “This would severely limit the types of food and beverages that could be served during non-school hours and would also result in higher food and beverage costs.”
Mr. Hendrickson noted that the district would lose approximately $40,000 in annual revenue at RHS if they adopted the state standards.
“This amount would be offset by about $20,000 in increased federal food subsidies,” he said.
The board unanimously voted to accept the healthy food certification statement Monday night that said the district would not meet the state’s statutes.
Other neighboring districts have also failed to meet the standards, including Newtown, Stamford, Weston, Westport, and Wilton.
Similar to previous years, portion sizes at the high school are also holding the district back from cashing in on the aid.
“What it comes down to is, do we want to limit second entrees to students?” asked Janet Schmitz, the food service director.
The state has certain calorie restrictions per meal, or entree, offered and the portion sizes at the high school do not meet the requirements because they’re too big.
Board member Irene Burgess said the portion sizes the state requires are not sufficient in feeding some students, particularly larger-sized athletes.
“They just buy double,” she said.