California Governor Gavin Newsom has kicked off a big national effort. This program will serve to improve the nutritional quality of school meals statewide. Recently, he signed a groundbreaking law that will phase out certain ultraprocessed foods from meals provided in schools over the next decade. This decision comes in direct reaction to troubling, recent findings. A new study in the July issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that one-quarter of school meals had very poor nutritional quality.
Ultraprocessed foods have largely replaced core components of American diets. They often are produced using extensive industrial ingredients and loaded with sugar, salt and unhealthy fats. According to the latest NHANES data, adults and children receive more than 60 percent of their calories from ultra-processed foods. These foods are now known to cause a range of health issues. Like the American Heart Association, we are here to sound the alarm on ultraprocessed foods. They’ve shone a spotlight on how these foods are causing the explosive increase in obesity and diet-related chronic diseases.
The new law signed by Newsom, the Priority Housing Ordinance, works to address those concerns directly. The costly initiative would impose new expenses on already financially pinched school districts. They may need to purchase foods aligned with a healthier diet, which are typically costlier. Despite this new potential fiscal cliff, dozens of districts are already jumping into action to improve their nutrition programs.
For example, the Los Angeles Unified School District started overhauling its school nutrition program eight years ago. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho emphasized the importance of providing healthy meals, stating, “Hungry kids can’t learn well, and kids who are deprived of healthy, nutritious food lag behind other children.”
In southern Santa Clara County, the Morgan Hill Unified School District has taken significant steps to eliminate ultraprocessed foods from its offerings. The district gets all of its fruits and vegetables from local, organic farms. These farms are only 30-50 miles from Morgan Hill. Mr. Jochner, a representative from the district, noted the changes made:
“At Morgan Hill you’re not gonna find flavored milks, you’re not gonna find fruit juices, you will not find chicken nuggets, you won’t find frozen burritos, and you’re not gonna find pizzas wrapped in plastic…”
As schools across California prepare for these changes, there is an ongoing debate about how best to implement the new law. As some notable experts and practitioners have recently explained, moving the needle on this goal is a multi-year process. Mr. Jochner explained,
“I think we can’t do it fast enough. We’re raising the future leaders and we should be feeding them things that are not harming them.”
Laura Schmidt, a public health expert, underscored the further difficulties that schools are being put through during this shift.
“It’s a multi-year process that on July 1st of 2029 we will move forward with the first phase… So we’re giving this a three-year window of opportunity.”
Even with these challenges, Schmidt is hopeful about the impact that decreasing the use of ultraprocessed foods in schools could have. She stated,
“We do have to think about how do we implement that in the school system. It’s more expensive to get healthy fruits and vegetables into schools. Some schools lack the kinds of kitchen facilities that are needed in order to cut and chop vegetables and deliver a healthier product.”
Governor Newsom is hoping that California’s law will inspire other states to follow suit. He remarked,
“We know that ultra-processed foods lead to obesity, and obesity leads to all sorts of health outcomes like diabetes and heart disease. So the more that we can get kids off to a healthy start without eating ultra-processed foods, the better. And that’s what this law is about to do.”
Governor Newsom believes that California’s new law sets a precedent for other states. He remarked,
“The Office of Health Care Affordability has a numeric target as well for healthy foods, and I don’t think there’s anything comparable anywhere in the country… California will be leading the nation.”
