USDA Chooses Nixa Schools to Spotlight Healthy Lunch Program

NIXA, Mo. -- The Nixa Public School District nabbed a district honor Wednesday, becoming one of only four districts in the state to be chosen to highlight the USDA's new national school lunch guidelines.

Wednesday morning at Inman Intermediate, students and teachers played host to a farmers' market to highlight the district's role in "The School Day Just Got Healthier" program.

Kids learned more about making healthy food choices and where their food actually comes from.

"It helped me to understand what's in the food and how it's healthy," says student Shelby Berry. "That yeast is a living organism and that it feeds on sugar, and it creates a chemical reaction, and that releases gas and that's what makes the dough puff up."

"I actually didn't know that a Hiland Dairy farm was in Springfield," says student Logan Lewis. "I thought they were up in Kentucky, and they shipped all their dairy stuff down here to by from the stores."

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Research shows that kids who have healthy diets and get regular physical activity are more likely to perform better academically, which is all a part of Nixa's goal of making sure that all students succeed to their maximum potential.  These healthy habits may also play a role in helping kids with greater concentration, better attendance, better classroom behavior, better self-esteem, and lower obesity rates.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is doing its part by making the meals 32 million children eat each day healthier, providing additional funds to schools that meet the new healthy meal standards, providing nutrition education resources, and recognizing those schools leading the way in fighting obesity through its Healthier US School Challenge.

The new guidelines align school meals with the latest nutrition science, based on recommendations from the National Academies of Science Institute of Medicine and the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The new measures address childhood obesity by updating requirements for school wellness policies and providing more nutrition information to parents.

To learn about the meal standards, go to www.fns.usda.gov/healthierschoolday.