Facs

Micah Mayberry

October 21, 2015

FACS 1070 05N

Trends and Issues Article Summaries

Nutrition Trends

For the past several years, nutrition has been at the forefront of the minds of legislators. For example, Michelle Obama has had a push for healthier foods in schools. The two articles I read focused on school nutrition and how it is prepared and served in school and on field trips.

According to authors Jeannie Sneed and Emily Vaterlaus Patten, communicating the importance of food safety with teachers is the most effective way to pin point problems with food taken on field trips. Out of all the school nutrition managers and teachers that were contacted, few responded to Sneed and Patten’s study. The results show that many foods taken on field trips require time and certain temperatures to remain safe. Most schools reported back saying they use coolers or ice packs, however, some of them did not. The issue with school nutrition managers and teachers having little to no concern about the safeness of food taken on field trips is that the students could be served contaminated food. According to authors Keith Rushing and J.T. Johnson, USDA recipes are in need of improvements. A big percentage of School Nutrition Directors reported back to Rushing and Johnson saying they use the USDA recipes. The results showed that as enrollment in districts increased, the usage of USDA recipes considerably declined. The issue with the USDA’s nutrition plan is that some School Nutrition Directors find it undesirable and therefore must be improved in some aspect.

References

Rushing, K., & Johnson, J. T. (2015). School Nutrition Professionals' Usage and Perceptions of

USDA Recipes and the Impact of Student Enrollment. Journal of Child Nutrition & M

anagement, 14.

Sneed, J., & Vaterlaus Patten, E. (2015). Current Practices for Providing School Field Trip

Meals: Perspectives of School Nutrition Managers and Teachers. Journal of Child N

utrition &...