The Last Sod School House in Kansas (photo courtesy of Library of Congress, circa 1908)

School nutrition programs are making real progress in introducing healthier food items in school meals, according to the results of the 2006 School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS). The findings included in the study are consistent with trends seen in the 2007 School Nutrition Operations Report and the 2007 SNA School Trends Report.

The School Nutrition Association (SNA) is encouraged by the overall findings from SHPPS 2006. The Report echoes what school nutrition professionals see everyday in the school dining room - that school nutrition programs are offering more fruits and vegetables, more whole grains and more low fat dairy than ever before, and less high fat foods.

Some of the highlights from the survey include:

• 18.8% of schools offer deep-fried potatoes, down dramatically from 40.0% in 2000.

• Among the 62.4% of schools in which staff at the school level had responsibility for deciding what food to order, in a typical week, over 55% was 1% or skim milk and only 9.3% was whole milk.

• Among the 96.8% of elementary schools that provided recess, recess was regularly scheduled immediately before lunch for all classes in 10.4% of these schools, and immediately after lunch in 49.6%.

• School districts required 87.9% of high schools, 85.1% of middle schools and 77.4% of elementary schools to teach nutrition education.

If you'd like to read the full SNA press release on which the above was based go to: CDC Releases 2006 SHPPS Report