New federal rules effective this fall have many districts scrambling to change menus and raise prices. The goal of the new rules is to increase the healthful choices in each school meal. Sounds great, right? And it may be—but the new food rules also mean higher costs to make each meal and the possibility of more food waste at the end of each lunch period.

Unfortunately for the state’s school districts, the six additional cents the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will pay them to comply won’t cover school districts’ higher costs to prepare the new meals.

What this means for Old Saybrook’s parents is a 25 cent increase for school lunches this fall and, on each kid’s lunch plate, there will be three-quarters of a cup of vegetables and one-half to one cup of fruit.

This school year, a lunch at Kathleen Goodwin Elementary School will cost $2.50; at Old Saybrook Middle School, $2.75; and at Old Saybrook High School, $3.

New this year at the middle school will be a food kiosk in the school lobby that will sell students breakfasts and snacks.

Old Saybrook’s meal program under Food Service Program Director Maureen Nuzzo already was revamped successfully two years ago to create more healthful options. A la carte choices were reduced and new options for full meals added. The program has proven both popular and financially successful. Now the program must be re-tooled again to meet the new USDA rules.

Some changes in the federal mandates for school meals are listed below:

Daily Fruits and Vegetables: Before, school lunches had to include a total of one-half to three-quarters of a cup of fruit and vegetables, divided between the two, each day. Now each school lunch must include three-quarters of a cup of vegetables per day and one-half to one cup of fruit per day.

New Weekly Standards for Vegetable Types: Before, the U.S. did not specify which vegetable sub-groups must be offered each week. Over the course of each week, the school lunch menus now must offer a minimum amount of each of these vegetable types: dark green, red/orange, beans/peas (legumes), starchy, and other.

The new USDA school meal rules are a result of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 passed by Congress signed by the president in 2010. These new federal USDA regulations implement the new law’s provisions.

Since the State of Connecticut must conduct compliance reviews of 25 percent of the state’s school food authorities this school year, districts are making changes now.