By: Hollie Hojek
hhojek@kcautv.com
There are definitely mixed reviews coming from the students at Yankton High School about what's being served up for school lunches. And students aren't the only ones on the fence about the new menu. Sandi Kramer, the school district's nutritionist says the new standards are hard to reach, especially with the new 850-calorie cap.
'It's hard because you've got different kids. You've got a hundred pound girl... and a 200 pound boy, with different activity levels. And having the caps on things has made it a lot more difficult and I think that's why schools are upset," said Kramer.
So the school district reached out to South Dakota Representative Kristi Noem to voice it's concerns, and see what can be done about this sort of a "one size fits all," school lunch menu.
"I think the decisions made best for our kids are the ones made closest to our kids. So if we can let the school board and the administrators make decisions on what type of food to put on their plate or how much to feed kids I think it's a lot better than letting a bureaucrat in Washington DC do that," said Noem.
Noem says the next step is for South Dakota schools to put a plan in place, and set goals.
The school did pass out a lunch survey to around 100 superintendents asking them what they thought of the new federal guidelines. One of the questions being "are your students complaining about not getting enough to eat?" Seventy-three percent of them answered 'yes.' Noem said she would take this survey to the USDA and see about getting some flexibility on these guidelines.
