Earlier this week I shared the link to a piece by Dana Woldow, “Will SNA Chart a New Course?,” which examined the background of newly elected School Nutrition Association President Jean Ronnei. Woldow speculated that, based on the progressive meal program Ronnei previously oversaw as school food director in St. Paul, Minnesota, her election might signal a softening of SNA’s current stance against science-based school nutrition standards.
But this morning SNA’s spokesperson, Diane Pratt-Heavner, left a comment on The Lunch Tray which included Ronnei’s response to Woldow’s piece. The letter would appear to indicate that any optimism about SNA changing course is not justified.
Ronnei’s response is reprinted in full here:
In response to Dana Woldow’s “Will SNA Chart a New Course,” I am grateful for Ms. Woldow’s confidence in my ability to effectively lead the School Nutrition Association (SNA) as President. I am honored to serve SNA’s 55,000 members, who work hard to prepare healthy meals that meet regulations, appeal to diverse student communities, are affordable for families and fit within increasingly tight school meal program budgets.
Saint Paul Public Schools’ (SPPS) Nutrition Services team, like so many others nationwide, has dedicated their careers to improving school menus and encouraging students to make healthier choices. Thanks to our central kitchen, equipped with the help of federal funds no longer available to schools, we slowly and carefully increased the amount of whole grains into our school-baked products that were then not available in the market place.
SPPS needed to apply for a temporary whole grain waiver that would allow the district to create a menu item that would appeal to our diverse student body. As Ms. Woldow cited, our district is renowned for efforts to offer dishes that our diverse student body recognizes from home. At the urging of our Karen community, we sought the waiver to add culturally relevant dishes to our menus, such as a scratch-prepared breakfast entree made with white Jasmine rice and scrambled eggs. Schools nationwide should be able to make exceptions like these when planning menus, which is why SNA is seeking reasonable flexibility.
SPPS has always encouraged students to take “All You Care to Eat” from our colorful fruit and vegetable “Choice Bars,” but we struggle with the new mandate forcing every child to take a fruit or vegetable at breakfast and every day, even if they don’t want to eat it. This mandate has frustrated students and staff, spoiling what should be a healthy choice that leads to student consumption. Meanwhile, forcing students to take food they don’t eat has increased costs, forcing us to limit the varieties of fruits and vegetables we once served. As a result of rising costs, we have been unable to set aside funds to replace old equipment for the past few years.
Thanks to the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), SPPS is now serving all students in some schools for free. CEP helped our district and others regain some of the student customers we lost under the new rules. Unfortunately, too many schools are ineligible for this program.
As SNA President, I am called to serve school nutrition professionals from every background, including those who do not enjoy many of the advantages that helped SPPS get ahead of the curve in meeting new requirements. For SPPS, and for theirs, I will continue to support SNA’s requests for increased funding and flexibility under the new standards.
Jean Ronnei, SNS
SNA President
Chief Operating Officer, Saint Paul Public Schools, MN
Do You Love The Lunch Tray? ♥♥♥ Then “like” The Lunch Tray! Join almost 10,000 TLT fans by liking TLT’s Facebook page, join 5,600 TLT followers on Twitter, or get your “Lunch” delivered right to your email inbox by subscribing to my posts. You can download my FREE 40-page guide to “Getting Junk Food Out of Your Child’s Classroom” and be sure to check out my free rhyming video for kids about processed food, “Mr. Zee’s Apple Factory!“
Janet Poppendieck says
I don’t think it is quite fair to characterize Ronnei’s reply as “business as usual.” I believe her election represents a real turn at SNA toward its historic role as a primary supporter of healthier, better, and more sustainable food for our school children. I don’t think we can achieve this goal without SNA, and Jean Ronnei’s move into the leadership role is a giant step in the right direction. Her many years of stellar work in Saint Paul speaks volumes, and we need to support her as she tries to meet the needs of her association’s members while seeking to lead the organization out of the destructive role it has occupied in the last few years.
I’m really distressed that the whole notion “flexibility” has come to signify ditching the HHFK standards. I have heard from food service directors who support the standards, whose schools were early adopters–and are certainly among the 95 % that are in full compliance–that they encounter problems in implementation that interfere with achievement of the underlying goal (healthier food, healthier kids). This is likely to be true of virtually any new set of regulations, and something akin to “flexibility” is very much needed. If we can no longer call it flexibility, perhaps we need another word. “Wiggle room” seems undignified, so I propose “grace.” USDA, I think, has generally tried to embody this attitude, but food service professionals may face very difficult challenges from their state administrative agencies if they are not in formal compliance with the regulations. I can understand, therefore, their effort to get some sort of legal protection.
I think that the larger good food community needs to stop demonizing SNA and listen a bit more carefully to just what food service folks are saying about how this is working out on the ground, and what they need to make it work better. The call for more resources for equipment and a more realistic reimbursement rate are not excuses for non-compliance. These are real, pressing needs in many districts. HHFK has made a big difference. We need to unite to support the achievement of its promise.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Janet: Thanks very much for coming by The Lunch Tray to leave this comment. I’ve replied to you in a new post, which you can find here.
Dana Woldow says
I too have only the greatest respect for Janet Poppendieck, whom I have met on several occasions. She is not only extremely knowledgeable about school meal programs, but also a charming lunch companion.
After my original article profiling Jean Ronnei ran in Beyond Chron, I too received the letter from Ms Ronnei to which Bettina is responding; in fact, it was sent as a letter to the editor at Beyond Chron in response to my profile of Ronnei.
The policy at Beyond Chron is that letters to the editor run in their own section, but in reality few readers ever look at that section. I felt Ms Ronnei’s response was entitled to a larger audience, as large as the audience that had read my original profile. So I wrote a follow up article which included the full text of Ms Ronnei’s letter, with my own comments interspersed.
I would love to see Ms Ronnei “lead the organization out of the destructive role it has occupied in the last few years,” as Janet suggests. I have pleaded with her to at least try. I hope Janet and anyone else interested in this topic will read my latest article on Jean Ronnei, and see why I agree with Bettina that her response was “business as usual.”
You can read it here: http://tinyurl.com/qc2rfgv