By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Each month, the USD 428 Board of Education hears from department directors throughout the Great Bend District. Monday evening, Food Services Director Kristy Alvord updated the board on upcoming changes that will soon be required with the National School Lunch Program.
"Starting in the 2027 school year, we are going to have to decrease our sodium again," she said. "Last year, we had to go down 10 percent. Here in two more years, we're going to have to go down another 10 percent in our sodium levels, which is very difficult to keep flavorful menu items when you have to take away all the sodium."
Currently, grade K-5 students may be given no more than 1,100 mg of sodium for lunch, and students in grades 9-12 may receive no more than 1,280 mg. Those figures will decrease to 935 and 1,080, respectively, as of July 1, 2027. The breakfast limit is 485 mg for the youngest students, up to 570 mg for the older students. Alvord said one chocolate milk contains 130 mg of sodium, leaving just 355 mg for the remainder of the meal. Beginning July 1, 2025, new limitations will also take effect regarding added sugar limits.
"I'm not too worried about our lunch menu," Alvord said. "The frosting on the cinnamon rolls might be a little less, and the cinnamon and sugar might be a little less, which they're going to notice, but it will affect the breakfast items."
Breakfast cereals may have no more than six grams of added sugar per dry ounce, and yogurt may have no more than 12 grams of sugar added per six ounces.
"This will affect all of our breakfast cereals," said Alvord. "All of them we serve now do not have less than six grams of added sugar. I think our highest one is nine grams, so we're not too far off, but I'm going to have to figure out what we're going to serve in place of cereal if the manufacturers don't come up with something to decrease the sugars in them."