Photo by Aaron Landry

Photo by Aaron Landry

More than two dozen California school districts are serving healthier versions of one of the most maligned staples of many school lunch programs—pizza.

And the pizza is being delivered by Domino's, one of the largest pizza chains in the country.

In place of reheated frozen pizza, schools are serving what Domino'southward calls its Smart Slice, which uses whole grain flour in its crust, mozzarella cheese with half the fatty of a typical pizza, and less table salt. Local franchises make the pizzas each twenty-four hours and deliver them to the schools.

The Smart Slice comes in response to a new federal law—the Good for you, Hunger-Free Kids Act passed in December 2010—which requires more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables and less saturated fat and salt in schoolhouse meals.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is now reviewing more than 131,000 comments made on the proposed guidelines, is expected to issue terminal regulations by December. thirteen. The new rules will have effect in the 2012–thirteen school yr.

Merely many districts are trying to get a jump-start on the constabulary. Nationwide, Domino'due south nutritionally upgraded pizza is now in most 300 school districts in 31 states.

It took Domino'due south most nine months to create the new pizza, which it first offered to 120 districts nationwide in 2010. The fob was in making information technology taste good, said Steve Clough, director of Domino's school lunch plan. The company'south chefs had to add mozzarella flavoring to the cheese and spice up the tomato sauce. The crust is a alloy of white and whole-wheat flour. The cost of the new ingredients is near 10% college than regular pizza, he said. Just Clough said the company expects costs to become down equally need increases.

Downey Unified School Commune in Los Angeles County began offering the new pizza last year, according to Nadine Silva, the district's operations coordinator. Some students noticed that the sauce tasted different and some wanted more cheese, she said. But she is still selling the same number of pizzas as earlier.

"Most of the students didn't even notice that there was a difference," she added.

In response to an EdSource request, Domino's released the names of only three of the 27 districts that are participating in California considering the company said it didn't desire its competitors to know which districts had signed upwards for their Smart Slices. The districts include Downey, Roseville Urban center almost Sacramento, and Banning Unified in Riverside County.

In fact, at that place is hot competition amidst some pizza companies to fill this federally mandated nutritional niche. Large Daddy'due south Pizza, for case, makes a frozen pizza with whole-grain flour and less fat that some California districts are serving to their school lunch oversupply. And Domino'south Smart Slice vanquish Papa John's in Capistrano Unified.

But some critics say that just meeting the new USDA guidelines, as Domino's Smart Piece appears to be doing, is not necessarily a good measure out of a food's nutritional value.

"The guidelines are out of step with science due to the influence of the meat and dairy industries," says Michele Simon, a public health attorney from Northern California and writer of Appetite for Profit: How the food industry undermines our wellness and how to fight back.

"Nutrient can run into the guidelines, only common sense will tell yous that eating Domino'due south pizza everyday is not good for you," Simon said.

Jean Daniel, a spokesperson for the USDA, said the proposed guidelines very closely follow the recommendations of a 2009 Plant of Medicine panel for new nutritional requirements for school meal programs.

Simon is also on the steering commission of Campaign for a Commercial-Complimentary Babyhood, which objects to the mutual practice of schools contracting with fast-nutrient bondage to provide lunches or even allowing them to open on-campus outlets.

"They want to get their brand in front of the kids' eyes, become them when they are a young, convict audience," she said.

Harold Goldstein, executive manager of the California Eye for Public Wellness Advocacy, said pizza companies have been making special pizzas for a decade to run into whatever federal school tiffin requirements are in effect at the fourth dimension.

"It's very disruptive to kids," he said. "They don't know the departure betwixt the pizza they get at school and the franchise downwards the street."

Schools, he said, should be a safety, marketing-costless zone "especially for products that have a parallel product sold off campus that can contribute to obesity."

Some districts have responded to the push for healthier school lunches by offer options such as stir-fry vegetables in Yuba Urban center, salad bars in San Francisco, and hummus with whole-wheat pita in Los Angeles.

But despite such innovations, nutrient service managers are generally reluctant to let go of pizza considering of its popularity with kids.

"At that place's nix incorrect with pizza if information technology'southward eaten in moderation," said Dawn Davey, director of food and nutrition services for Capistrano. She serves students a meal consisting of just one slice, plus fruit, vegetables, and milk.

The district strives to provide choices that are healthy but too appealing to kids, Davey said. "We don't want them sitting in course hungry because they threw their lunch abroad."

Domino's Clough said kids often reject healthier dejeuner products considering they are unfamiliar, which defeats the purpose of serving them in the first place.

"Information technology'due south not nutritious if kids don't eat it," he said.

Want to notice out more about the proposed schoolhouse lunch nutrition guidelines?  Read details in the Federal Register here.

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