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The School Meal Initiative (SMI) was enacted in 1996 by the United States Department of Agriculture to measure how effectively Child Nutrition Programs are meeting the Dietary Guidelines. The Dietary Guidelines try to encourage long-term health through good nutrition. The guidelines focus on providing a variety of foods, controlling fat, sugar, and salt, and maintaining a healthy weight. When a school district has an SMI evaluation, menus, recipes, and portion sizes are evaluated with an approved nutritional analysis software program. The SMI Specialist is then able to tell the district what they are doing well nutritionally and what they need to improve. One focus of the SMI is to find out if meals served by a district meet the guideline of 30% or fewer calories from total fat and 10% or fewer of the calories from saturated fat. The evaluation occurs once every five years. The SMI specialist can be involved any time to help with menu planning, recipes, and nutritional information. |
