Join us in celebrating a major win for the health of our nation’s school children! The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced its new guidelines for School Food that prioritizes student’s well being by protecting students from excessive sugar consumption.

Over 30 million children eat school meals, with a significant portion of their daily calories consumed at school. This change will have huge, positive effects that will follow these students as they grow.

The Highlights

Added Sugars: Sugar guidelines will be implemented in two phases:

• Phase 1: Beginning in 2025, limits to the amount of sugar in cereal, yogurt and flavored milk products will be introduced nationwide. 
• Phase 2: Weekly amount limits will be implemented by the 2027-2028 school year. Sugars will be limited to less than 10% of calories across the week in the school lunch and breakfast programs.

A big win for Eat Real’s community

We are incredibly grateful to have been a key player in the development of USDA’s new guidelines. You may remember our call for your comments to the USDA in support of healthier school meals, to share your story of how you’ve seen real and delicious foods in the cafeteria make powerful changes for your children. These letters, along with the diligent work of our team and partners, worked! You made this happen!

We know that school food can be both healthy and delicious: we see it everyday in Eat Real Certified District cafeterias and hear it from our School Food Heroes. We’re excited to continue working towards our goal of better school nutrition for 1 million students by 2025 and you can help make it happen.