How Lunchables Is Changing Its Iconic Recipes For Its School Cafeteria Debut
Each year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) helps to provide billions of lunches to children enrolled in schools across the country. From salads to sandwiches and any number of hot options, school cafeterias attempt to fill hungry students' bellies with healthy school lunches.
The USDA helps schools to procure healthy food through the Food In Schools (FIS) program, which sources food that is grown or produced in the United States. The organization works to ensure that the food that is approved to be served in schools meets specific guidelines. The USDA recently announced plans to work towards reducing sugar and sodium in school foods on the heels of a report that revealed that a majority of both breakfasts and lunches in schools exceeded Dietary Guidelines for Americans standards.
There are a plethora of products and vendors the USDA has vetted for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), but the newest product that will be available in the 2023-2024 school year has been a lunchbox favorite for years: Kraft Heinz's Lunchables.
How have Lunchables changed for schools?
Kraft Heinz announced at a conference in February that Lunchables would be available via the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) in the coming school year without offering specifics on the products students would be able to buy. The company's site confirms the upcoming introduction, but with more details.
After reformulating the meals to conform to the USDA's NSLP guidelines, Heinz Kraft will be offering two different Lunchables options: the Turkey and Cheddar Cracker Stacker and Extra Cheesy Pizza. Both offerings meet the whole-grain rich criteria and also contain two ounces of meat or a meat alternative, but the meals have a reduced amount of sugar and sodium.
According to CNN, because the meals have been remade to fit the guidelines, some question if the flavors of the meals will remain similar to the originals. Some are concerned that the pricing may not fall in line with other meal options provided by districts. Meanwhile, others are grateful for Heinz Kraft's innovation, citing the potential for the new offering to ease issues related to short staffing and the rising cost of food.
Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokesperson for the School Nutrition Association, told CNN, "As school nutrition guidelines get increasingly complex, we've seen companies leaving the K-12 segment. It's good to see a company interested in selling to this segment."