One month into a new school year, students, staff and cafeteria vendors in Ontario schools are still adjusting to strict nutrition standards set in place by the province.

The new rules eliminate items with high sugar, fat and sodium content such as pop, energy drinks, potato chips and candy from school menus and vending machines.

Throughout the school year, schools are allowed 10 special exemption days on which items, which do not meet nutrition criteria, can be sold.

As summer weather stretches on through the month of September, cafeteria queues at Dryden High School aren’t what they used to be. Student Mike Arnold says he agrees with the province’s efforts to restrict junk food items, though he says more students are getting around the restrictions by leaving the school to get lunch.

Cora Woods is a little miffed at the loss of a significant portion of the DHS cafeteria menu. Some items, like cookies, remain although at one-quarter of their former portion size.

Introduced last January and fully implemented this September, the Keewatin Patricia District School Board (KPDSB) worked closely with nutrition and dietary professionals from the Northwestern Health Unit to get regional schools in compliance.

Deana Pacheco says Ontario schools can finally practice what they preach when it comes to promoting healthy lifestyle choices. The New Prospect Elementary School Principal led the board-wide implementation of the new standards.

“It’s about educating the whole child,” said Pacheco. “That’s our job now. We’re not just teaching them math and language, we’re educating children to be healthy, productive members of our society. I think it’s important for us as a system to be modeling what it is to be a healthy individual. A lot of kids aren’t getting that at home.”

Public Health Nutritionist Jenn Maki of the Northwestern Health Unit says there will no doubt be an adjustment period, particularly in secondary school cafeterias where the changes are the most sweeping.

“There has been a fairly long grace period,” said Maki. “I think that that’s the first step, is not to implement a policy and expect schools and vendors to change overnight. The other pieces that go along with that are supports for change — knowing that some vendors are willing to be pro-active and make changes to their approach.”

Proprieter of the Dryden High School cafeteria vendor, Subway, Wayne Grandmont, says business has definitely decreased following the implementation of the new food and beverage policy, though he says Subway has no plans to bail out, as has been reported with some school cafeteria vendors across the province. At the moment, Grandmont says they are trying their best to adjust the menu within the guidelines and wait for the shock of the menu restrictions to wear off their student customers.

Maki says some schools in the region have changed their entire approach, working the food and beverage policy directly into the curriculum.

“At the high school in Fort Frances, the vendor is no longer there, but one of the classes will be preparing and selling the food,” said Maki. “There’s a lot of opportunity for skill development there and increasing the acceptance among the students of the new food choices that are available.”

Hoping to broaden the policy to include food-based fundraising activities, Maki says the public health field is also seeking to re-examine the role of physical activity in healthy lifestyle promotion in schools.

Currently, phys-ed is only a required element of the curriculum until Grade 9.

By Chris Marchand and Cassie Price