Since 1995, the School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children (SMI) has helped foodservice directors and staff offer healthier school meals, promote nutrition education, and create school nutrition environments that support healthy lifestyle behaviors.  SMI underscores national responsibility to ensure that school meals address children’s health and nutrition needs.  It establishes a framework to plan and evaluate school meals using nutrition standards, the nutritional requirements based on Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA’s), appropriate calorie levels, and goals outlined in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

What is a Nutrient Standard? While the nutrition standards include all of the nutrition goals for school meals, a nutrient standard is the required levels of calories and key nutrients for a specific grade or age group for lunch.  The following chart illustrates levels.

Nutrition Information  on Ala Carte Offerings   

Nutrition Information on Menu Item Offerings