Cafeteria plan

In response to Marie Neumiller’s letter to the editor on April 19, titled “Food fight,” the newly proposed federal regulation has to do with limiting all starchy vegetables, which includes corn, peas and unadulterated potatoes, to one cup per week.

My concern, as director of nutrition services for Spokane Public Schools, was with limiting healthy food items like these and not addressing the issue of potato products that have added fat in them. For the record, Spokane Public Schools has no fryers and we have limited the portion and frequency of the lower-fat baked potato products in our elementary schools to two days per week, which is in line with the new regulation.

With regard to offering a wider variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, our district is in complete support of this goal. We have fresh fruit and vegetable bars in every elementary school, and 11 of our highest-need schools participate in a federal grant that offers $315,000 of fresh fruits and vegetables (including jicama and pea pods) during the school day to all students. We will continue to explore new innovative ways to offer fresh and healthy unprocessed foods to our students.

Douglas R. Wordell

Spokane