Schools  across the country are making the switch to more nutritious meal choices in their cafeterias to prevent childhood obesity, and Wenatchee High School is no exception.

Valerie Gray, WHS kitchen manager, said everything they sell to students must now be under a certain amount of calories. Breakfast cannot exceed 600 calories, lunch cannot exceed 800 calories, and anything that students buy from the à la carte options, like the salad bar or the Panther Pantry, cannot exceed 200 calories. In addition, only 30 percent of those calories can come from fat.

“The rules have been changing consistently over the last couple of years,” said Gray. “What they’re doing is reducing fat, calories, artificial sweeteners, and the unhealthy, processed chemical foods. We took out anything that has an artificial sweetener. We have strict calories that we have to adhere to for each meal.”

Pretzels must now be sold separately from the cheese sauce because the items individually do not exceed the limits, but when they’re sold together their calories are counted together, and they do not meet the new standards.The new calorie constraints must be met not only by the regular cafeteria food, but the student-run stands, like Elwood’s Oasis, as well. Elwood’s Oasis no longer sells Snapples, certain kinds of chips or pizza due to the new restrictions.

The Association of Marketing Students, or DECA, program was responsible for stocking the vending machine which was taken out by the ASB office. Ten percent of its proceeds used to go to the program, however DECA adviser Matt Pakinas said it was taken out because the administration said it distracted from learning, not because it didn’t meet the nutrition guidelines.

The machine used to raise approximately $1,000 a year for the program, but Pakinas said DECA intends to make up for it with other fundraisers.

Students may have also noticed that the school no longer sells bagels from Jeepers. This is a result of one of the new rules which states that every kind of grain sold in the cafeteria must be 51 percent or more whole grain.

“We’ve taken out anything that was just processed white flour and it’s been transferred over,” said Gray. “Even the Cheetos are now whole grain. So we still try to serve some of the stuff that kids really like, but it’s got that sneaky little part of… they made it taste the same, but it’s a little healthier.”

In order to keep as much of the food kids like as possible, yet still follow the new guidelines, Gray said they have started making some of the recipes from scratch instead of just using canned, processed ingredients. For example, they now make their own cheese sauce for the pretzels instead of using the cheese straight from a can.

However, Gray said the new guidelines have not affected the cost of buying food much because as the school lunch programs are evolving, the companies who supply the schools are evolving as well.

“This is not just Washington state and this is not just our school, this is a national guideline that’s set,” said Gray. “So the companies that process food and create all these things are now catching up with us so the cost, as more people buy them, is going down.”

These health food guidelines will continue to grow and change over the next few years. Gray said they will be implemented gradually so it is easier for students to get used to them.

“If you feed your body the right things it’s going to eventually last longer and hold up better,” said Gray. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing for the schools to promote that and to teach. Some of the students here are not learning some of this stuff at home [because] it’s hard to come home and cook a meal and make sure that your child is learning how to eat healthy. I think it’s a good education for kids.”