California After School Resource Center - Section 2: What are Healthy Snacks?

Children and adolescents who are hungry usually aren't having much fun and can’t focus on what they are learning. Your after school program can make after school time more fun for everyone—including your staff—by feeding participants a healthy snack.

Healthy snacks give youths the energy they need to participate in after school program activities. Nutritious snacks also help youth feel satisfied longer so they can focus and grow in healthy ways. After school staff can also feel good about themselves when they feed students healthy snacks. Youths’ parents will feel good about your program, too.

Serving healthy snacks to hungry students who haven't eaten since lunch time sounds like a good idea… but what exactly is a healthy snack?

Healthy foods are high in vitamins and fiber and low in saturated fat, added sugars, and sodium (salt). Healthy foods (What is Healthy Food?) include:

There are guidelines that your program must meet for its snacks to be considered healthy. These guidelines are described below. To decide which guidelines apply to your program, follow this chart:

Passage of the California Senate Bills (SB) 12 and 965 updated the California Education Code (49431 – 49431.7) with new nutrition standards for competitive food and beverages served in California public schools. These same nutritional standards are now applied to all snacks served in ASES, 21^st CCLC, and ASSETs programs (SB 638, Ashburn and Torlakson, 2006).

The California nutrition standards define the type and amount of fat, the amount of sugar, and the amount of calories for snacks served within the elementary and middle/high school grade levels. For additional information, see the California Department of Education's Standards for Snacks in After School Programs.

To figure out whether or not a snack meets the nutrition standards, use California Project LEAN’s easy on-line calculator. Enter the information from the nutrition label on the package.

Some foods and beverages are exempt, meaning after school programs do not need to do calculations to determine if they meet the nutrition standards. Programs with ASES, ASSETs, or 21^st CCLC funding can serve the following exempt items without checking them against the standards:

Foods (SB 12)

Beverages (SB 965)

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Non-fried fruits or vegetables
Canned or frozen fruit packed in water or 100% fruit juice
Seeds (e.g., sunflower seeds)
Nuts
Nut butters (e.g., peanut butter)
Eggs
Individually packed cheese (e.g., string cheese)
Non-fried legumes (e.g., soy beans, canned beans, etc.)

Note: The above items are considered "exempt" as long as they do not contain any calorie-contributing ingredients (e.g., oils, sugar coatings, etc). For example, nuts are exempt when dry roasted, but not exempt when roasted in oil. All exempt snacks are exempt from caloric requirements and the 35/10/35 rule.

Water without added sweeteners*
Milk (2%, 1% or non-fat)**
Non-dairy milk (e.g., soy, rice milks)**
Fruit and vegetables juices that are at least 50% juice without added sweeteners*

* Sweeteners are defined as any additive other than 100% fruit juice that enhances the sweetness of a beverage (e.g., sugar, honey, NutraSweet, etc.)

** All milk products must contain Vitamin A and D, and 25% or more of the daily value of calcium per eight ounces.

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For middle or high schools, all snacks must meet the caloric requirement of fewer than 250 calories per item. All snacks must also meet the 35/10/35 rule, with the following exceptions:

Exceptions to the 35% total calories from fat rule:

Eggs
Cheese packaged for individual sale
Nuts and nut butters
Seeds
Fruits and vegetables that have not been deep fried

Exceptions to the 10% total calores from saturated fat rule:

Eggs
Cheese packaged for individual sale

Exceptions from the 35% of total weight from sugar rule:

Non-fried fruits and vegetables

Water without added sweeteners*
Milk (2%, 1% or non-fat)**
Non-dairy milk (e.g., soy, rice milks)**
Fruit and vegetables juices that are at least 50% juice without added sweeteners*
Electrolyte replacement drinks*** with no more than 42 grams of added sweetener per 20 ounce serving (2.1 grams per fluid ounce)

* Sweeteners are defined as any additive other than 100% fruit juice that enhances the sweetness of a beverage (e.g. sugar, NutraSweet, etc.)

** All milk products must contain Vitamin A and D, and 25% or more of the daily value of calcium per eight ounces.

*** Electrolyte replacement drinks are defined as: water as the first ingredient, per eight ounces, contains between 10 and 150 milligrams of sodium and between 10 and 90 milligrams of potassium, and contains no added caffeine.

USDA also requires healthy snacks to include two of the food components from the following categories:

Choose at least TWO of the food components to meet USDA healthy snack guidelines.
Food Components	Amount/Type	Examples
Milk	One 8 ounce cup Low fat or non-fat milk	Glass of non-fat milk
Fruits/Vegetables	¾ cup 100% juice ¼ cup dried fruit 1 whole fruit or vegetable	Apple Banana Orange juice Raisins Celery sticks Baby carrots
Breads/Grains	1 slice of bread ½ cup of whole grains	Slice of whole grain bread Cereal (enriched/fortified) Graham crackers Corn tortillas
Meat or Meat Alternative	1 ounce of meat 2 tablespoons of peanut or other nut butter 4 ounce yogurt 1 ounce of cheese	Turkey Chicken skewers Peanuts Almonds Low fat yogurt String cheese

Having two sets of guidelines may sound confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Just remember this important rule:

In other words, an apple meets the California standards, but a second food like peanut butter or low fat milk would need to be added to the apple to make the snack meet USDA guidelines. Regardless of where your snack funding comes from, serving snacks with two different components helps create well-rounded snacks that keep students interested.

Finally, remember—the snack served at your after school program may be a child’s last or only meal for the day. That makes it doubly important to serve a healthy snack, so that your participants have the fuel they need to grow in healthy ways.

Use the following rating system to assess the degree to which each quality indicator is evident in your program.

Level 1: Our program is just beginning to work in this area and has an urgent need to address this practice.
Level 2: Our program has done some work in this area but will need targeted support to move to the next level.
Level 3: Our program has achieved a high level of proficiency in this area and needs only a little additional work to be proficient.
Level 4: Our program is clearly proficient in this practice and can demonstrate this in observable ways.
Don't Know: I am not familiar enough with this aspect of the program to rate performance on this indicator or am just not sure how to rate it at this time.

Aim to meet Level 3 or 4 for each quality indicator in the program content areas. Seek assistance and support for areas scoring at Level 1 or 2.

Look at your self-assessment ratings. What needs improvement? Use the following guide to prioritize improvements and establish timeframes for achieving them. Brainstorm thoughts about technical assistance needs and next steps to improve program quality in the chart below.

Level 1: Action is needed RIGHT NOW – within the next three months.
Level 2: Action is needed THIS YEAR – within the current school/fiscal year.
Level 3: Action in this area should be addressed NEXT YEAR – as part of the routine planning and program improvement process.
Level 4: Practices should be SUSTAINED – no corrective action is needed at this time.

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) provides four week cycle snack menus. The serving sizes of a few items on the menu may need to be adjusted to meet California nutrition standards.

The Healthy Snack Guide for Your After School Program (PDF file) from California Adolescent Nutrition and Fitness Program (CANFit) contains food lists, sample menus, and recipes. The guide even lists foods that meet the guidelines that can be bought in discount stores to save money for your program.

What Are Healthy Snacks?