Section 2: What are Healthy Snacks

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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

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:

  • Fruits and vegetables
  • Whole grains
  • Peas and beans
  • Nuts and seeds
  • Low fat dairy products

What Makes a Healthy Snack?

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:

Program Characteristics Healthy Snack Standards to Follow
Funded by the California After School Education and Safety (ASES), 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC), or 21st Century High School After School Safety and Enrichment for Teens (ASSETs) programs California Nutrition Standards
Funded by the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) or the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Guidelines

California's Nutrition Standards

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, 21st 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.

For snack food items, the nutrition standards' nutrient levels are:

These three nutritients are often referred to as the 35/10/35 rule.
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  • 35 percent or less total calories from fat
  • 10 percent or less total calories from saturated fat
  • 35 percent or less added sugar by weight of product
  • 175 calories or less per snack for elementary schools or 250 calories or less per snack for middle and high schools

tip icon 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.

tip icon 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 21st CCLC funding can serve the following exempt items without checking them against the standards:

Elementary Middle and High School
Exempt
Foods
(SB 12)
  • 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 \u201cexempt\u201d 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.

For 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

For 10% total calories from saturated fat rule:

  • Eggs
  • Cheese packaged for individual sale

For 35% of total weight from sugar rule:

  • Non-fried fruits and vegetables
Exempt
Beverages
(SB 965)
  • 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
  • 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)

Definitions/Clarifications

  • 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.
  • 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 Guidelines for Healthy Snacks

If some or all of the snacks in your program are provided by the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) or the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), then they must follow the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines.

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USDA guidelines limit snacks to:

  • No more than 9 grams of fat
  • No more than 2 grams of saturated fat
  • No more than 15 grams of sugar

USDA also requires that healthy snacks include TWO of the following food components:

Food Components Portion Size
Milk One 8 ounce cup
Low fat or non-fat milk
Fruits/Vegetables ¾ cup 100% juice
¼ cup dried fruit
1 whole fruit or vegetable
Breads/Grains 1 slice of bread
½ cup of whole grains
Meat or Meat Alternative 1 ounce of meat
2 tablespoons of peanut or other nut butter
4 ounce yogurt
1 ounce of cheese

tip icon Working with Two Sets of Guidelines

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

A snack that meets the California nutrition standards will also meet the USDA requirements. However, in order to be reimbursable, the snack has to include TWO food components.

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.

What Do I Do Now?

tip icon Get to work planning your healthy snack menus! Keep these tips in mind:

  • Include at least two of the four food components (grain/bread, milk, fruit/vegetable, protein/meat/meat alternative) in each day's snack.
  • Serve each of the four food components at least two or three times a week.
  • Provide water to students at the snack table, not just at the water fountain. Water should be the primary beverage available to students.
  • Incorporate healthy snacks from various cultures.
  • Plan for alternative snack options for students with special dietary concerns/needs.
  • Include youths in planning healthy snacks. Doing so will help to ensure that the snacks are eaten, rather than tossed in the trash.

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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.

Program Self-Assessment

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

1 = Our program is just beginning to work in this area and has an urgent need to address this practice.
2 = Our program has done some work in this area but will need targeted support to move to the next level.
3 = Our program has achieved a high level of proficiency in this area and needs only a little additional work to be proficient.
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.

Rate your snack program based on the following quality indicators. (Circle one for each indicator.)

  • A.
  • All staff know the importance of providing healthy snacks.
  • Don’t Know
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • B.
  • All staff know what healthy snacks are.
  • Don’t Know
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • C.
  • All staff model healthy eating habits.
  • Don’t Know
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • D.
  • Healthy snacks are provided to youths daily.
  • Don’t Know
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • E.
  • All snacks provided meet either the California nutrition standards or the California nutrition standards and the USDA guidelines.
  • Don’t Know
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • F.
  • Staff and students are involved in planning healthy snacks.
  • Don’t Know
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4

Improvement Plan

Look at your self-assessment ratings. What needs improvement? Identify areas for improvement for each indicator that scored 2 or less. For each improvement area, develop a corrective action plan including a timeframe for completion.

Identified Areas for Improvement Corrective Action Plan
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.

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Tools and Resources

Action for Healthy Kids provides healthy snack ideas that meet USDA requirements.

California Project LEAN’s on-line calculator can help determine whether or not a snack meets the nutrition standards.

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) 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.



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