Central Florida schools spent the summer preparing to comply with the new federal mandate that requires pre-set limits on the amount of calories, sugar, fat, and sodium contained in food items available for students to purchase from vending machines, a la carte food lines, school stores, and fundraisers.

Part of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, the “Smart Snacks in School” program requires schools who accept federal funding for the National School Lunch Program to be in compliance by July 1, 2014, and calls for easier student access to foods considered to be healthy: whole grains, protein, and fresh fruits & vegetables. The National School Lunch Program provides financial assistance to both public and non-profit private schools to run the free or reduced-cost lunch service. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, approximately 94 percent of the nation’s schools participate in the program, meaning that more than 31 million American children rely on school lunches for nutrition. “Nothing is more important than the health and wellbeing of our children,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Parents and schools work hard to give our youngsters the opportunity to grow up healthy and strong. Providing healthy options throughout school cafeterias, vending machines, and snack bars will support their great efforts.”

Gary Pendergast, a Lake County father, got involved in the movement to offer students healthier food options on school campuses after his son became ill and began losing weight. With doctors unable to diagnose his son’s symptoms, the Clermont family chose to eliminate processed sugar, grains, and lactose from their diet and almost immediately saw improvement. “We were forced to take a hard look at the ingredients in the things we bought,” Pendergast explained. “In many cases, the first ingredient was either sugar or the item was packed with too much sodium.”

The family then looked at the fare that was easily accessible at his son’s school. “It proved to me that a lot of the things we think are ‘healthy’ are not,” Pendergast said, adding that his son was known to purchase chocolate bars and energy drinks from his school’s vending machines. “Most of the things we are now eating weren’t available in vending machines.”

Enter Healthy Vending, a national franchise portion of California-based H.U.M.A.N. (Helping Unite Mankind and Nutrition) that provides smart vending machines filled with everything from fresh fruits and veggies to nuts, naturally sweetened sodas and juices, protein bars and, of course, water. According to research from H.U.M.A.N., 60 percent of a child’s daily caloric intake is consumed during school hours and 40 percent of the consumption is junk food. “The obesity epidemic took one generation to create but will take longer than that to solve,” said Sean Kelly, CEO and co-founder of H.U.M.A.N. and a former personal trainer. “Our mission is to make healthy food more convenient than junk food.”

Pendergast, a self-employed real estate appraiser in addition to his franchise ownership, has Healthy Vending machines at 11 middle and high schools in Polk County, the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Hope Charter School in Ocoee, and the Renaissance Charter Schools in Poinciana and Hunter’s Creek.

“Many of the schools and vendors were blind-sided by the new guidelines, based on what I’ve heard when I’ve talked to people,” Pendergast said. “I want to make Central Florida H.U.M.A.N.”

The company began focusing on Central Florida four years ago, according to Kelly. “Florida, in general, is a target state and probably one of our top five targets,” he said. “People might think Florida does not have the same issues of lack of access (to healthy food), but there’s a lot of room for improvement.” Kelly expects to make a large impact in the Sunshine State within the next five years and aims to have 10,000 active Healthy Vending machines nationwide by early 2015. “This is not one-size-fits-all,” Kelly said (of the types of food offered in Healthy Vending machines). “What we give the student population in Orlando will differ from what we give the kids in Long Island, New York. We have to match the taste profile.”

Additionally, Kelly said he’d rather replace the traditional (poor) options with healthier foods than have schools eliminate their vending machine programs altogether. “If you do not provide the good stuff, kids will find a way to get the bad stuff,” he said. The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, founded by the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation, created an interactive online calculator (http://healthymeals.nal.usda.gov/smartsnacks) to help parents and students determine if a food item qualifies under the guidelines of the “Smart Snacks in School” initiative. Under the program, for example, compliant food will have less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat and beverages will contain 10 calories or less per 20 fluid ounces.

The new guidelines, of course, do not apply to bagged lunches brought from home, or to school-approved celebrations and fundraisers. Therefore, parents need to play an active role in encouraging their children to make healthy choices. For more information, visit  http://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/smart-snacks-school and http://www.healthyvending.com.