MANATEE -- New federal nutrition guidelines are coming to school cafeterias in Manatee County and elsewhere in the United States.

The new nutrition guidelines will require every public school student to have a fruit or vegetable on their plate, said Sandra Ford, the district's director of nutrition services. The new rules are a result of a federal law passed in December 2010 called the Healthy Hunger-free Kids

Act, Ford said.

The act earned support from not only President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, who have been advocates of healthier eating habits among children, but from Republicans including former Sen. Bill Frist and former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.

Because the Manatee School District already offers several fruits and vegetables at each meal, Ford said she anticipates little financial impact. But she does anticipate that about 20 percent of students who didn't previously eat a fruit or vegetable will now be more likely to.

The school board today is also set to review a status report on the district's health insurance fund deficit that shows the shortfall sitting at just over $3.5 million as of January 2012, the latest date for which figures are available. The board had decided last year to reduce that shortfall by imposing a 2.75 percent pay cut on teachers and other cuts on other employees, but the deficit will be lessened more slowly since the board decided not to make that pay cut retroactive to the start of this school year.

Another highlight of tonight's meeting is a report from Moody Elementary School, one of five schools that are part of a pilot program called Project Push, designed to improve the reading performance of children for whom English is a second language.

This is the first year of the project and so no data is yet available, said Joe Stokes, director of elementary education. Moody's experience and that of the other four participant schools -- Daughtry, Orange Ridge-Bullock, Palm View, and Rogers Garden -- will determine whether the program will be expanded to all Manatee County elementary schools next year, Stokes said.

The meeting is at 5:45 p.m. at school board headquarters, 215 Manatee Ave. W.

Follow the tweets of Christine Hawes, Herald education reporter, during the school board meeting on Twitter @chawesreports. Hawes can also be reached at 941-745-7081.

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Manatee school board talks nutrition, health insurance, reading tonight