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Potato
chips, cola, and sweets, oh my! Christian
Science Monitor April 15, 2002 By Marjorie
Coeyman, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor BRIDGEHAMPTON,
N.Y. -
Sixth-grader Ticheyla Strong is sitting in her public school cafeteria munching
on a grilled cheese sandwich. If that seems an
unremarkable image, consider this: The sandwich is made of freshly baked
semolina bread and organic cheddar cheese, and it is being served with steamed
broccoli, roasted potatoes, homemade tomato soup, and a salad bar that offers
fresh, crunchy vegetables and nuts with a dollop of cottage cheese on the side. It hasn't always
been this way. "Last year the food was nasty," Ticheyla says of the
fare at Bridgehampton's public pre- K-12 school on Long Island. "Now
there's different stuff - better stuff." But very few US
public-school students are sitting down to the kind of lunch served in
Bridgehampton. As the US
Congress prepares to do its first review of school-lunch legislation in five
years, critics are charging that school lunch in the US is a mess - and in some
cases it is only getting worse. "The past 10
years have been really bad," says Antonia Demas, director of the Food
Studies Institute, a nonprofit children's-health advocacy group in Trumansburg,
N.Y. The only good news, she says, is that the way kids eat in school "is
getting so bad that people are finally paying attention." And increased
scrutiny of what kids eat during the school day has had an impact. Growing
public criticism of practices like hiring fast-food chains to cater school
lunches and allowing soda- and candy-filled vending machines to operate -
unchecked - in school settings has caused at least a handful of school districts
to either ban or limit such practices. But such
districts are in the minority. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta says that 98 percent of public US high schools and three-quarters of
middle schools have vending machines. The government's
school-lunch program is also the target of much criticism. With an annual price
tag of about $10 billion the program helps to feed 27 million public school
children meals balanced according to government guidelines. But many
observers remain unhappy over a system that allows almost 30 percent of total
calories to come from fat, counts French fries as a vegetable, and too often
offers unappetizing canned vegetables as the only truly "healthy"
option. Some advocacy
groups are urging Congress to take a hard look at a program they believe has
utterly failed to keep pace with what experts today know about nutrition. The School Lunch
Act of 1946 was originally spurred largely by alarming reports from physicians
who found too many young World War II recruits to be underweight and
malnourished. A free or
subsidized meal at school, it was assumed, would help put meat on young bones. But dietary
considerations were fewer at that time. "Then we were just worried that
kids would get enough to eat," says Amy Lanou, nutrition director for the
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, an advocacy group
that holds school-lunch programs partially responsible for the growing number of
over-weight US children. "Today we know a lot more about nutrition." There are also
concerns about the dual mandate given to the US Department of Agriculture, the
government agency that oversees school meals. School-meal
programs exist not only to feed hungry schoolchildren, but also to create
markets for certain unwanted US food commodities. That explains why
items such as processed pork balls - using pieces of the pig that most
restaurants don't want - and apples with no taste often end up on school menus. But few major
changes are expected in the school lunch program this time around. Some experts
argue that it's not necessary. The government, they say, is already moving in
the right direction. "School
lunches are pretty good and could be better - and are getting better," says
Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center in Washington, who
points to studies showing that the fat content of school lunches has dropped
significantly in recent years, and that it is scheduled to drop even further. In addition,
others say, school-lunch innovation is not an item of interest for the Bush
administration, which appears to be focusing most intensely on tightening
eligibility requirements for students who currently qualify for free or
reduced-price lunches at school. Real change will
only come at the grassroots level, "one school at a time," says Ann
Cooper, executive chef and director of wellness and nutrition at the Ross School
in Easthampton, N.Y., and a self-described school-lunch reform advocate. At individual
schools there's plenty of interest in change, she insists. "I have
public-school administrators calling me all the time and asking" how to
improve school meals, she says. Ms. Cooper
recalls in particular the superintendent who called her and moaned that lunch at
his school that day comprised two soft pretzels and an apple - and that it was
considered a complete and healthy meal according to government nutritional
standards. One school to
take a stand has been Aptos Middle School in San Francisco. There, concerned
parents and educators got together and decided to ban all sales of soda, chips,
and candy from the school. They then focused on creating healthier and more
appealing cafeteria offerings such as sushi, turkey dogs, and chili. "We just
stopped" sales of junk food, says Laura Hurley, assistant principal.
"The kids weren't crazy about losing soda and chips, but they've
adapted." There were also
logistics to work out, says Ms. Hurley, like finding a cost- effective way to
bring in sushi from a local restaurant, but the trade-off, she adds, has been
improved after-lunch behavior and concentration in classes. Cooper has also
found a proving ground for some of her ideas about reforming public-school lunch
in the Bridgehampton school. There she works
as an outside contractor - the school has no kitchen facilities - providing
breakfast and lunch meals that are fresh, made of organic products, and
sometimes almost gourmet in quality. Each meal costs a
few cents more than last year's, which came from another public-school
cafeteria, but Bridgehampton administrators say the trade-off in terms of
quality has been well worth the added expense. Of course, the
students have needed some coaching in order to accept strange new dining
experiences, such as scones and chicken tandoori, and not all have been
converted. "I'd rather
eat normal food," scowls sixth-grader Paschelle Street, and several
students laugh at the idea of zucchini as a pizza topping. But a whole
tableful of fifth- and sixth-grade boys eagerly shout: "Salad bar!"
when asked what's best about this year's lunch fare, and a solemn group of
second- and third-grade girls are quick to point out that their new diet is
better for them and more slimming as well. "Cauliflower,
boiled fish, cottage cheese," second-grader Mikeyia Stanfield recites
enthusiastically when asked what new foods she has tried at lunchtime this year. Old habits,
however, die hard. "Broccoli is
great," she says as she dips a large green spear into a pool of
familiar-looking red stuff. "It's good for you - and it's great with
ketchup." What kids want Nutrition may be
on the minds of parents and educators around the country, but the top five foods
students reach for at lunch haven't changed: 1. Pizza 2. Chocolate chip
cookies 3. Corn 4. French fries 5. Chicken
nuggets Source: American
School Food Service Association |