Sustainability

ARTICLE:

No more mystery meat:
School lunch has had a major overhaul since Congress passed the 1994 Healthy Meals for America Act, a revision for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).
In other words, no more tater tots passing for a vegetable serving.
Today things are much different from 10 years ago. During the 1991 to 1992 school year 71 percent of all secondary schools offered lunches that met the dietary guidelines for Americans, which provided good nutrition. By 1999 at least 90 percent of schools were meeting the guidelines, which include 30 percent of total calories from fat and less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat when analyzed over a week.
Quite simply that means schools are innovating, with offerings such as veggie burgers and sushi to get children eat more nutritiously. However many hurdles remain. The most important hurdle is perception.
"When we were growing up, we had to take what we were given," says Gaye Lynn McDonald, former president of the American School Food Service Association (ASFSA). She points out that parents today have plenty of misconceptions about cafeteria food.
"Mystery meat arrived in a brown truck in the middle of the night," she says.
But reality is quite different. Registered dietitians and other health professionals tell parents that what's served in the school cafeteria actually may be more nutritious than the brown-bag lunch.
A study showed some surprising results. Even though cafeteria and bag lunches were similar calorie-wise, averaging 577 calories, lunches that Mom or Dad put together didn't measure up to school lunches on nutrition, according to a study by Eastern Michigan University.
But school lunches are required to meet one-third of a child's daily nutritional needs and follow the federal government's dietary guidelines. These meals provided more variety and better nutrition than luggable lunches from home, according to the study. Cafeteria lunches had twice as much fruit and seven times as many vegetables as brown bags, which included three times more snacks.
"People's perceptions are that school lunches aren't healthy," says Alice Jo Rainville, author of the study and an associate professor of nutrition for Eastern Michigan University. "If parents are busy, they aren't as attuned with health."
That means parents may not realize just how much nutrients, vitamins and fat a child needs every day. And they may not think about the nutritional benefits of what they pack, whereas the main job of the school food service director is to create the most nutritious lunch possible. That includes at least a serving of fruit, a vegetable and a protein source, which could be yogurt or cheese. These dairy food sources have similar high-quality protein as chicken does.
Nearly 96,000 public and private schools nationwide are in the National School Lunch Program but only 58 percent of children participate.
"School lunch is the ultimate convenience," Rainville says. "You don't have to shop for ingredients or pack a lunch."
Strong bones
The same study showed that most lunches from home included juice boxes instead of milk. Milk was a part of 87 percent of school lunches versus 7 percent of bagged lunches.
"Milk contains the most calcium and protein per penny and per 100 calories than any other food in the school lunch," says Ann Marie Krautheim, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the National Dairy Council.
When children drink milk instead of soft drinks, fruit drinks or tea at lunch, children consume more calcium for that meal as well as for the entire day, according to a study in the Journal of Child Nutrition and Management.
Children and teenagers are in a calcium crisis: Nine out of 10 girls and seven out of 10 boys do not get the recommended servings of dairy products essential for growing bones and bodies. Also, more than half of American adults are overweight or obese. And one out of every four children is considered obese, which reflects an upward trend. At an alarming rate, more children who have weight problems are developing adult illnesses such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, problems typically seen in overweight adults.
Fussy eaters
Another problem is getting children and teenagers to try foods that aren't as familiar as less nutritious French fries. Along with more traditional foods such as pizza, cafeterias also offer food such as a chicken salad with red peppers, pinto beans and green leaf lettuce.
Debra Smith, a food service director in Basking Ridge, N.J., says she is doing taste tests to encourage more children to buy lunch at school.
"So much of what children learn about food comes from home exposure," Smith says.
Successful school lunch programs depend on education, says McDonald of ASFSA.
Hanging colorful posters in the cafeteria showing food pyramids, urging parents to check out school lunch menus posted online, and encouraging nutrition lessons in the classroom are all ways to encourage families to choose school lunch as a nutritious option, she suggests.
A sporty irony
The school cafeteria has another obstacle: what is sold outside the gymnasium.
Ironically, in efforts to raise money for school athletic programs or other activities, schools have vending machines full of candy and soft drinks. Soda companies such as Pepsi and Coca-Cola offer lucrative contracts to schools.
Children who are unaware of their nutritional needs are dipping into their pockets for some liquid candy after school. Nutrient-empty foods are fueling their growing bodies.
"Schools that are bridging their budgets gaps by peddling soda and snack foods are doing so at the expense of their students' health," says Margo G. Wooten, director of nutrition policy at Center for Science in the Public Interest. "More school districts should be actively fighting childhood obesity and not encouraging it by striking deals with soda companies."
But the movement to crush soda machine sales at schools has taken a step forward as the Los Angeles Unified School District stopped the sale of soda.
Another solution may be to change what is offered in the machines. The dairy industry suggests replacing soda with milk, says Krautheim of the National Dairy Council. Flavored milk is a big seller these days.
"When milk tastes good, they drink it," Krautheim says.