Fall 2005
From the first day we put our children on the school bus to their high school graduation, we place their safety and health in the hands of the school system. And every time a military family moves, yet another search begins to find the best school with the best curriculum.
There is no argument that school performance is important, but sometimes we may overlook one area - the school cafeteria.
While classroom legislation leaves no child behind academically, the condition of some school cafeterias is failing. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) grades the nation's school lunch programs, and the results should make you look more carefully at your child's next school. For instance in 2004, Albuquerque schools received an F, Fairfax County in Virginia mustered a B and nearby Prince George's school district in Maryland narrowly passed with a C-. (For the complete list, see HealthySchoolLunches.org).
Nutritionists at PCRM focus on the nutrient content of the menus, foods sold in school vending machines and nutrition education programs. The criterion measures the percentage of fat, fiber, vitamin C and frequency of vegetables, fruit and calcium-rich non-dairy beverages from school menus.
Even if your child's cafeteria food is somewhat healthy, vending machines sit on the sidelines, tempting kids during their time-crunched lunch break with sugary soft drinks and salty snacks. A Time/ABC poll showed that 64 percent of respondents believe that high-calorie snacks and sweets in schools are as responsible for childhood obesity as fast-food restaurants. Research from Children's Hospital Boston specifically links the rising rates of childhood obesity in part to soft drinks in school vending machines, citing statistics that a typical teenager gets 10 to 15 percent of daily calories from soft drinks, thus raising a child's risk of developing obesity by 60 percent.
Since early 2005, at least 24 states have introduced legislation to establish standards for vending machine sales in schools. The legislation varies from outright banishment to controlling the time of day the machines are turned on. It's a timely process, but some are not willing to wait.
New Hampshire-based Stonyfield Farm has created a program called Menu for Change, a grassroots effort to get healthful food choices in school lunch programs. Menu for Change isn't out to rid schools of junk food. Instead, it offers healthy alternatives in vending machines which stand side-by-side with regular soft-drink and junk-food machines. Critics of the program said that a child or teen would never choose a healthier alternative when given the chance. Stonyfield CEO Gary Hirshberg proved them wrong with a new type of vending machine, one that didn't include sugary soft drinks and candy.
To make the program really work, the food had to be affordable, profitable and - most of all - taste good. The first two obstacles were overcome when vendors agreed to drop their margins. The students jumped the third hurdle by taste-testing and deciding what to put in the machines. Students even came up with their own marketing and sampling ideas to get other kids interested in the program.
Pilot program vending machines have been placed in select schools in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York. They've been both popular and profitable.
So what can you do to get your school to improve its lunch program and get rid of the junk? Even if federal or state governments can't change policies quickly or stringently enough, individual school districts can be led toward healthier choices.
"The first step toward improving the system is to get past the adults," says Dorothy Hebert, executive director of Kids First, a Rhode Island training institute for healthy cafeterias and health education in schools.
Hebert, a former chef, says that cafeteria workers often are not trained in healthy culinary techniques, especially regarding fresh and healthful foods. "Many cafeteria supervisors are fearful of preparing different foods, that they will lose money," she says. But once they see otherwise, the changes can be exciting.
If you want to improve your child's school lunch program, here are a few ways to get involved:
1. Check out menus and snack foods currently served to students, and talk to teachers and the principal about your interest in improving the nutritional value of foods in the school.
2. Learn about programs other schools have implemented, such as Kids First, Menu for Change or individual school or state programs.
3. If you prefer to start small: Encourage kids to replace one unhealthful lunchbox item with a wholesome one, start a classroom garden, or offer to arrange for chefs to visit your child's classroom for a cooking demonstration.
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Kimberly Lord Stewart is a Colorado-based food and health writer and wife of a retired naval officer. Her book, Eating Between the Lines, a field guide to supermarket food labeling, is due out in 2006.