Posted: 9/6/05
Schools stressing healthy eating
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Students were greeted with pizza for lunch on their first day back to Caledonia schools on September 1.
They might not have known it, but the pizza at the middle/high school was made with a multi-grained crust, leaner pepperoni, and low fat cheese.
It was an example of a trend in school lunch programs throughout the state of offering healthier food to students in an effort to curb obesity.
Caledonia public school food services director Julie Merzenich has seen an emphasis in that direction from the Minnesota Department of Health in her seven years at ISD #299.
ìWe try to use the leanest hamburgers,î she said as an example on August 30. School cooks drain grease off ground beef for tacos or hamburger gravy. They use canola oil for french fries. ìWe steam our vegetables. We try to use whole grain breads,î Merzenich said. ìWe try to offer as much fresh fruit as we can.î
The a la carte line, one of three lines students can go through, has salads, fruits and juices. The school offers skim and one percent milk. Even the chocolate milk is skim.
Ironically, the state promotes healthy foods in its commodities, but the actual food that they send isnít all that healthy, Merzenich feels.
ìI think they should be offering a leaner hamburger and things like that,î she explained. ìThey should offer fruits that come water packed and not heavier juice.î
On the other hand, the state is offering fresh apples this year. ìTheyíve never offered us fresh fruit since Iíve been here,î she said.
Merzenich orders food ìcommoditiesî from the state a year in advance. The district is allocated $25,000 to buy brown box items like ground beef, turkey roast, cheese, fruits and vegetables. The school also gets rebates for ìpilotî items like chicken nuggets, chicken patties, pizza, bread dough.
Other food comes from private vendors. Bread and milk products are done on a low-bid basis.
Why this emphasis on healthy eating at school? ìI think itís a rush-rush society,î Merzenich answered. ìKids are used to grabbing a burger and fries someplace. Thatís why kids are getting more overweight.î
Ultimately it is up to the students what they eat, she added. ìI do sell candy bars and I do sell [Little] Debbies. We offer healthy choices too,î Merzenich said. ìWe offer, but itís their choice to make.î
Merzenich said itís hard to determine whether students are getting fatter. ìThree-fourths are not overweight in my opinion,î she said.
New facility helps
Middle school principal Brian Doty said the middle/high school building that was built in 2002 has enabled the food service to put in four lines. ìThis is designed for it,î he said while watching students pick up their food on September 1, the first day of school.
Food preparation facilities are better, and the cooks can be more efficient and offer more diverse food, he said.
Another example of healthy offerings is the options for milk and juice from the lunch program that high school students have during their 10-minute mid-morning break, Doty said. That wasnít possible in the old building.
Doty also pointed out the four beverage machines. One offers pure juice, one fruit drinks, one sports drinks, and one ñ only one ñ offers pop.
Other schools doing the same
Editorís note: Don Heinzman, a columnist for ECM Publications, which owns The Argus, wrote more on this subject after talking to food service personnel at three schools in the Twin Cities area.
The school lunch directors in the Twin Cities Area are offering lower-fat content foods to students, who in some cases are getting higher fat content food, snacks and soda pop at home.
School lunch directors are noticing more overweight kids than there used to be, and they are determined to help them control their weight.
Meanwhile, some middle and high schools offer kids snacks and soda pop in vending machines after school and some during school. All vending machines mostly are turned off during the school lunch period.
After school, however, many kids grab a sack of snacks, open a can of soda pop and watch television until their working parents come home.
A sampling of school lunch programs shows changes in whatís for lunch at schools.
Allison Bradford runs the Anoka-Hennepin school lunch program where 28,000 to 30,000 school lunches are served every day. Like many school districts, she follows the federal guidelines of serving foods with 30 percent or less from fat and 10 percent or less from saturated fat.
Her thrust is to offer students as many healthy choices as possible. Students can choose among five fruits and vegetables every day. Only 1 percent and skim milk are offered.
Fat-free and baked chips are offered. Low-fat dressing is used on the salads. Even the corn dog is low-fat. The popular pizza this year will have a whole grain crust, since more whole grain products are being used.
Her focus is on getting pre-school and kindergartners to eat healthy foods.
Only fat-free French fries are served in the Burnsville school district. Kids there will be served an unbreaded chicken fillet this year.
Low-sugar cereals are provided during the breakfast program.
The ice cream cups have been changed from four to three ounces, to go along with a fat-free cookie.
No Little Debbies are served and kids are offered smaller portions of juices.
In the Forest Lake School District, students are served whole grain, smaller, reduced fat pizza.
Joy Cook, who heads the food service there, has started to serve oatmeal for the breakfast, and itís being accepted.
In school lunch programs, portions are controlled. For example, in Forest Lake, kids get five chicken nuggets, where outside of school they may eat 15 or more.
Cook likes to offer incentives to the kids. If they eat their entire lunch, they get a free fruit and vegetable.
In Elk River where the program is run by a private firm, Sodexho, whole grain buns and bread are served.
General Manager Julee Miller says eight fruits and vegetables are offered in the program each day. Miller says the daily calorie target for elementary kids is 645, for middle school students, 783 and for high school, 819.
For those parents who question the nutrition of school lunches, Cook invites parents to come in and have a lunch. Sheís confident theyíll become convinced that school lunches are healthy and nutritious.
Caledonia Argus
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507/724-3475
E-Mail: editor.argus@ecm-inc.com