Commentary; Posted: 9/14/05
School hot lunch programs in state make strides
By Don Heinzman
For some children, the school breakfast and the hot lunch served at noon may be the healthiest meal of their day.
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 program for Forest Lake Area Schools, 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.
Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605