Students who bring their lunch to school have better dietary habits than those who rely on cafeteria food, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The October study suggested that improving the nutritional quality of foods offered through the National School Lunch Program, which provides free or reduced-cost lunches to public schools across the U.S. through funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, could help improve adolescent dietary behaviors.
According to the USDA, the School Lunch Program provides children with nutritionally balanced lunches, although some health experts disagree.
Katie Strong, a dietician for the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, said the lunch menu for elementary schools within Tempe School District #3 includes many innutritious foods, despite following the guidelines of the School Lunch Program.
“Right off the bat what stands out is the processed meat,” Strong said of the lunch menu, adding that consuming processed meat has been linked with an increased risk for heart disease and certain cancers.
Each day, the menu provides a different meat-centered entrée like chicken nuggets, Salisbury steak or a hot dog, and offers peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and yogurt for the vegetarian option, as well as a side dish like a fruit cup or corn and bean medley. Strong said that although the side dishes are nutritious, the vegetarian entrée is not adequate.
“PB and J is not offering (students) more fruits and vegetables and whole grains and things we know we should be eating more of,” Strong said. She added that providing a vegetarian option is important for overweight kids since research consistently shows that people who follow a plant-based diet tend to be leaner and have less chronic illness.
According to a 2007 report by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 31 percent of children in Arizona are overweight or obese. Elli Gawne, a sports coordinator for the Chris-Town Family YMCA, said that outside of school, many of the children she works with are not eating healthy food at home.
“Most often they come in munching on hot Cheetoes, drinking soda,” Gawne said, adding that the children who utilize the Chris-Town branch of the YMCA come primarily from public schools, and many of them are overweight.
In 2004, the federal government created the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 which mandated that every public school form a wellness policy including nutrition guidelines and health education goals that promote healthy eating and decrease child obesity.
Susan Rubin, founder of the organization Better School Food, said she got involved with the creation of her daughter’s school district’s wellness policy when she realized how unhealthy the lunch food was. She now encourages parents across the United States to do the same through Better School Food, a group of parents, educators and health experts who are concerned with the poor quality of school lunch food.
Mary Ann Petrilena, a board member of Better School Food, said she used her school district’s wellness policy to address some of the most unhealthy elements of the school lunch, which included eliminating processed food and sugary beverages and adding salad bars to every school cafeteria.
“It was a huge culture change that worked quite well,” Petrilena said.
Tempe School District #3 also made changes to its menu when the wellness policy was created. Shannon Gleave, Student Nutritional Specialist for the Tempe School District, said the cafeteria now serves more healthy salads and sandwiches using only whole-grain buns.
“Unfortunately, a lot of our food is processed,” Gleave said, “Of course we want fresher foods, we just need more money from the government.”
The Tempe School District serves lunch to about 95,000 children with 65 percent of those lunches being provided for free or at a reduced price. For every elementary school student who pays the full $1.75 or middle school student who pays the full $2.00, 25 cents goes back to the actual food, Gleave said, with the remainder allocated to cafeteria staff, facility maintenance and the USDA. In order to receive funding, the school must purchase foods from a list that has been approved by the USDA.
Rubin said the main problem with the School Lunch Program is that it is designed to turn a profit for the USDA and that the program should be regulated by the Department of Education instead. That way when a profit is made, more of the money can be invested in better, healthier food.
“(Schools) are all scrambling to pay the bills and make ends meet,” Rubin said, “Somehow, we have to put children’s health before big profits.”
Katie Strong of the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine said that although the food served in school cafeterias like hotdogs, hamburgers and chicken nuggets do meet the USDA’s nutritional requirements for low sodium and fat content, children are getting in the habit of eating these types of foods and will likely crave them outside of school where nutrition is not being regulated.
“It might be a quick fix in the short-term, but in the long term it’s not teaching them healthy eating patterns,” Strong said.
Brian Lester, owner of Lester’s Catering, provides school breakfast and lunch food to Charter schools throughout Arizona. Although he too must follow the USDA’s guidelines and is restricted because of schools’ tight budgets, Lester said his company serves fresh fruits and vegetables prepared on site at the schools and tries to make his food “a half a step better” than other food service providers.
“The poor kids, these are the only meals they get,” Lester said, “You want to make sure it’s nutritious.”
As a student nutritionist, Gleave said she is aware of the health risks associated with processed meat and would like to see more funding from the USDA so Tempe schools can prepare meals from scratch. She added that schools also try to cater to the needs of students, who are encouraged to talk to cafeteria cooks if have a special request.
Gleave said that although the school food has improved over the past four years, there are plenty of other changes she would like to see occur.
“We’re hoping in upcoming years we can work with more local farmers,” Gleave said.
Rubin said she has been promoting the Farm-to-School movement through Better School Food in efforts to provide children with fresh, healthy, local food by partnering with small farmers.
Rubin said she also advocates for schools to implement a student gardening program as part of the health education curriculum.
“That’s the most effective thing we can do to make kids fall in love with vegetables,” Rubin said, “We can’t fix the environmental issue, we can’t fix the health issue without sitting down and looking at what’s on our plates.”
Rubin said that with the Child Nutrition Act being reauthorized early next year and with health care on everyone’s mind, now is a great time for parents, health experts and educators to become vocal about their concerns with the School Lunch Program. One change Rubin hopes to see to is a one-dollar increase in the price of lunches so that more money can be invested in the actual food.
“As parent, we’re the big stake holders in this,” Rubin said, “We cannot let the food industry determine this legislation.”
http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2009/oct/08_0182.htm
http://www.statehealthfacts.kff.org/profileind.jsp?rgn=4&ind=51&cat=2
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Lunch/
http://www.schoolnutrition.org/Content.aspx?id=2402
http://www.betterschoolfood.org/about/founder.cfm