Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Making a Change


It is often said that children are more open to change than adults. This is because children have not yet established a strong daily routine, nor have they had habits long enough for them to be deeply embedded in their lifestyle. If schools begin teaching elementary age kids the value of a healthy lifestyle, there is a strong chance of a successful outcome. Children will most likely take what they learned in school home and share it with their family. Because there is no real argument against living a healthy lifestyle, I believe that changing school lunch menus to be healthier, as well as enforcing healthy habits within the school can only have positive benefits.

This is why I am advocating the revision of the Aberdeen, South Dakota elementary school nutrition standards to mandate that student meals meet specific guidelines in fat, sugar and cholesterol content.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

School Lunch

This video is a great summary on how to improve your child's lunch diet through a combination of methods. The video mentions the role parents play in the school lunch menu and how simply speaking up can make a difference for the better. Often changes are made from the bottom up, so don’t feel your opinions don’t matter because they do.

In case you aren’t immediately successful in implementing a change in the school’s meals, the video also explains a simple lunch you can make at home for your child to bring to school. Some basic food substitutions can save your child almost 500 calories in one meal, so don’t be afraid to read the nutrition label.

Marketing Food to Children


In 2006, approximately $1,618,600,000 was spent on marketing food and beverages to American children and adolescents. Of this amount, $870 million was spent on targeting just children.

Company’s marketing tactics incorporate the idea of presenting one consistent image, everywhere. A character in a television spot appears on the box in the grocery store, this same character is on posters in restaurants and popping up in ads on the internet. The big idea is to create a friendly face for the brand, most often through the use of a mascot, then place that mascot everywhere children are bound to be. Studies have shown that people are comfortable with what is familiar to them, the same goes for children. If a child sees a friendly, familiar face on a box of cereal, the same face that appeared during commercials during Saturday morning cartoons, they are more likely to want that product.

Marketing tactics such as these would seem more ethical to me if they were promoting healthy foods. Children are so impressionable at a young age that it seems wrong to manipulate them into wanting innutritious foods, especially when they are so young that they have not yet learned what nutrition even is.

I hope to see companies that produce nutritious foods taking a note from the junk food book. If healthy foods are promoted just as often and in the same places as unhealthy foods, children stand a better chance of eating right. If this idea is successful, when a child sees Coco Puffs in the lunch line, they will pass over them for a more nutritious option.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Parent's Roles


Parents play a large role when it comes to what their child eats, especially with young children. It is most often the parents who decide what brand of cereal is placed on the breakfast table in the morning, and whether or not fast food will be on the menu for dinner. Encouraging healthy eating from a young age is the most effective way to instill good eating habits in children, habits that they can then take with them when they’re going through the lunch line at school.

Though it is not right for schools to offer innutritious foods to children, it is not their fault if the child selects an unhealthy meal when provided with a healthy alternative. Establishing an awareness of what makes up a healthy meal at home will provide your child with knowledge that will last them a lifetime. Eventually, if enough students begin selecting only healthy foods in the lunch line, junk food will be discontinued due to lack on interest.

Below are some simple tips from the Weight Control Information Network on how parents can improve their child’s diet.
  • Give your child a snack or two in addition to his or her three daily meals.
  • Offer your child a wide variety of foods, such as grains, vegetables and fruits, low-fat dairy products, and lean meat or beans.
  • Serve snacks like dried fruit, low-fat yogurt, and air-popped popcorn.
  • Cook with less fat—bake, roast, or poach foods instead of frying.
  • Choose and prepare foods with less salt. Keep the salt shaker off the table. Have fruits and vegetables on hand for snacks instead of salty snack foods.
  • Involve your child in planning and preparing meals. Children may be more willing to eat the dishes they help fix.
  • Have family meals together and serve everyone the same thing.
  • Do not be too strict. In small amounts, sweets or food from fast-food restaurants can still have a place in a healthy diet.

South Dakota Health



The following are facts about the population of South Dakota:
  • 206,686 children live in South Dakota
  • 12% of children are overweight
  • 6.7% of adults have diabetes
  • 19.8% of the adult population are smokers
  • 10.5% of adults have asthma
  • 62.8% of adults are overweight or obese
  • 47.8% of adults participate in physical activity
  • No regulated physical education program or school nutrition program
  • No mandating of BMI screening (BMI stands for body mass index, a standard way of determining if individuals are overweight based on age, gender, height and weight)
Just by looking at these few percentages, it is easy to conclude that the state of South Dakota as a whole does put health as their first priority. With 62.8 percent of the adult population overweight or obese, it may be assumed that the parents of children are not setting a good example when it comes to healthy habits.

The government is not helping either. There are no regulations when it comes to physical education and nutrition programs in schools. Where are children supposed to learn about their own health if they aren’t learning it at home, and the government does not require it in school? BMI screenings are also not required, so children are not being told by a professional if they are overweight. If they look to their parents to compare their own weight to, chances are they are looking up at an overweight adult, roughly half of which do not participate in any physical activity.

Implementing a healthier school lunch menu would be a great first step to making South Dakota a healthier state. By being educated in an environment that promotes healthy living, children would be exposed to new, beneficial ideas. After school they could go home and teach their family members about the new lifestyle habits they learned in school, thus creating a clear flow of communication.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Daily Vitamins


Highly processed foods contain little vitamins. Unfortunately, processed foods are almost always present in school meals. Even the vegetables served are normally low in vitamin and mineral content. This is because the techniques farmers use to maximize output and minimize cost are lowering the nutritional value of their produce. As a result, an extra step must be taken in order to keep children healthy, the use of vitamin supplements. Vitamins prove to be an easy way to make sure your child is receiving the recommended amount of vitamins in one, easy step. It is important to not that health problems can develop if your children do not get the recommended amount of vitamins on a regular basis. Lifestyle habits, both good and bad, begin at an early age. Make sure your child’s habits are healthy for them.

In the meantime, push to improve the school lunch menu at your child's school. The more nutritious their foods, the less imperative it is for them to take vitamin supplements.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Nation's Leading Food Manufacturers Assist in Combating Childhood Obesity


On October 6, 2008, The Alliance for a Healthier Generation announced it would be collaborating with: Campbell soup, Dannon, Kraft Foods, Mars and Pepsi to create healthier snacks for child consumption in schools. The new foods offered will be lower in calories and fat, thus giving students a first hand opportunity to actively carry out the nutrition habits they learn in the classroom.

Now that such major companies have publicly addressed the presence of childhood obesity in America as being partially a result of poor nutrition, I hope that other companies will take the step to change their products for the better. Making a company’s food products more nutritious can only have positive results, so why not make the change?

Former President Clinton said in regards to this change, “Ensuring that children have healthier food choices at school is another critical step in the fight against childhood obesity, I'm proud of these five companies for making an important statement about this health challenge and an even more important commitment to doing something about it. What we are setting in motion with these guidelines will dramatically change the kind of food that children have access to at school. It will take time, but through coalitions like this of industry and the non-profit sector, we are going to make a real difference in the lives of millions of children by helping them eat healthier and live healthier.”

Childhood Obesity



Today’s kids are the first generation predicted to live shorter lives than their parents. This sad fact is a result of childhood obesity and the many health complications that accompany it. With one in five United States children currently overweight we cannot afford to let poor eating and lifestyle habits continue to destroy young lives.

Diabetes, heart disease, asthma and high cholesterol, once illnesses found mostly in adults, are now popping up amongst children as young as eight years old. As the video below states, “A number of children are taking the same medication as their parents and their grandparents”, something that never occurred in the past. Many of these conditions can be potentially life threatening, but are easily prevented. The risk of type 2 diabetes can be reduced by making simple lifestyle changes, such as incorporating physical activity and a healthy diet into your everyday lifestyle. If this is all it would take to save your child’s life, wouldn’t you make the change?

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Revolution Foods



If Farm to School seems a little too granola for you, Susan Nash, “Revolution Foods” is a more mainstream alternative. Revolution Foods works with the school to create a custom menu that meets your students’ particular needs. Frequent surveys of student opinions keep a constant poll on consumer’s thoughts.

This program partners with grocery stores and farms to assemble healthy meals for both students and faculty. One of these partners is Whole Foods, a well known organic grocery store. Because of its partnering with such reputable businesses, Revolution Foods always upholds the quality standards of their suppliers. They use organic and local foods whenever possible, include fruit and vegetables in every meal and serve food that is fresh, never fried or microwaveable.

As it says on their website, “Today's kids are the first generation predicted to live shorter lives than their parents”. This is one of the many reasons it is necessary to put an end to childhood obesity. The first step that can be taken to change this horrifying life-expectancy fact is to change school lunches for the better. Healthier lunches will have to be served eventually, why not make the effort now?

Link to Revolution Foods
: revfoods.com

Farm to School


Farm to School is a national program that gets farmers involved with their local schools, making it easier for them to provide fresh, healthy produce for students to not only eat, but learn about. This program was founded on the wish to support and encourage local-based food systems, which also has a green impact and improve student health. All of these elements come together to form a program that has only the best of intentions.

A program such as this could easily be implemented into the Aberdeen School District lunch program. Susan Nash just needs to agree.



Link to Farm to School: farmtoschool.org

Monday, October 13, 2008

Expanding Menu Postings

The Aberdeen school district already posts monthly lunch menus on their district website. This is a positive feature and I want it to be taken a step further. I would like to see is the nutritional facts for each food item in the meal posted. Figures such as the amount of fat and saturated fat per slice of pizza served in the cafeteria will serve as a useful reference to parents. Knowing these facts would help to educate those who take a more active role in regards to their children’s food intake. If the more involved individuals are educated, it is more likely they will speak up about the facts they have learned and push for improvement.

The specific nutritional facts I would like to see in regards to each lunch menu include:

Fat
Saturated fat
Trans fat
Sugar
Cholesterol
Sodium
Protein
Carbohydrate
Percentage of daily vitamins

Incorporating this feature into the district website would be very simple. For each day’s menu a parent would have to only click the name of a specific food item in order to view its nutrition facts. This feature could also serve as an educational tool for students to help them better understand what they are putting into their bodies.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

South Dakota Food Regulations









As a result of the Child Nutrition Act of 2004, the United States Congress formed a new requirement that public and nonpublic schools must develop new wellness policies that promote nutrition starting in the academic year of 2006-2007. Because of this new law, South Dakota was forced to re-write their nutritional standards that were present in schools up until this point. Below are the new standards that relate to food served in the cafeteria.

Standards for Food and Beverages

1. Beverages:
a. Provide 100% fruit and vegetable juices and limit portion sizes to 4-12 ounces.
b. Provide water - non-carbonated and unflavored without added sugar, artificial sweeteners, or caffeine.
c. Provide milk-skim or 1% in portion sizes of 8-16 ounces.
d. Flavored milk (chocolate or strawberry), low fat, or skim may be offered in up to 12 ounce serving sizes with no more than 36 grams of sugar in a 12 ounce portion.
e. Eliminate the sale of soft drinks, sports drinks, punch, fruit drinks, iced tea, coffee and coffee-like beverages, and other items not included in allowable beverages listed above.
f. Allow only water as a beverage in the classroom.

2. Grains:
a. Serve whole grains which contain at least 2 grams of fiber per 1 ounce serving. One half of all grains served should be whole grain.
b. Limit portion sizes to 1.25 ounces - 2 ounces with most being 1.25 ounces.
c. Limit total calories from fat to no more than 30%.
d. Limit total calories from saturated fat to no more than 10%.
e. Limit sugar content to no more than 35% of calories by weight, or less than 6 grams from sugar per serving.
f. Limit the amount of trans fats.

3. Fruits and Vegetables:
a. Offer fruits and vegetables prepared/packaged without added fat, sugar, or sodium. Low-fat dips and sauces on the side may be served in small portions to make foods more appealing.
b. Offer ½ cup serving sizes of fruits and vegetables. Offer additional fruits and vegetables to help students reach the recommended 5 - 9 servings per day.
c. Offer a variety of fruits and vegetables, especially colorful ones.

4. A la carte entrees and side dishes:
a. Offer meat/meat substitutes in portions no greater than 3 ounces with 5 grams of fat per ounce or less (except nut butters).
b. Offer nuts and seeds in portion sizes no greater than 1.25 ounces.
c. Offer nut butters in portion sizes of 2 - 4 Tbsp.
d. Offer non-fat and low-fat yogurt in portion sizes of 8 ounces or less. Sugar should not be the first ingredient on the label.
e. Limit ice cream and frozen desserts to portion sizes of 4 ounces or less with 5 grams or less of fat. Sugar should not be the first ingredient.
f. Offer cheese in portion sizes of 1- 2 ounces.

5. Condiments and miscellaneous:
a. Offer salad dressing containing no more than 6 - 12 grams of fat per ounce.
b. Remove salt shakers from tables.

If these standards are truly being implemented in all South Dakota schools, then why are the Aberdeen lunch menus so full of innutritious foods? Perhaps the regulations are already in place to encourage a healthy environment for students in South Dakota, but the problem is they are not being enforced.

Not stated in the above regulations is how many of these foods need to be present in every single meal. For instance is it a requirement for the cafeteria to serve fruit and vegetables everyday? Also, are students required to place an item from each food group on their lunch tray, or can they walk out the door with a slice of pizza and nothing else?

Link to full wellness policy document: http://doe.sd.gov/oess/cans/docs/Wellness_Policy.pdf

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Health Advisory Committee

During high school I was a member of my school district’s Health Advisory Committee. This meant that once a week I would attend a meeting in which I represented my fellow pupils’ views of the food services offered in our school. I had the opportunity to discuss with the food services director which foods I felt should or should not be served on campus. In return I was educated about the food selection process and learned just how hard it was to change a school’s culture in terms of nutrition.

If ever given the opportunity to become a member of such a committee I strongly recommend you take it. Even if you aren’t able to make the changes you want, you will learn the steps it will take to make progress and just how much work it will take to implement your vision.

California Laws


In the year 2005, Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation to help combat the presence of childhood obesity in California schools. The Governor has always felt strongly about good nutrition and with the obesity rate of children on the rise, he rightfully took action. Schwarzenegger said “California is facing an obesity epidemic. That is why today I am signing into law the most progressive school nutrition reforms in the nation. This legislation will take junk food and sodas off the school campuses, and put more fruits and vegetables into school meals". Removing junk foods and sodas is a tremendous first step toward making California a healthier state. Though this does not wholly solve the problem of innutritious foods in schools, it is absolutely necessary.

There are three parts to the legislation that was passed, below are the purposes of each bill as stated by the Office of the Governor.

• SB 12 sets food nutrition standards for food served and sold in K-12 public schools.
• SB 281 provides a framework to implement the $18.2 million in the Governor's budget to include more fresh fruits and vegetables in school meal programs.
• SB 965 extends the ban on the sale of soda currently in middle schools to public high schools, but allows the sale of milk products, juice-based products, water and electrolyte drinks to continue.

I am hoping that this new ban on junk foods in California schools is successful, so successful that it becomes a nationwide ban.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

It can be done!

In a 2006 article of the Los Angeles Times, a West Hollywood elementary school proved that serving healthy food to their students is possible. Andrew Rakos, general manager of Fountain Day School, not only saw that a change was necessary in their lunch menu, but decided to do something about it. By forming a partnership with popular grocery store Whole Foods, the school receives a discount on all student meals. For an average of $2.00- $3.50, depending on how much the child eats, students get a hot, organic meal that is full of nutritious ingredients that fuel them to stay focused and enthusiastic for the remainder of the afternoon.

Since making the healthy change, students have been noted as saying “I like spinach!” only to be followed by a chorus of “me toos!” Prior to their exposure to Whole Foods, the word spinach was not did not roll off the tongue easily of Fountain Day School students. But after healthy eating habits became a part of their lifestyle, and they knew first hand how eating well can be fun and beneficial. This serves as an excellent example of how learning through experience has a great effect on children.

Because the average school spends $1.00 on each student’s lunch, it might not be feasible to double that allowance. Though not all schools are as financially able to shop at Whole Foods as Fountain Day School is, the action that Rakos choose to take can serve as guidelines and inspiration for others to follow.

Link to LA Times article: http://articles.latimes.com/2006/may/17/local/me-food17

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Principals Can Make a Difference



Though it is the food service director who determines the meals for schools, most of the time they are simply buying what they know the children will eat. If a school’s history shows that every time it is “chicken nugget day”, 90% of students buy a school lunch and on “veggie burger day” only 30% of students purchase a lunch, it is easy to guess which lunch will be served more often. One way to change this is by showing students the benefits of healthy food, in a fun and interactive way.

The principal of a school has the ability to set the tone for their school’s culture. They can encourage teachers to discuss healthy eating and lifestyle habits with their students, hang posters on the walls that promote nutritious foods and encourage students to apply their new knowledge to their own daily lives.

If students are educated about what they are eating, they will begin to voice their opinions. If an entire second grade class stops eating the French fries they are served and instead ask for apples, relatively soon there will only be apples instead of French fries.

Book Recommendation

While researching elementary school lunch menus and the steps it takes to change the food served, I stumbled across a very insightful book. The book is entitled “Overcoming obesity in Childhood and Adolescence, A Guide for School Leaders”. The authors, Donald Schumacher and J. Allen Queen, do an amazing job of explaining how changes can occur in schools from the bottom up. Together they created a very simple, clear and inspirational book that outlines very simple steps educators can take to promote a healthier environment for students.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in promoting a healthy environment within schools. The book contains everything from insightful statistics to outlines of action plans that can easily be implemented in any educational setting.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Susan Nash, Food Service Director








Susan Nash is the Food Service Director of the Aberdeen public school district. As food service director, Nash plays the largest role in deciding what meals will be served through the district cafeterias. Some of the responsibilities of a food service director include:

• Coordinating menus for all schools in the district
• Planning and monitoring the food services budget
• Evaluating food preferences and planning accordingly
• Promoting steady improvement in food services
• Managing food service staff
• Providing a marketing plan to encourage nutrition within the district

Though Nash undoubtedly performs the base requirements of her job, I believe she could perform these tasks in a much more effective manner, a manner that would promote a healthy environment for the students of the Aberdeen school district. Because she has power over use of the food budget as well as the selection of the foods served, Nash has all the tools necessary to make a healthy change. Though most food service budgets are decided on an annual basis, Nash could start planning now and have a new and improved cafeteria plan for the upcoming school year.

It is very frustrating how many people struggle all their lives to make their opinions heard, while many in power, who are always heard, choose never to exercise either their voice, or the voice off the people. The majority of the time it is the voice of the person in power who has the authority to make the change and if the change will only help, not hurt the people they are leading, then why not speak up and make a difference? Susan Nash, it is time to help the students of the Aberdeen school district. Use your voice.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Current Aberdeen Lunch Menu

As do many school districts, Aberdeen, South Dakota offers a link on their school district page to view school menus. There is a comprehensive calendar layout for each school within the district that states the meals offered on each given day of that month. Viewers have the option of viewing past menus for the academic year, as well as looking ahead for the next month.

Link to Aberdeen food services: http://www.aberdeen.k12.sd.us/dsc/departments/foodservice/lunchmenus.htm

Often schools post menu options not for the student’s knowledge, but for their parents. This allows parents to look ahead and plan whether or not to send their child to school on a given day with either money to purchase a lunch, or a homemade lunch. Though there is no way of knowing whether all parents with children enrolled in the Aberdeen elementary schools are using this resource, but they certainly should be, if not already doing so. This is because what they will find upon reading the September lunch menu, is that children who eat the lunches served by the cafeteria are by no means consuming nutritious meals on a regular basis.

Students who purchased a lunch in the cafeteria on Thursday, September 4th received pepperoni pizza, lettuce salad with croutons and a banana. To the average 6-11 year old, pizza is a big deal. It is a food that is typically reserved for birthday parties and nights with a babysitter. The reason for this? It is a fattening food that is only a phone call away, something consumed by children on rare occasions. Because of pizza’s novelty at this age, when a child is served a slice of pepperoni pizza for lunch it will become their main focus. There might be a bite or two of the iceberg lettuce, and perhaps a glance at the banana. However, most children will get full on the pizza, and throw away the remainder of their lunch.

Take a look at the other lunches served. Think back to when you were in elementary school, and put yourself in the place of an eight year old attending an Aberdeen school. What would you eat first? What would you ignore? Now put yourself in the place of that eight year old's parent. What would you want your child to eat? What would you want them to ignore? The bottom line is that the Aberdeen school district needs to raise their nutritional standards and set a good example for the students they are educating.

I posted the Aberdeen lunch menu as large as possible, if the photo is too small, here is the link to the PDF: http://www.aberdeen.k12.sd.us/dsc/departments/foodservice/menus/08-09/September/ELM._09-2008._Final.pdf

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Change

Can you remember what your elementary school cafeteria served for lunch? For most of you it probably consisted of an unidentified meat, a few flavorless, gray, green beans, a chocolate chip cookie, and a small carton of milk. The sad fact is that the “meal” you are remembering would top the nutritional value of a lunch present in many elementary school cafeterias today. Though some school districts have raised their nutritional standards of lunches, most have not, and this needs to change.

With the number of obese children on the rise something has to be done. It is not fair to the kids. Schools are an establishment whose goals are to foster the education of children. But what education are elementary school children receiving in regards to nutrition? And how attentive can they be with their stomachs full of innutritious foods?

Though some states have raised their standards in regards to the minimum amount of nutritional value, and lowered the amount of fats and sugars allowed, not all have taken such a positive action. Through research I found that South Dakota is among the bottom 10 states in their regards to children’s health. Though this involves other factors such as required gym time during school hours and length of recess activities, a large factor it takes into consideration are the lunches the school provides. This is why I am advocating the revision of the Aberdeen, South Dakota elementary school nutrition standards to mandate that student meals meet specific guidelines in fat, sugar and cholesterol content.