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.