Local school food service directors banding together to prove that school lunches can be nutritious
By Jennifer Kneuss
May 2, 2011
261
When Cindy Jones, food service director of New Philadelphia Schools, and Angie Welch, Dover Schools food service director, attended the 2011 Ohio Farm to School Conference, with the theme, Digging into Farm to School, in Cleveland recently, they were not newcomers to the trend toward making the lunches of the states schoolchildren healthier and more focused on using local foods. Both women have been gradually implementing changes in their school menus for some time. Jones and Welch said that they were inspired by what they learned during the daylong conference.
Our children have become farther and farther removed from local foods, including fruits and vegetables, said Jones. She has been working to include healthier food choices for her districts students, and to eliminate those that have high sodium and high fat content. We no longer serve any fried foods, substituting baked products instead, including baked chicken nuggets and baked potato chips, said Jones.
School officials are changing menus to address problems identified by the nations health experts. The number of obese children ages 6 to 11 has more than doubled in the past 30 years, with 16 percent of girls and 18.2 percent of boys identified as being obese. Currently, only one in 10 children eats the recommended servings of vegetables and fruits each day.
When we took out all of the sugar laden foods and snack items, many of them complained at first. But I saw students coming in and spending their lunch dollars to purchase several snack cakes and a can of fruit punch for lunch, and I knew something had to change. Now, we are serving many more raw vegetables and dip, for example. All students in the district can choose to have a chef salad instead of a tray lunch if they wish. We always make sure the salad has good protein sources included, said Jones.
With family farm numbers decreasing, the Ohio Department of Agriculture is also emphasizing the need for schools to utilize local foods as much as possible, for not only economic reasons, but also to provide higher quality, more nutritious foods to schoolchildren. The ODA has a Farm-to-School guide to promote this effort in Ohio. Goals of the guide include fighting obesity and educating students about wellness and building community as students learn about where their food comes from. School salad bars, which have been instituted in some areas, have been shown to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables, reduce caloric intake by 200 calories and fat intake by 11 grams per day, and lead to 75 percent of students choosing balanced meals without adult intervention.
Welch has also taken steps to improve school lunches at Dover.
We are trying to go toward more fresh fruits and vegetables, and add in whole grains as we can. The younger kids, when they first see something new, take awhile until they are comfortable with it. We started serving fresh vegetables like sliced cucumbers with dip. At first, they didnt know what to do with them. The only fresh vegetable many of them were familiar with were baby carrots. At the high school, we started adding more leafy greens to the iceberg lettuce, and more cucumbers, tomatoes, and other things and they have been very receptive to this.
We have eliminated all fried foods at the elementary and middle schools, and will be doing that at the high school next year. In December of 2010, we started following the Alliance for a Healthier Generation guidelines, phasing out high sugars and fats at the elementary and middle schools, and we will also include the high school next year, commented Welch.
Jones and Welch are continuing their efforts by inviting all Tuscarawas County food service directors to meet May 12, at 2 p.m., at the New Philadelphia administration building, to begin to share ideas and collaborate on purchasing local foods.
We are just getting started, admitted Welch. But we are moving forward.
For more information on the new food service group, contact Jones at 330-364-0600.
