(USA:CNN:MA) Officials, experts grapple with school lunch problem: Faulty standards, no enforcement and cost hinder efforts

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Officials, experts grapple with school lunch problemFaulty standards, no

enforcement and cost hinder efforts

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COHASSET, Massachusetts (AP) -- Worried about all the fatty foods children were

eating, town health officer Joseph Godzik recently ordered junk food purged from

the local school lunch menu one day a week.

 

No pizza. No burgers. No fries.

 

School officials said, No way.

 

Eliminate such popular items and students will switch from buying to

brown-bagging, school officials reasoned. Because lunch programs must pay for

themselves, messing with the menu can mean losing money.

 

But money is only part of the problem. Three out of four schools serve too much

fat; many schools undercut healthy offerings by selling junk food; there aren't

enough vegetables and fruits; and not enough is done to teach good eating

habits, according to government studies and nutrition experts.

 

Those problems persist despite a decade of federal efforts to improve school

meals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the National School Lunch

Program for 28 million children in 98,000 public and non-profit private schools,

says it has toughened its rules and worked to get more fresh fruits and

vegetables to schools.

 

Some schools themselves try to improve their meals, but progress is often slowed

by a morass of financial, bureaucratic and social impediments.

 

In Cohasset, a well-to-do town of 7,300, Godzik acknowledges that even doing the

right thing sometimes is wrong.

 

" One of the things we don't want to do is have the school cafeteria just offer

healthy stuff and have the kids all bring lunch from home and have it all be

junk, " he said.

What are schools feeding children?

In theory, serving healthy lunches should be easy. Federal regulations dictate

calories and nutrients, and the USDA provides 20 percent of school lunch food.

 

In reality, enforcement of the rules is spotty, and critics complain that the

farm products the government buys for schools cater more to agricultural

interests than healthy meal-planning.

 

Dr. Walter Willett, head of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of

Public Health, is a harsh critic of the School Lunch Program: " Their foods tend

to be at the bottom of the barrel in terms of healthy nutrition. "

 

Jean Daniel, spokeswoman for the USDA's Food and Nutrition Services program,

says there have been significant improvements, however, and many schools offer

healthy lunches. She believes new data in 2006 will prove that.

 

She also argues that involving the entire community and requiring physical

fitness classes should be of equal concern.

 

But even federal studies show most lunches have too much fat, even after the

USDA overhauled the program in 1994 and limited fat to 30 percent of a lunch's

calories .Three-quarters of all schools still don't meet the new limit,

according to a 2001 USDA study.

 

Daniel said the study analyzed what children ate, not what they were offered.

She said 80 percent of schools offer combinations of foods that meet the

guidelines, but children often make unhealthy choices.

 

Experts say choices are fine, but that children shouldn't be given unhealthy

options.

 

Willett complains that the focus on fat has obscured an equally important issue

-- the starches and refined carbohydrates (potatoes, pasta and white bread) that

make up half of school lunch calories.

 

Others complain about the amount of meat and dairy, saying the commodity program

favors those producers in part because of the USDA's other responsibility --

ensuring stable farm prices.

 

Two-thirds of the $939.5 million the USDA spent on lunch commodities in fiscal

2003 went toward meat and dairy products. A little more than one-quarter of the

total went toward fruits and vegetables, mostly canned and frozen.

 

The government guidelines say meals should be based on grains (especially whole

grains), fruits and vegetables, accompanied by moderate amounts of lowfat meat,

fish, beans and dairy products.

 

Fast and junk food also complicate the healthy lunch equation. More than a fifth

of lunch programs offer brand-name fast food, and nearly all high schools have

vending machines selling junk food, according to a 2000 CDC study.

 

But the picture isn't entirely bleak. State lawmakers around the country are

pushing for limits. California and New York City recently passed bans on junk

food in school vending machines.

 

And nearly 60 percent of districts have upped fresh fruit and vegetable

purchases, according to the USDA. Nearly half also are buying more lowfat and

reduced-fat foods.

What should schools be feeding children?

Alison Forrest, food service director at Brewster-Pierce Memorial School in

Huntington, Vermont, in apron at top, shows students how potatoes grow.

 

 

 

Alison Forrest doesn't mind working hard to feed her children healthy lunches.

She bakes whole-wheat bread from scratch and turns fresh tomatoes into marinara.

She prepares salad greens from a neighboring farm and cottage cheese from a

Vermont dairy.

 

The result is a welcoming kitchen filled with homey, tempting aromas.

 

But the kitchen isn't in her home, and the children aren't her own. Forrest is

food service director at Brewster-Pierce Memorial School in rural Huntington,

Vermont, where little comes from a can and nearly everything is organic.

 

Forrest takes a holistic approach to nutrition. She introduces new ingredients

in the classroom, not on the lunch line. She says children embrace new foods

when they know more about them.

 

What should children be eating? What the USDA regulations call for might be a

good start; they're healthier than the average American diet, many nutritionists

say.

 

Despite the gap between standards and execution, many want even tougher

regulations. Willett wants more whole grains, others want soy milk and

vegetarian meals, and everyone wants more fresh produce.

 

Antonia Demas, director of the Food Studies Institute in Trumansburg, New York,

said the classroom must be part of any solution. She wants nutrition education

mandated the same way New York schools are required to teach HIV prevention.

 

Forrest said her homegrown approach -- the children plant potatoes and shell

their own beans -- is a model that can be applied anywhere. In fact, large urban

schools often have better access to fresh produce because they are closer to

shipping routes and can order more, she said.

 

Barry Sackin, spokesman for the American School Food Service Association in

Alexandria, Virginia, agreed schools have a role in the obesity battle, but so

do parents.

 

" If kids eat (school) lunches five days a week, that's still less than 25

percent of the meals that kids eat, " Sackin said.

Why aren't schools feeding children better?

Dylan Fletcher tries broccoli at Brewster-Pierce Memorial School in Huntington,

Vermont.

 

 

 

When ideas for better menus are rejected by schools such as Cohasset, where the

lunch program has run a deficit during five of the past six years, many point to

the money.

 

Most programs get little or no local funding, leaving them to pay their way with

meal sales and federal reimbursements.

 

Those finances create a sometimes impossible juggle in which schools must serve

meals that are cost-effective to prepare, appeal to children and meet federal

guidelines.

 

Even with food that marries healthy, cheap and flavorful, it's more complicated

than a simple menu change. Training cafeteria staff to prepare new foods and

educating pupils and parents takes time and money. It's a balance that can make

even small changes difficult.

 

Barbara Gates thought she was starting small in her battle to get more

vegetables on the menu at Crest Elementary School in El Cajon, California. She

wanted minestrone soup substituted for pepperoni pizza twice a month.

 

" Are you kidding? Pizza is our biggest seller. I'm surprised we're not selling

it more, " Gates said a USDA consultant told her and other parents in a meeting

two years ago.

 

Even if money wasn't an issue, enforcement is.

 

The school lunch program was created in 1946 to prevent malnutrition, and the

only real penalties are for schools that fail to feed children enough.

 

Faced with the opposite problem, the government could withhold reimbursements.

It never has happened. Daniel said her agency prefers to work with schools for

improvement rather than punish them. Limitations in the commodity program are

another concern. The USDA says the agency isn't set up to handle large

quantities of perishables.

 

Though she praises some commodities, Forrest said others seem a waste of

taxpayer money.

 

She said the USDA once offered her some vanilla pudding. " They said, 'It has no

nutritional value. How much do you want?'

 

" I didn't take any, " she said.

 

 

Bepi Snow stocks french fries and burgers for the lunch service at Cohasset High

School in Cohasset, Massachusetts.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/12/11/school.lunch.ap/index.html