MOUNT VERNON — School districts throughout the area are making serious efforts to provide students with more choices at lunch and to develop healthier menus. All school lunches served must meet USDA nutrition requirements and local school food service authorities work within the federally mandated nutrition guidelines and decide what specific foods to serve and how to prepare them.
“The main thing is,” said Nancy Bevan, food service manager for Mount Vernon City Schools, “every year we’ve been trying to introduce something a little healthier to the kids. We haven’t done it all at once because we’re also in the process of trying to educate the kids on good nutrition and trying to lead them down the path to better choices. We’ve eliminated regular potato chips. We’ve eliminated french fries. We’ve eliminated juice that is not 100 percent fruit juice. We’ve eliminated anything snackwise that has transfat in it. We do still serve things that would be considered snack foods, but we try to make them as healthy as possible. We do have a slushy machine, but it’s 100 percent fruit juice slushy. We do sell pizza and we also sell a lot of turkey sandwiches and a lot of yogurt.”
Bevan described some of the recent menu changes. “We’ve gone down to one hot item a day,” she said. “Now, at the elementary, junior high and high school levels, the kids can get a chef’s salad every day. Or, we do a peanut butter and jelly bar with string cheese plate that comes with fruit and baby carrots and things like that. Or, they can get a vegetarian patty, which we never had before. We also have what we call a weekly sandwich choice, mostly for the elementary. It’s a cold sandwich, so, for instance, if we had a sloppy joe on a Monday, the other choice for the students would be the sandwich of the week, or they could have gotten the peanut and jelly bar with string cheese or the veggie burger. So, they have more choices now. We think because we have the chef’s salad on there, and also a choice for people who might be vegetarian, that we’re offering maybe a better choice, too. That’s just taking more steps toward having a healthier menu.”
A big step toward healthier eating is the choice of a twice-a-month salad bar option at the middle school and high school. Students can choose from a wide array of salad fixings, and on Thursday it was evident that the students take advantage of the opportunity to do so. Eighth-grader Jeff Thompson was trying the salad bar for the first time.
“My friends got it once before,” he said, “so I decided to get it this time to see what it was like.”
Phillip Nichols, grade eight also got a super salad. “It’s healthy and I need that,” he said. “I like it. It’s good.”
Students at MVMS and MVHS can choose between the set menu and a la carte items. A la carte items are increasingly healthy choices, too. “We’ve switched over to 100 percent fruit juices,” Bevan said, “and we do sell bottled water – quite a bit of it as a matter of fact. This year I’ve switched all my potato chips to either reduced fat, baked or whole grain. We don’t have any other kind of chips on hand. We do have pretzels and we do sell cookies, as well as granola bars. The students can get a variety of veggie plates with dip, or cottage cheese with fruit and we sell yogurt.”
In spite of all the changes, lunch prices have not dramatically increased. “It’s been three years since we had a price increase, except at the middle school. Last year,” said Bevan, “middle school students were getting elementary school portion sizes, and this year we switched them to the high school menu and raised the prices. They had not had a price increase at the middle school for six or seven years, so this is the first one for them in a long time.”
Bevan said she has been interested in buying locally grown items, but hasn’t had much luck. “I’ve purchased things through Lanning’s Foods, occasionally,” she said, “like Glen Hill apples and that sort of thing. When they have it and I can get it, I do. I’ve had some people bring in cherry tomatoes from local farms, but only in small amounts.”
Papa John’s pizza is available at the middle school and high school, sold by the single slice as an ala carte item; students can’t get it as part of their regular lunch. Bevan said about 160 kids a day buy a slice of pizza, out of nearly 700 lunches served at the middle school and high school.
Like other school districts in the area, East Knox is also making an effort to go healthier. Gwen Dugan, one of the food service managers, said that as much as possible they are watching fat, salt and sugar amounts.
“Our guideline for the national school lunch program is 30 percent fat,” Dugan said. “It used to be 32 to 34, and they’ve come down to 30 percent now. We found out this summer that National School Lunch has always been ahead of the game, but didn’t realize it.”
Dugan said the center of attention at East Knox is switching from regular grains over to whole grains to make the food healthier. “You know what,” she said, “our new recipes are called the same thing, like sloppy joes or whatever – the names haven’t changed, it’s just the content of the recipe.”
Ala carte items are also scrutinized to make sure they are as healthful as possible. “Sometimes the salt content is high and sometimes it’s not,” Dugan said, “but we’re beginning to watch the salt. We’re reading labels; we’re dissecting it. It’s just a matter of adjusting the recipe to make it healthier, like changing to whole grains and encouraging students to eat more fruits and vegetables. ... The products are out there. Although some of them are sort of pricey right now, we know the more we use them, they’ll come down.”
While Dugan has had few complaints about the switch to a healthier menu, she has had comments about portion sizes. “We found out this past summer that we serve the right amount of food according to the USDA charts, compared with the quantities you were getting at the fast food places. That made us feel good.”
Many schools in the area use USDA-approved menu planning systems to ensure the specific menus are developed based on the USDA MyPyramid food guidance system, which lists different minimum standards for different age levels.
For example, one menu pattern for lunch in elementary grades states that lunch must include: 8 ounces of fluid milk, 3/4 cup total of two different fruits and/or vegetables, 2 ounces of meat or meat alternative and 1 serving of grain/bread. The school menus published weekly by the News illustrate the range of meal combinations possible within the guidelines.
Foods of minimal nutritional value are prohibited from being sold or offered during meal serving times. Those foods include carbonated beverages, popsicles, chewing gum, and the following candies: Hard candy, including breath mints and cough drops, jellies and gums, marshmallow candies, fondant, licorice, spun candy and candy-coated popcorn. Schools with pop machines in their cafeterias, such as East Knox and Mount Vernon high schools, generally keep them turned off during regular school hours.
The USDA Web site www.mypyramid.gov/kids features nutritional information designed specifically for children ages 6 to 11. MyPyramid Blast Off is an interactive computer game where kids can reach Planet Power by fueling their rocket with food and physical activity. “Fuel” tanks for each food group help students keep track of how their choices fit into MyPyramid.
The site also includes posters, tips for families, an explanation of the key concepts of MyPyramid for Kids and a MyPryamid for Kids coloring page. A printable MyPyramid for Kids worksheet can help kids track how their food choices match up to the recommendations of MyPyramid.
The adult version of the pyramid Web site includes an animated tour of the new food pyramid. The advice from “Inside MyPyramid” helps individuals learn about the different food groups and suggests how much physical activity they should be getting. MyPyramid Plan, based on the individual’s age, gender and activity level, can help someone choose the foods and amounts that are right for him or her. The tips and resources section includes ideas for healthy diets and deals with things like eating out and gives a sample menu. The site also provides a “Tip of the Week” and related links.
