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9486 in the collection
Kids' waistlines vs. bottom line
Ohanian Comment: I worked for years to get cola out of our middle school cafeteria. After much stalling and obfuscation, requiring me to supply a definition of "junk food," I discovered that the reason the school clung to this indefensible drink was because it was a big money maker. Then I asked the principal how he'd like to see the newspaper headline, "School finds coke to be a money maker." The cola was removed.
If it is, indeed, tough to sell salads when there's the smell of fry oil in the air, then eliminate the fry oil. School cafeterias should go back to the "good old days," when one good, nutritious meal was served. No choices. Funny how we let kids choose food what junk food they want to wolf down but don't allow any choice of what books they might like to read.
by Andrea Weigl
Connor McCauley and John Wallace, two freshmen at Raleigh's Millbrook High School, don't mull the cafeteria's offerings at lunchtime. They dig into spicy fries and the Clux Delux chicken filet sandwich, a combo that packs 875 calories.
When asked why they don't choose a chef salad or mixed vegetables, Wallace replies as if such items never cross his mind, let alone his lips. He asks, "Salad and veggies?"
So much for teenagers choosing long-term health over immediate, greasy gratification.
Officials in Wake and other Triangle counties say they are doing what they can to help fight a national childhood obesity epidemic. In 2006, a quarter of North Carolina's children ages 5 to 11 were overweight -- as were 30 percent of those 12 to 18.
But students will eat what they want, and it is tough to sell salads with the smell of fry oil in the air.
Those responsible for school lunches on the district level say they are not to blame for the tempting and fattening food still offered. They point to federal and state lawmakers who have created a system that requires them to fulfill opposing mandates: Deliver nutritious meals while marketing and selling enough extra food to keep the books balanced.
What will high school students pay extra for? French fries. Otis Spunkmeyer cookies. Pizza Hut pizza.
"It's very simple: We have to pay our bills," said Nadine Goodwin Blake, executive director of child nutrition services for Durham Public Schools.
The situation is further complicated by a U.S. Department of Agriculture requirement that school cafeteria meals provide a minimum number of calories. Nutritious foods alone often fall short, forcing schools to add high-calorie dishes or risk losing their federal free- and reduced-price lunch subsidy.
A la carte sales vital
The pressure to add foods that add pounds is particularly strong under North Carolina's financing system.
In Wake County, last year's child nutrition budget was $43 million. Of that, $25 million came from the federal government to pay for free and reduced-price lunches. The lunches must meet strict federal dietary guidelines on calories, fat, salt, and so forth. Five million dollars came from students who paid the full price. The remaining $13 million came from "supplemental sales," or the sale of a la carte french fries and Pizza Hut pizza or extra milk, sandwiches and cookies.
A little more than half of $760 million or so spent annually for North Carolina school lunch programs comes from federal reimbursements for each of the 1.2 million meals served daily in the cafeterias. The rest of the budget comes largely from sales of a la carte foods.
"We have to have a la carte," said Beth Taylor, director of child nutrition services of Johnston County schools. "It's how we make money."
Other school nutrition directors across the Triangle agree that they couldn't meet their budgets without "a la carte" sales. For instance, when school cafeteria workers, like all other state employees, received a 4 percent pay raise this summer, lawmakers didn't provide money to cover the increase. So, Moody said, "I've got to sell more cookies to give a raise."
And to buy a new $80,000 truck when the old one breaks down. And to cover the rising cost of milk. An 8-ounce carton costs 6 cents more this year.
In 2005, the legislature devised new dietary guidelines and set up a pilot program to test them in seven school districts. To cover budget deficits in any of those districts, $25,000 was provided.
"Collectively, the school districts lost 15 times that amount in five months," said Lynn Hoggard, section chief for child nutrition services at the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. "We had to stop the pilot."
She said the pilot project lost money for two reasons: Healthy food is more expensive, and the cafeterias could no longer sell a la carte items that didn't meet the state's new dietary rules. As a result, lawmakers delayed the new guidelines until July 2009.
Earlier this year, state school nutrition officials sought $15 million to ease the transition; legislators didn't put it in the budget. At a meeting Friday, they cited rising fuel and food costs and estimated that the programs would need more than that. They hope the legislature will come through with the money this spring.
Closer to home, Mark Rusin, food service director for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district, said that several years ago their school board introduced stricter dietary guidelines similar to those lawmakers want to require statewide. The school board has had to set aside money to cover cafeteria losses because labor and more nutritious food cost more. Last year's projected loss is $260,000, Rusin said.
Economics might be responsible for keeping pizza, fries, burgers and ice cream on school cafeteria menus, but school dietitians have found ways to subtly cut fat while keeping favorite items.
School lunch menus are loaded with chicken nuggets, corn dogs, hamburgers and pizza. Parents could easily blame those meals for making their children fat.
'Stealth health'
What the parents don't realize -- and school nutrition directors concede they have not gotten across -- is that the nuggets are baked, not fried. The corn dogs are turkey. The corn dog batter is made with whole grain. Some burgers have ground cherries in them to boost fiber and vitamin A. The pizzas are topped with low-fat pepperoni and low-fat cheese.
The pizza crust has whole grain. The fat in some of those Otis Spunkmeyer cookies has been reduced. That Pizza Hut pizza is not what is sold at the store: Each slice has only 2 ounces of protein and 1/8 cup of tomato sauce.
It is called "stealth health," the same concept that recently put Jessica Seinfeld's book, "Deceptively Delicious," on The New York Times best-sellers list.
Beyond that, whole and 2 percent milk are gone. Little Debbie and Hostess snack cakes have been banished in Wake schools, as well as Sunny Delight drinks and full-fat ice cream.
Snacks sold in elementary schools are low-fat, low-sugar and low-salt. At Barwell Road Elementary School in southeastern Wake County, the cookies are about the size of a half-dollar, half of what they used to be. The white frosting on the chocolate cake is 1/8-inch thick. The Lay's Cheddar & Sour Cream potato chips are baked. The ice cream bar is low-fat. A tour of the cafeteria's dried-goods pantry shows whole wheat pasta, low-sugar cereals and other products labeled zero trans fat, reduced-fat and one-third less sugar.
Healthful options
On a recent Tuesday at Barwell Road Elementary, kindergartners had their choice of pizza, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, an Italian hot pocket, green beans, chef salad, cheese and crackers, pasta salad, tossed salad and pineapple chunks.
Marilyn Moody, Wake's child nutrition director, says the middle and high school students have also seen changes. A bank of vending machines at Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School offers water, 100 percent juice drinks, SoBe energy drinks and 12-ounce, instead of 20-ounce, Gatorades. The majority of the snacks are baked chips, baked Cheetos and Welch's fruit snacks. Although bags of Funyuns can still be found in one machine, Moody says she is weaning students from low-nutrition snacks.
All of those changes don't mean fattening foods aren't being served in high schools. Those deep-fried spicy french fries can accompany what is called a colossal burger that weighs in at 744 calories. A chicken hot wing basket contains 923 calories; cheese-stuffed breadsticks, 690 calories.
If state lawmakers want to improve school lunch menus, school nutrition officials say, their budgets should rely less on supplemental sales. Hoggard thinks investing in healthier school lunches might prevent future health-care costs as overweight children become overweight adults.
"I think we have to look at it as a return on investment," Hoggard said. "We can either pay now or pay later -- in astronomical medical costs."
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
— Andrea Weigl
News & Observer
2007-11-18
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/health_science/story/777603.html
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
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