Posts Tagged: school lunch
Why I'm the cupcake police
In the morning you hurry to put your clothes on, brush your hair, brush your teeth and get everything in your school bag for the day. Dad needs to drop you off at school at 7:30 a.m. so he can get to work on time. You grab a bag of chips as you run out the door, rubbing your eyes and looking to make sure you didn't put your shirt on backwards again.
Somewhere around 10:00 a.m. your tummy starts to growl. You feel your mouth start to water a little and your eyes droop. Looking at the clock you count the minutes until lunch. At 11:25 , one of your classmate's parents comes in with a tray of cupcakes to celebrate her birthday! Your stomach jumps at the sight of pink butter cream frosting piled high on the little cakes. Your teacher hands one to each student in the class and you savor every delicious bite.
Fifteen minutes later the lunch bell rings. Your teacher walks everyone over to the cafeteria and you get in line for school lunch. You feel embarrassed to eat school lunch and since you ate that cupcake you're not really hungry anyway. You plop a few things on your plate making a face. Sitting down you pick at the food until the custodian says you can get up and go play. You dump your tray with most of the food still on it and run outside chasing your friends onto the blacktop.
Back in class you feel energized after your game of handball. Your face is red and you're a little sweaty from all the running around. Your teacher announces that your group won the weekly contest and each of you will get to pick from the candy bag. That sounds great to you because you are starting to get hungry again. You put a few pieces of candy in your mouth. You get back to work on your math problem but it's the afternoon and you always have trouble concentrating in the afternoon…
Maggie is just one of more than 30 million children in the U.S. who qualify for free or reduced-price school meals through the USDA school meal program. Students like Maggie may rely on food at school for up to 50 percent of their daily calories and school meals represent a larger portion of the school-day caloric and nutrient intake for food insecure children. In addition, research shows that income level, educational attainment and family composition impact diet quality and physical activity.
The national school lunch program, while not perfect, is intended to ensure students like Maggie are offered a variety of fruits and vegetables and whole-grain rich foods every day. There are limits to the amount of sodium, saturated fat, trans-fat and calories that are offered as part of a school meal. Studies have shown that child nutrition programs improve diet quality and academic performance for children in low-income and food-insecure households.[1]
When we offer our children and students food with little to no nutritional quality for a reward and cupcakes to celebrate a birthday, we are impacting their overall dietary quality for the day. For Maggie, the problem is compounded by the fact that she does not have access to a varied and nutritious diet at home. She has nothing to fall back on when she doesn't get a nutritious meal at school and she fills up on empty calories instead. Childhood is an important time when people develop lifelong eating and physical activity patterns.
So when I am faced with the dilemma, once again, of speaking up and being the cupcake police or staying silent and going along with treats at school, I think of Maggie.
What can you do to create healthier schools for all children:
- Look up your School Wellness Policy. Every school that participates in the School Meal Program has one. However, many times they were written and never revisited. Check your district web page or go to the Dairy Council finder. School Wellness Policies outline what is and is not allowed to be offered in the classroom or fundraisers during school.
- Offer non-food rewards for positive behaviors: Extra physical activity time or recess, the opportunity to eat lunch in the cafeteria with the teacher, special privileges like “line leader” for the day, or the opportunity to go out to the garden. For more healthy reward ideas visit Healthy Food Choices in Schools.
- Celebrations that reinforce health: Include physical activity like a dance party in your celebration (see GoNoodle for all kinds of fun activities and brain breaks), ask parents to bring in a donated book for the class instead of cupcakes (see Books for Birthdays), if you are going to have food, make sure non-nutritious items are limited to one per student.
- Eat lunch with your student(s): If you're a parent, check-in with your school. Many schools allow parents to eat lunch with their children if notified in advance. If you're a teacher, eating with your students is a great way to teach and model healthy eating behaviors. Interested in learning more about the importance of school meals? Find out here.
- Is the school offering a variety of fruits and vegetables? Can the students all see the food and serve it safely? Are any local foods available? If not, set a meeting with the Food Service staff to discuss your ideas and see how you can help.
[1] https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/84003/eib-174_summary.pdf?v=42905
Nutrition Policy Institute study highlights benefits of school lunch
Lunches served in the National School Lunch Program have higher nutritional quality than lunches brought from home, according to the largest comparison study conducted to date.
Published in the November 2016 issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the study, conducted by researchers at UC's Nutrition Policy Institute, involved nearly 4,000 elementary school students in Southern California.
“This rigorous study confirms what we have long known: The school lunch program, which has served the country's students since 1946, makes an invaluable contribution to their nutritional well-being, their health and their academic performance," said Lorrene Ritchie, Ph.D., director of the Nutrition Policy Institute and a senior author of this study. "And thanks to the recent, improved nutrition standards, it will only provide stronger, more essential support for our children's success.”
School lunch consumption was associated with higher overall diet quality. School lunch eaters also consumed diets that were higher in dairy-rich foods, lower in empty calories from solid fats and added sugars, and lower in refined grains than students who ate lunches from home.
Established in 1946, the National School Lunch Program is a federal nutrition assistance program that provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches in over 100,000 K-12 schools throughout the United States. School lunches are required to meet certain nutrition standards based on the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans. New requirements increase the availability of fruits, vegetables and whole grains and reduce sodium and fat in school lunches. Guidelines on calorie limits are set to ensure age-appropriate sized meals for grades K-5, 6-8 and 9-12.
During the 2014-15 school year, the program served lunches to about 30.5 million children each school day. More than 21.5 million of these students qualified for free or reduced-price service. Given the program's broad reach and its targeting of low-income children, the nutritional improvements shown in this study are of considerable benefit to needy students for whom school lunch may represent roughly one-third of their daily calories.
Since the study was conducted, new and more rigorous nutritional standards have been implemented, thus increasing the likelihood that school lunches are contributing to healthy overall diets – and reversing the extremely worrisome obesity epidemic. Currently as many as one-third of U.S. youth are obese or overweight.
Get an 'A' in back-to-school nutrition
During summer break, healthy food and fitness often take a long vacation. For many, the vacation is ending and it's time to do some homework. Study these back-to-school tips for the start to a healthy school year. If you follow a balanced diet and stay physically active, there's no way you can't get an 'A' in back-to-school nutrition!
- Don't skip breakfast! Studies show children who eat breakfast perform better in school.
- If you pack a homemade lunch for your children, include a good balance of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat or fat free dairy products, and lean meats and proteins.
- Provide new options! Pack exotic fruits like kiwi or allow your child to pick a fun new fruit or vegetable at the grocery store. They are more likely to eat their lunch if they helped prepare it.
- Reinforce cleanliness and remind your children to wash their hands before they eat or pack a moist towelette or hand sanitizer in their lunchbox.
- Physical activity and exercise are important and help improve a child's health. Children should be active for at least 60 minutes a day, and adults need to be active for at least 30 minutes a day. Make exercise a family affair and get the physical activity everyone needs! Go for a weekend hike, walk the dog together, or ride your bikes after dinner.
Try this quick and easy recipe for your child's lunch or mix it up and substitute a variety of their favorite vegetables instead.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup baby spinach
- 4 ounces cooked skinless, boneless chicken
- 1/2 cup sliced red bell pepper
- 2 tablespoons low-fat Italian vinaigrette
- 1 (6-inch) whole-grain pita, cut in half
Directions:
- Combine spinach, chicken, bell pepper, and vinaigrette in a bowl; lightly toss and mix ingredients.
- Cut the pita pieces in half.
- Using a spoon, fill each pita half with the tossed ingredients.
- Once assembled, lay them flat and pack them up for your child to enjoy during lunch.
Recipe source: http://www.health.com/health/recipe/0,,10000001983452,00.html
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Farm-to-school movement gains momentum
UC Davis is riding high on a swell of interest in changing the way American children eat. First lady Michelle Obama, celebrity chef Alice Waters and TV personality Jamie Oliver are behind the spiking popularity of a movement that has been quietly building for years in places like UC Davis, which founded the Davis Farm to School Connection in 2000.
Last week, school nutritionists, farmers and others in the agriculture industry - including UC Cooperative Extension - gathered for a workshop aimed at making farm-to-school a reality in Yuba County, according to an article in yesterday's Appeal-Democrat.
The story centered on UC Davis student Julia Van Soelen Kim, who decided to make the farm-to-school food movement the topic of her master's degree thesis. She helped coordinate last Thursday's workshop, and plans to serve as a farm-to-school researcher.
A school nutrition services director, Mary Driscoll, of the Marysville school district, raised a common concern about the movement at the workshop.
"It's a little more costly, but we are willing to pay that if we can stay within our budget," Driscoll was quoted. And, she said, it has to be consistent.
Van Soelen Kim acknowledged that farm-to-school food is "easier said than done," noting that successful long-term implementation requires buy-in from school administrators, local government officials and farmers.
But the benefits are many. Such programs improve children's health, teach kids where their food comes from and support the local economy, the article said. They also reduce the resources used to process, package and transport food.
Bringing local foods into school cafeterias offers many benefits.
Montana Food Efforts a Great Model for Hard Times
Last week, while the market experienced a kind of volatility that had nearly everyone drawing parallels with the Great Depression, I had the privilege of participating in the Western Regional Assembly on Farm-to-School, which was sponsored by Ecotrust. A large group gathered in Portland to share information, develop strategies and network around the issues of good food for schools, institutions and communities.
To many people, farm-to-school, school gardens and attempts to create local food systems are somewhat of a novelty. Here's the line of thinking...Sure, it's important to provide healthier food options to youth, and to teach them about agriculture and the food system...And it's important to try to eat locally sourced foods as much as possible, for many reasons...But mostly, these activities lie largely outside of the "big-E" economic system. They are simply too small in scale to make much of an impact.
What I learned last week about this topic shifted my thinking in fundamental ways. Local food systems - including farm-to-school programs - can mean real money for local farmers, local food processors and local/state economies.
And the state of Montana has an excellent model for this.
Mary Stein, who is on the faculty of Montana State University, shared information about what's going on in Montana in terms of needs and opportunities. She described an area of acute poverty that has developed on the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains, and in reservation counties. I did some of my own research over the weekend and was astounded to learn that some of the poorest counties in the United States are in Montana. Rural residents have been struggling there for years. In one county, the new jobs created in the last six-seven years numbered 42. Sure these are small counties, but these figures represent poor economic health and growth. History repeating itself? Perhaps. While 1929 marked the beginning of the Great Depression for Main Street America, rural residents had been struggling for nearly ten years prior to that, since the conclusion of WWI. And too often, rural struggles go unnoticed in America.
Through the 1950s, Montana produced about 70% of the food its residents consumed. That figure has fallen to 10%, and the state is perilously - I would argue dangerously - dependent upon food that is shipped in, much of it via trucks. A frequent observation is that Montana is one truck driver strike away from food insecurity.
Like many other states, Montana's attempts to recreate a more locally sustainable food system have been hampered because of the loss of nearly all the food processing infrastructure in the last fifty years. When we created a meta/mega food system in America, one of the casualties was local processing.
Montana has become a commodity-based agricultural system, producing mostly grains and beef cattle that are shipped out of state for processing and distribution. Ironically, Montanans probably re-import processed grains and meat that they produced.
It's not just a lack of processing infrastructure that hampers the effort to eat more locally sourced foods. It is also federal school lunch policy. "With the way the commodities programs are currently structured, there is a massive barrier for K-12 schools to source these commodity products locally," MSU's Stein says. "Montana is a beef state, and yet it's almost impossible for our schools to access locally-produced beef, because districts can't specify local beef within the federal commodities program." Nor can they get cash in lieu of commodities to buy local beef.
Grow Montana seeks to change this food system and revitalize the state's economy. Grow Montana is a broad-based coalition whose purpose is "to promote community economic development policies that support sustainable Montana-owned food production, processing, and distribution, and that improve all of our citizens' access to Montana foods." The coalition is coordinated by the National Center for Appropriate Technology, which is based in Butte, Montana, and which is also one of the coalition's partners.
Grow Montana Director Nancy Matheson says of their model, "We're looking to use the local food movement as a way to transform and revitalize Montana's economy, specifically the rural economy." She is particularly interested in hearing from others who are working on topics central to rural food systems and economic transformation.
Grow Montana works on multiple levels. It encourages conversations with communities, entrepreneurs, farmers and ranchers, identifying needs and opportunities. Matheson says, "The message is coming from the grassroots, and we take it on a collective basis to the state level." And Grow Montana's policy work is having real economic impacts, because its members recognize the real opportunities that exist. Unlocking the Food Buying Potential of Montana’s Public Institutions - Towards a Montana-based Food Economy is a study that provides information about one Grow Montana strategy that impacts farm-to-school programs, and could inform this work elsewhere.
On the ground, Grow Montana's work is equally impressive. The organization uses a FoodCorps to accomplish vital economic and human goals. FoodCorps members - VISTA volunteers - deploy to create and develop farm to cafeteria programs in local schools and colleges. Through these programs, K-12 schools and colleges buy locally-grown food. This strengthens Montana’s agricultural economy, while also serving healthy and delicious food to youth.
The FoodCorps work is coordinated by Crissie McMullan, who traveled with this year's FoodCorps (hundreds of miles via a van) to the Western Regional Assembly in Portland. One of the real "goose bump" moments at the gathering was when the Montana delegation was asked to stand. These incredible young volunteers - who are doing such important and ground-breaking work in sustainable food systems - earned an enormous and sustained round of applause.
Per Grow Montana Director Matheson, FoodCorps also enables the larger organization to "develop strategies that we can test in the real world, on the ground...strategies that inform our policy work." Food Corps volunteers track statistics about the amount and value of local food purchased for their programs; valuable information is being gained. And dollars are staying in Montana because of the program. The economic impact is real.
In honor of the Montana program, which provides a unique model we ought to consider - and which has inspired me enormously - I'm including their tagline with the Victory Grower tagline.
"Montana Food for Montanans"
"A Garden for Everyone. Everyone in a Garden."