Taste test for healthy
food
Rules are changing school lunches as "try
it, you'll like it" is the new mantra
By CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY, Staff writer
Updated 10:19 p.m., Thursday, January 12, 2012
ALBANY – More than 100 students passing through the lunch line at
Salem Central School District this week ordered a hot sandwich
with herb-roasted cauliflower, spinach, mushrooms, onions and
green peppers served on a whole wheat wrap.
No kidding.
While chicken nuggets and pizza still are the top sellers at many
school cafeterias, the school lunch menu is changing drastically
to meet new national standards.
Rodney Moore acts as a cheerleader for his healthy food offerings.
The energetic chef who heads the Salem cafeteria program bounces
around the lunch room and calls students by name. "I say try it,
try it," Moore said. "You'll like it."
On Thursday, hundreds of local school food directors attended a
food fair at the Polish Community Center of Albany where vendors
offered a taste of their products. Most companies offered
low-sodium, whole-wheat and low-fat options. Even the chicken
nuggets were rolled in whole-wheat breading.
As part of the federal Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,
school lunches must meet strict federal guidelines in September.
The new rules will require school food programs to:
▪ Serve larger portions of fruits and
vegetables.
▪ Offer dark green and deep orange
vegetables and legumes every week.
▪ Use whole grains in half of the
grains served.
▪ Reduce salt by 10 percent.
▪ Only sell 1 percent or fat-free milk
and fat-free flavored milk.
▪ Offer five food components at every
lunch including a grain, meat, fruit, vegetable and milk.
Additionally, students must take three of those components – and
one must be a fruit or vegetable – in order to get federal
reimbursement for a lunch.
"It's really historic legislation raising nutrition standards for
the first time in 15 years," said Mary Joan McLarney, a
nutritionist for the United States Department of Agriculture,
Northeast region.
The obesity epidemic is driving the new guidelines. About 30
percent of children are obese or overweight. The legislation is
also influenced by changes in the nation's dietary guidelines in
2010 and a critical report by the Institutes of Medicine on school
lunches.
McLarney advised cafeteria managers to start serving new
vegetables now so kids are used to them when the mandates go into
effect.
That's easier said than done.
Amy Braun, cafeteria manager of the Cambridge Central School
District, offered spinach to 7th to 12th graders this week. Two
students ate it. If she had served green beans, she estimates 250
students would have eaten them.
Braun and Brian Nolan, food services director for Cohoes City
School District, worry the kids won't eat the healthy options.
"Many of the students just chuck it in the garbage," Braun said.
Nolan said, "It's going to be a tough task."
But veteran food service managers have tricks. Braun hides kidney
beans in a puree served with tacos. As the year progresses, the
puree gets chunkier and chunkier until students can recognize the
bean.
"You disguise it first," she said. "They have to be used to it
visually."
If a child takes a one bite and throws it away, nobody wins, said
Renee Hanks, director of food services for the South Colonie
Central School District.
Hanks likes to sneak healthier foods to students at the middle
school where they are grateful to have more food options after the
limited menu of elementary school. When they leave middle school,
the whole wheat and low-sodium recipes follow them over to the
high school, she said.
The new food guidelines could have been tougher, but Congress
retooled them.
The original recommendations limited how often potatoes could be
served, but legislators from potato-growing states backed an
amendment that eliminated the restriction. Goals for reducing
sodium were downsized after lobbyists from the salt industry
argued that there haven't been studies on how a low-salt diet
affects children. And the tomato paste in pizza still counts as a
full serving of vegetables, although the USDA recommended lowering
it.
Food managers juggle a difficult task. The cafeterias of most
schools are financially self-sustaining. They receive money from
cash sales and federal reimbursements for free and reduced lunches
for low-income students. The healthy food options cost more or
take more labor to cook, and if students don't like the new
offerings, the cafeteria loses money.
"We have to be magicians," Hanks said.
Reach Crowley at 454-5348 or
ccrowley@timesunion.com. Visit her blog at
http://blogs.timesunion.com/healthcare
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