Searching for balance

Healthier lunches at Jay Schools haven’t exactly been met with open arms and open mouths.
While there haven’t been school-wide boycotts at Jay Schools like there have been in other schools across the nation, the response to new federal nutrition requirements for lunches that restrict calories and increase fruit and vegetable requirements has been mixed.
“It don’t taste as good,” said Jay County High School senior Karlee Thomas. “It’s a lot smaller. We have to have a fruit or vegetable with our meal. Most people just throw it away.”
“It has been getting kind of dull and mainly everyone’s been going to á la carte,” agreed sophomore Cori Ann Weaver as she munched some breakfast at JCHS with Thomas Friday morning. “They’ve cut down the portion sizes a lot from last year. We would get nuggets and we normally would get 10, now we only get five.”
But opinions aren’t unanimous. Outside of missing the lunchroom salt shakers, senior Pierce Clott doesn’t mind the new lunches.
“It’s encouraging me to eat more healthy foods and everything, so it’s not exactly a bad thing,” he said. “It’s just like at home. You have your fruit and vegetable with the main part of the meal and it’s not that bad.”
Early numbers show that students eating school lunch has dropped since Jay Schools began implementing the new federal nutrition championed by First Lady Michelle Obama.
“The biggest thing we’re noticing is kids are having a hard time accepting the new changes,” says Karmella VanSkyock, food service director for Jay Schools. “Counts are down and we’re trying to make people aware Mrs. Obama (lobbied for the new rules) and it’s for kids’ safety because of obesity.
“In one month we were 10,000 students (eating meals) down, so it’s major,” VanSkyock said, a number that represented about a 20 percent drop in monthly volume. “It’s gone up (since), but then again, this was just when we started. They didn’t even have a chance not to like it.”
The most notable change and one that’s garnered national attention is the new calorie restrictions, which limit elementary school students to 550 to 650 calories, 600 to 700 calories for middle school students and 750 to 850 calories for high schoolers.
“The big concern is are kids getting enough calories because the calorie intake has gone to half of what we have been allowed to do in the past,” VanSkyock said.
In order to meet those guidelines, portion sizes have generally been reduced. While fruits and vegetables have increased, things like meats and grains have been cut back a bit in order to hold the line of calories.
“It’s probably about half,” VanSkyock said of the portion size. “Our hamburger patties used to be 2.6 (ounces) now we’re serving 1.5 (ounces).”
Although the amount of food has been reduced, a fact that has sparked some protests and boycotts at other schools around the nation, nutritionists have touted the health benefits of the new lunches despite the fact they might be less filling for students.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 also doubles fruit and vegetable requirements, mandates a switch to whole grains, limits saturated fats, bans trans fats and reduces sodium.
“You’re getting (fewer) calories, but you’re getting more vitamins,” VanSkyock said. “So you’re doing better than if you were getting double meat. In the long run, the nutrition that they’re getting is actually better for them even if they’re a little hungry.
“(The federal government) had a team of 15 nutritionists that sat in on this and the meals we have to follow is what they say kids should have to make them healthy and make them healthy through life,” she said. “Over time if they would see the overall picture, it is to make them healthy.”
The changes in the menu haven’t really affected preparation in the kitchen. While some time has been added to handle fresh ingredients — such as chopping vegetables — the morning preparation continues to click along.
On Friday morning, a quick breakfast entrée was out of the oven and on the cafeteria line by 7:50 a.m. as staff members worked to prep lunches for Judge Haynes, East and Pennville elementary schools, which are shipped out by 9:30, while simultaneously working on the high school offerings for 11 a.m.
“It’s affected ... what I do because we don’t offer as many sweets,” said baker Kris Cook, one staffer who has seen a larger change. “We’re limited to how many times a week we can have a cookie or a cake.”
The kitchen staff has been part of the front line in gauging student response, which has been mixed.
“At first they didn’t care for it, naturally, because they want that salt shaker out there,” said JCHS kitchen manager Mary Laux. “They’ve come to accept it real well. We feel they’ve done well.
“We’re meeting requirements and they’re eating healthier,” Laux said. “It’s a good thing. … The bottom line is the kids are eating healthier and it’s the way we need to go.”
“Some don’t complain, some do,” said Karen Robbins, one of the JCHS cooks. “Some kids just take it as it’s supposed to be and others don’t like it.
“They are eating more fresh fruits and more salads.” Robbins said. “We have noticed that because we’re going through a lot more. At least they’re taking it.”
Cook, who mans the á la carte line in the high school cafeteria, did, however, report a noticeable increase in the traffic going through the line on a daily basis.
“We still have the cookies and that (in á la carte),” she said. “For me, I’ve seen a larger increase, because they can’t get those things on the lunch line any longer but they can still come in á la carte and get them. … They come in here and get the ice cream and the other things that they want.
“I guess I’m on the good end. I make it look like I’m the good lunch lady because I have all the good stuff,” she said with a laugh.
While some decrease in consumption has been noted, the numbers might further decrease in the future due to prices.
The mandate to make changes to school lunches has also forced food vendors to make changes in order to maintain business. With increased fresh ingredients and new, healthier foods with special requirements such as reduced sodium, the cost of preparing a daily lunch has also increased.
“To do all the requirements, they estimated it would probably cost 22 to 28 cents to go up per meal,” VanSkyock said. “Fresh vegetables are higher, then if you get any weather thing that happens it goes even higher.”
While the state is offering a 6-cent reimbursement to schools, the $2.25 cost for high school and middle school lunches and $2 per meal cost at the elementary schools will probably have to increase in the future.
“Eventually everything is going to have to go up,” VanSkyock said. “That’ll be further down the road. We just started that this school year and we’re maybe still a little off on calories, but we’re pretty good in our guidelines.”
VanSkyock said, however, that she expected the school lunches will be more accepted as time goes on.
The younger students have been quicker to embrace the changes than high school students who have eaten “standard” lunches their entire school career.
She also attributed some negative press to the slow start, since some of the more extreme responses including boycotts have made national headlines.
“They see all this bad publicity … so I think it was more the bad publicity that started it off bad rather than what the kids were getting,” VanSkyock said.
She said that the school system has been trying to get more information out about the new lunches, especially since some students are getting introduced to some healthy foods for the first time.
“The elementary kids when we first started spinach one little boy asked, ‘Why are you giving me grass?’” VanSkyock said. “There’s some kids that even at our middle schools that with some of the new vegetables they don’t even know what they are.”
Time supposedly heals all wounds, so school officials will have to wait to see if that’s the case with the new school lunches.
“It took a long time for us to get to this,” VanSkyock said. “It’s been 15 years since any changes have been made, it’s not just going to happen overnight. … It’s a lot of things to implement in one school year.”[[In-content Ad]]