For millions of young Americans the end of summer means that it's time to go back to school. September brings the familiar ringing of bells, freshly sharpened pencils on crisp sheets of paper and the smell of …..
…..microwaved meat and
cafeterias chock-full of candy?
 Are America 's children being forced to choose between low-grade processed food or sugar-laden junk food at school? Is the onslaught of preservatives, sweeteners and processed food in schools the reason why American children are fatter than ever?
In this month's Back-to-School Feature Article, we're looking at School Lunch – what the National School Lunch Program offers, what Junk Food Manufacturers now have the privilege of offering, and how some communities are taking school lunch into their own hands. Read on to find out more about the state of school lunches today and how the new sustainable food trend is sweeping the country.
What exactly is School Lunch?
Children who buy lunch at school are most likely participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), a federally assisted meal program that began in 1946, and is now operating in more than 99,800 schools (out of 119,235 elementary and secondary schools, public and private) and residential child care institutions.i Close to 29 million students a day are provided for by the NSLP, whether it's a full-price, low cost or free meal at lunchii. With just over 54 million students enrolled in both public and private schools, that means over half of America's children count on the NSLP to provide up to three meals a day (breakfast, lunch, snack), to the tune of over $9 billion annually.iii
So what are half of America 's children being served each day? Is it healthy? Where does it come from? More and more parents are starting to ask these questions, and the answers don't paint a pretty picture. Although NSLP standards require that 1/3 of Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA) of vitamins and nutrients are met at each meal, this alone cannot ensure healthy eating habits.iv With copious amounts of processed food and junk food available – in both vending machines and the cafeteria - and a significant lack of fresh fruits and vegetables, nutrition in America 's schools is becoming a recipe for disaster.
Where did the Lunch Lady Go?
Perhaps school lunches were never the culinary highlight of a child's day, but back in the day, at least the meals were cooked in the school's kitchen, not just delivered in pre-packaged containers to be re-heated before serving. Today, some schools have fast-food delivered to their cafeterias on certain days of the week, or have even created fast food franchises right on campus, eliminating the Lunch Lady altogether.
v
With the demise of fresh, balanced meals prepared on campus has come the rise of junk food as a main course. In order to compensate for a lack of government funding, school systems around the country have turned to junk food and junk food advertising – mainly for sodas and fast food chains. An area that was once reserved for learning has opened up as a market for large junk food manufacturers to peddle their products in vending machines and in the form of school sponsorships. As Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) put it, in his opening remarks to a convention of government health officials and big food industry representatives, “corporate America spends $12 billion a year on food ads to kids because it works.” vi
Although corporate food giants partner with health organizations and host conferences on self-regulation in order to show that they are “part of the solution,” their lobby groups tell a different story, opposing almost all school nutrition bills around the country.
Coca-Cola's lobbyists have attempted to block state bills in as many as seven states that would prevent their product from being sold in schoolsvii. Soda giants have already garnered much of the school vending market, making deals with short term monetary benefits to schools and long-term health risks to the students. Many of the contracts between schools and junk food vendors force the school to break a law which requires them to turn off junk food vending machines during lunch. In these cases, a school that abides by the law will have their contract terminated.
The Effects of Junk Food
When you think about the problems associated with drinking sodas or colas, rotting teeth and root canals are the health issues that probably come to mind. What you may not know is that an ingredient in almost all sodas and many fruit juice drinks is making America fat. It's called High Fructose Corn Syrup, and it's not only in beverages, but is hiding out in many of the snack foods and even “health foods” on the market today.
Where did this substance come from? In the late sixties and early seventies, beverage manufacturers discovered a much cheaper way to make beverages sweeter. Through a complex refining process, the starch from corn is converted to glucose and then to fructose. This highly concentrated form of fructose delivers a sweetness beyond what is possible through natural means, and perhaps it was precisely this extra-sweet flavor that has created a rise in soda consumption and decline in milk consumption over the last few decadesviii.
- Soda consumption among teenage girls has doubled and among teenage boys has tripled since 1978.
- One fifth of all infants ages one and two are now soda drinkers.ix
According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the consumption of HFCS increased 1000% between 1970 and 1990, far exceeding the changes in intake of any other food or food group. HFCS now represents 40% of caloric sweeteners added to foods and beverages and is the sole caloric sweetener in soft drinks in the United States . Likewise, there has been a concurrent rise in obesity during this time, leading scientists and nutritionists to see a connection between HFCS and weight gain.x
How can a beverage make you fat? Studies on the effects of HFCS on the body have shown that digestion, absorption, and metabolism of fructose differ from that of glucose, a simple sugar that is a major energy source for all cellular and bodily functions . Because fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion, which is a key component for the body's regulation of food intake, scientists think that very concentrated forms of fructose (HFCS) ingested in great quantities (super size sodas) contribute to weight gain. For more information about how HFCS may play a role in the epidemic of obesity, visit the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition . For some tasty alternatives to soda and HFCS-sweetened beverages, see our Picnic Beverages page.xi
Childhood Obesity
The results of a study of weight in the United States conducted by Cynthia Ogden, PhD and a CDC epidemiologist, determined that currently 31% of adults are obese and 15% of children and teenagers age 6-19 are overweight.xii
Results from the National Center for Health Statistics corroborate these findings, showing an increase in childhood obesity from 5% in 1963 to 15% in 2002. According to these results, obesity in children age 6-11 grew steadily through the seventies, eighties and nineties, while obesity in children 12-19 dropped slightly in the late seventies, then joined the younger group at similar rates through the eighties and nineties.xiii
James O. Hill, PhD, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, claims that obesity-related diabetes alone "will break the bank of our healthcare system” if we do nothing to improve our children's eating and exercise habits.xiv Besides diabetes, obesity can lead to impaired lung function, sleep disorders, heart disease, and other health conditions.xv With obesity climbing at an alarming rate, doctors and parents have started looking for a good place to start fighting this epidemic, and many have focused on our nation's schools.
Food Safety
Besides options that are simply unhealthy, schools have also been the recipients of food that is downright dangerous. According to Eric Schlosser's book, Fast Food Nation , some of the “most questionable ground beef in the United States was purchased by the USDA and then distributed to cafeterias throughout the country” throughout the 80's and 90's. Even after outbreaks of E.coli in multiple states could be linked to meat suppliers with hundreds of critical food safety violations on their record, the USDA continued to buy millions of pounds of meat from them, bound for America 's school cafeterias.xvi
While many children rely on schools for breakfast, lunch and after school snack, for some less fortunate kids, the food supplied by the NSLP is the only food they eat at all. Making sure America's kids are fed safe, nutritious and fresh food, for their sake (and that of our healthcare system), is slowly becoming a priority.
Sustainable Schools
As sustainability catches on around the country, more and more teachers, students and parents are getting involved and demanding a better quality lunch than the “empty calorie” choices that children have gotten used to today. It usually begins with one concerned parent who, appalled at the lack of nutrition and excess of fat and sugar their child receives every day at school, rallies other parents to change the way their schools think about food.
Berkeley, California, has become a model for how to make schools more sustainable. Thanks to Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard Project at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School , the idea that food can go from farm to table and never leave campus is becoming reality. Sixth through eighth grade students use their school's organic garden as a centerpiece for learning not only about planting and harvesting, cooking and eating, but also biology, ecology, nutrition and sustainability.
Students plant, grow, tend, cook and eat food that they grow in their school garden. Children are introduced to new varieties of vegetables, and though some might be hesitant at trying something new, the program has shown that children are much more likely to eat food that they have helped grow. This program has become so successful that many schools around the country now have their own gardens. The National Gardening Association has a list of thousands of school gardens nationwide.
But Berkeley isn't the only organic oasis in our nation's school system. A recent state law required Washington Schools to provide healthier lunches by 2005, and the Seattle Public School District has a new set of comprehensive and far-reaching nutrition-related policies designed to provide students with healthy food and beverage choices. This includes a ban on the sale of foods containing high levels of sugar and fat and prohibits exclusive contracts with beverage vendors. The policies are among the strongest in the country, and were hard won by the Citizens Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools (CCCFS), a group of parents, teachers, a school board member and others. xvii
Washington State is also home to healthy cafeteria projects, like the one found on Vashon Island which features delectable menus of Thai chicken lettuce wraps or fresh garden pizza with their regular organic fruit and vegetable salad bar. Though extra costs are often cited for reasons why organic food isn't feasible for public schools, Lincoln Elementary in Olympia , Washington , has managed to cut its lunch costs by 2 cents a meal while offering a full organic menu. Eliminating dessert, though initially unpopular with students, covered most of the added cost of organic meals, and was eventually embraced by both students and parents.xviii
School districts in California , such as Compton, Santa Monica-Malibu School Districts of Southern California, and Palo Alto are getting on the farm-to-school bandwagon as well, and are now supplied with fresh produce from regional farms. ixx
Some Midwestern school districts are right up there with the best of them, having changed menus to feature whole-wheat pizza, organic milk, salad bars, whole grains, legumes and fresh fruits. Hopkins School District in Minnesota has become a model in the area, attracting food service directors from around the state requesting tours.
High schools in Appleton, Wisconsin, which are about 30 minutes outside of Green Bay, began the process of converting to healthy menus about seven years ago, thanks to the involvement of Natural Ovens who underwrote the first 5 years of the study.xx Their program has received nationwide attention for the dramatic drop in violent behavior and a rise in academic performance, and was featured in the documentary “Super Size Me.”
Another solution to the overabundance of junk food in schools is sustainable vending machines. In order to combat obesity and the prevalence of unhealthy food in schools, Stonyfield Farm is installing vending machines that have granola bars, soy nuts, drinkable yogurt and other healthier snacks. Prices are kept low to compete with junk food, and the machines are so popular that 900 schools are currently applying for them.
So although our schools today are facing an onslaught of junk, over-processed and unhealthy food, many districts are finding creative ways to combat this problem and are feeding healthier, sustainable food to their children.
What Can You Do?
There are many things parents and students can do to change the food choices at school, including:
• Bring local, sustainable food to your school or campus. Read Sustainable Table's Cafeterias and Dining Halls section for links to guides and organizations that can help you do a healthy overhaul of your cafeteria.
• Don't go it alone! See the legislation that other school districts have made concerning healthy food. See Stonyfield Farms' Resources and Research page for ideas on how to bring about change in your area.
• If your child doesn't buy food at school, make sure they're getting the healthiest food possible. These are companies that have recognized this need and are trying to make healthy lunches easier on parents:
Laptop Lunches sells a carrying case – lunchbox combo with internal compartments designed to cut down on waste.
 Brown Bag Naturals has just arrived for the fall '05 school year, delivering healthy lunches directly to schools in the Los Angeles area, and provide other nationwide lunch services.
The Organic Lunchbox from Applegate Farms has the convenience of lunchables, only made with organic ingredients.
Take Action! Use the Community Action to Change School Food Policy organizing kit provided by the Massachusetts Public Health Association.
Resources
So how does a healthy school campaign start? Take a look at some of these organizations of parents, teachers, communities and foundations to learn about how others have started a fresh food revolution in their school cafeterias.
Programs
Appetite for a Change: Organic Consumers Association's nationwide campaign working to make school food programs healthy and sustainable, to integrate organic foods and non-toxic products into our schools, creating a safer and healthier environment for our children to learn and grow.
Commercial Alert's Childhood Obesity Prevention Agenda: This focuses on calling on legislators to ban marketing and unhealthy or junk food in school and provides an online form to fill out and send to the proper parties.
GM Free Schools Campaign: A campaign of The Institute for Responsible Technology, IRT, supports efforts to create GM-free schools by providing written and audio-visual materials, web support, and guidance to local campaigns.
Farm to School Program of the Community Food Security Coalition:
Farm to School programs work to counteract negative health trends by incorporating healthy, nutritious, produce into school lunches, snacks and salad bars. They combine nutrition education, farm visits, school gardens and education in the classroom, so that children can develop healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime.
Healthy Schools Campaign: A small organization in Chicago that conducts educational research and promotes healthy eating to school administrators, students, and parents. They are actively against the sale and distribution of junk food and soft drinks in schools.
Kerr Center Essay Contest: Essays written by high school students about the need for Farm-to-School programs in America .
Menu for Change: Getting Healthy Foods into Schools: Stonyfield Farm has launched this grassroots program in response to the current obesity crisis facing youth in the U.S. The company provides vending machines to schools that include healthier snacks such as drinkable yogurt, soy nuts, granola bars and 100% juice. Also includes a parent action kit so parents can get involved in bringing healthier food to their children's schools.
Parents Action for Children – Organic Lunchbox Challenge: A resource and guide for parents who want to add organic food to children's diets.
School Foods Tool Kit: A comprehensive guide for organizing and promoting campaigns within schools, covering everything from backgrounders on basic nutrition needs to how to generate media coverage to sample testimonies to present to a school board. From the Center for Science in the Pubic Interest.
Groups and Organizations
Center for Informed Food Choices: Educates the public about how our industrial food system, along with corporate-influenced government policies, is the root cause of a host of preventable public health, environmental, and social justice problems.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): A government resource for finding current, changed, or abandoned state legislative bills regarding nutrition in schools.
CHOICE: Was launched in 1994 by a group of concerned parents to promote a choice of wholesome plant-based meals and nutrition education in our nation's schools.
Citizens Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools (CCCFS): A Washington State grassroots, nonprofit organization based in Seattle whose mission is to protect the right of Washington children and youth to a commercial-free education.
Natural Ovens Bakery: The company that helped launched Appleton Schools' Organic Lunch Program provides information on how to do the same in your school district. (Cost: $25)
New York Coalition for Healthy School Lunches: A grassroots group of concerned parents, students, educators, food service professionals, medical professionals, religious leaders and environmentalists working to bring healthy plant-based nutrition to our schools in response to the health crisis occurring among children.
The Food Trust works to improve the health of children and adults, promote good nutrition, increase access to nutritious foods, and advocate for better public policy.
For more information, please visit Sustainable Table's Sustainable Food in Schools section.
ST_ARTICLES
Sources
|
