Portland Elementary School Teaches Great Lesson on Implementing a Comprehensive School Food Program

Photo source: Alicia Dickerson, http://gardenofwonders.org

We at the Organic School Project believe in reconnecting children with their food and encouraging healthy lifestyles through our Grow. Teach. Feed. model. By getting kids involved in their school’s organic gardens, we hope to combat the growing rate of childhood obesity in this country by teaching kids the value of nutrition and the quality of the foods they consume. As we learn more and more each day, we are nowhere near alone!

In 2005, Ecotrust, a sustainability and conservation non-profit out of Portland, Oregon launched their “Farm to School” project in collaboration with Portland’s Abernethy Elementary School. The project was designed to see whether school children would eat fresh foods when given the option instead of the processed, institutionalized food usually offered in their school cafeterias.

Together, Ecotrust and Abernethy designed a comprehensive and innovative school food program, including a “from scratch” kitchen, school garden, and monthly class lesson plans about cooking, nutrition, and the cycle of how food travels from farm to kitchen.

While the plan was undoubtedly noble in its efforts to teach children the importance of the food they put into their bodies and its impact on the world we live in, it all comes down to numbers and the bottom line: could this plan be economically sustainable?

Financial analysis of the project after its initial implementation found that the average “Farm to School” lunch cost $0.05 cents less than the average frozen meal usually offered. And to offset the increased labor cost of hiring 2 chefs instead of 1, the program received a grant from the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund. With the grant, the program locked in a $0.07 cent subsidy to each lunch price, aiding them in bridging the price gap between local and nationally distributed produce suppliers. This increased employment of Oregon farmers and growers created a positive economic ripple effect, as each dollar spent toward the lunches created an additional $0.84 in the state’s economy.

The “Food to School” project moved mountains in the fight for local, quality, healthy foods being put into our nation’s schools. From local news outlets like OregonLive and the Portland Tribune, to the national stage of NPR, the project has received a great amount of press since its inception. And more recently, Abernethy’s chef Nicole Hoffmann was invited to the White House’s South Lawn to help launch Michelle Obama’s Chefs Move to Schools program this past June.

This story is inspiring to us here at OSP, and motivates us to continue our work in bringing the same type of success to school districts here locally in the Midwest. One garden, one school, and one tasty (and healthy, too!) lunchtime meal at a time, we come closer and closer!

Check out the program’s website as well as the other projects that Ecotrust has been working on.

New Research on the Negative Effects of Vending Machines in Schools

The results from a new study published in Journal of School Health which assesses competitive food and beverage use among students in schools and the nutrient intakes derived from these competitive foods are staggering!

About 22% of students in grades 1 through 12 buy food in vending machines each day – and these purchases add an average of 253 calories to their diets, accumulating an extra 14 pounds per child per school year!!

According to the study, vending machines are found in 16% of U.S. elementary schools, 52% of middle schools and 88% of high schools allowing these energy-dense competitive foods, such as sweetened beverages, snack chips, and candy, to be accessible to students in 97% of US schools! The effects of the poor nutritional snacks are detrimental to children’s diets. As the study indicates, kids who utilized vending machines consumed more sugar and less dietary fiber, iron and B vitamins like thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and folate compared to those who abstained.

With results like these, it’s unthinkable that school wellness programs do not adequately address the quality of food and beverages sold in competitive food sources. Guidelines for the nutritional quality of items available are essential to ensure kids are getting the proper daily nutrients. By selling unhealthy options, children become at risk for poor nutrition by choosing these items over a USDA meal or a meal packed from home.

One reason schools are slow to change is because serving healthier options can come at a cost for the school; and in this economic environment, not all are willing to make the change. It is often the case that healthier snack options bring in less money to the school distract than deals with big name companies that sell less healthy options. With government funding for schools declining, districts are not in a rush to remove these high sources of added revenue.

To avoid the negative impact of competitive foods on your child’s diet, parents should provide plenty of healthful snacks from home to get their kids through the school day and if possible, start talking to your school about removing unhealthy options, finding alternative sources of income and getting your school involved in healthy initiatives.

Removal of chocolate milk from schools

Photo by Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

The New York Times recently ran an article that discusses arguments for and against the removal of flavored milk from schools.

With the amount of added sugar in the standard 8 fl oz serving of chocolate milk offered in schools, kids are getting more of a treat than a healthy beverage with their lunch on a daily basis. The added sweeteners in flavored milk can cause it to contain twice as much sugar as plain low-fat milk! Milk contains calcium, protein, and vitamin D, which support normal body functions such as locomotion and brain performance, and are essential for growing kids. However, cane sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are not. Milk is naturally sweet from lactose and does not require the added sugar that flavored milk contains.

High sugar consumption is a serious matter. In the long run, it can lead to weight gain and obesity and can disrupt absorption of required nutrients by the body, leading to numerous health effects. In the short term, high sugar consumption can lead to fatigue and migraines which can interrupt learning at school.

Currently, 71% of milk served in schools nationwide is flavored; the majority of it being chocolate. However, its unnecessarily high sugar content has lead some schools to remove it as an option in their cafeterias. This year, schools in Berkley, California are only serving plain milk and school officials in Florida are also considering the ban.

Milk consumption is falling though and is being replaced by sugary drinks such as soda. Recent studies show that on average, milk consumption in elementary schools decreases by 35% once flavored milk is removed from cafeterias. This, coupled with research confirming that nearly three-quarters of teenagers and adults are deficient in the essential nutrients contained in milk forces some to question if flavoring milk is necessary in order to get the kids to drink it and get those nutrients. Is it better for kids to drink milk with added sugar than to not drink milk at all?

Ann Cooper, who runs a national Web site, chefann.com, aimed at reforming school lunch, and advocates for feeding kids healthier food, puts it succinctly in the article when she says… “Saying we need to add sugar and flavoring to milk to get kids to drink it is like saying we need to feed kids apple pie if they don’t like apples.”

Chocolate milk in moderation is all right for kids, but we shouldn’t be teaching them that it is a healthy choice for their daily diet.

We should not make food unhealthy just to get kids to eat it. This seems to defeat the initial purpose of consuming the once healthy beverage. If kids do not like plain milk, there are other ways for them to get their calcium while avoiding unnecessary amounts of sugar. Green leafy vegetables or grains are great options that are even more calcium-rich than milk.

Let us know what you think… Is it better to drink milk with added sugar than no milk at all? Or are schools heading in the right direction by removing flavored milk?

Organic School Project on Lunch Reform

OSP is taking part in the Lunch Revolution blog party this weekend. Participants are discussing back to school issues including school lunch reform. Join in and share your thoughts on ‘back to school’.

Check out how to participate at http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/

The back to school topic we chose to discuss is whether or not school lunch needs to be reformed.

With one-third of American children being overweight or obese, school lunch has possibly the greatest potential to combat this appalling statistic and become one of the best preventative approaches. It is in school that kids are eating the majority of their daily calories. If schools use healthy food for their meals, it ensures that kids are getting their necessary nutrients and aren’t just eating junk food. This is especially important for schools with families of low income. These families are counting on schools to provide their kids with healthy meals since expense and limited access makes it difficult for them to use fresh and healthy ingredients for the rest of their meals outside of school.

Lunch can be turned into a great time for learning. The cafeteria can be a place to improve taste buds for fresh, healthy food, and also to learn of the benefits of local food for their health, environment, and community. It is here that we can reinstate the relationships of the past; knowing where our food comes from and eating food that is in season because it is the healthiest and tastiest.

The Organic School Project believes that if kids are provided the tools, they will begin choosing healthier food and will make more positive choices for themselves. Food preferences form during childhood, so it is important to expand their experience with fresh ingredients at an early age so they can develop healthy eating habits. Education on nutrition, environmental stewardship, and balanced lifestyles is important to supplement what kids eat in the cafeteria so they understand the consequences of eating healthier and develop the skills to make these decisions on their own.

Lunch reform is about taking proper care of our children and providing the best resources we can so they can grow into healthy, well-balanced individuals. Kids who are well nourished can focus on their schooling and are prepared to learn to their fullest potential; thus healthier food can have a positive effect on academic performance and their future.

Share a favorite lunch recipe:

School lunch consists of meals that are delivered to and reheated at the schools. Menus need to consist of items that are made from scratch and include positive foods that are fresh, tasty, and are void of food additives and processes that are harmful. Substituting healthy ingredients into recipes kids are familiar with and enjoy is a smart way to get them to eat healthier.

I will share our ratatouille recipe because it incorporates the wonderful vegetables that are in season right now and was a kid favorite when we served it in schools.

Ratatouille (2 portions at 4 oz. each)

eggplant 2oz.

chickpeas 2oz.

tomatoes 2oz.

onion 10z.

green peppers 10z.

one clove garlic

basil

one ounce of oil

Dice the eggplant and tomatoes into same size (approx. medium dice).

Dice the onions.

Mince the garlic.

Sauté, adding salt to flavor.

Stir in chopped basil leaves right before service.

Serve and enjoy.

Prescriptions for healthy food

One reason why fast food restaurants are so appealing to low income families is because of the amount of food a family can get for a dollar. Families with limited amount of money to spend on food often rely on cheaper, higher calorie foods in order to maximize calorie intake for amount of money spent. This can cause over consumption of calories and an unhealthy diet that leads to obesity and other health problems. A new pilot program in Boston hopes to compete with fast food. By making healthy food less expensive, it is now possible for low-income families to afford the healthier option.

In this effort to combat obesity in children, doctors at three health centers in Boston are encouraging children of low-income families to use local farmers’ markets as a preventative approach to health problems. Doctors are providing coupons amounting to $1 a day for each member of a patient’s family to be used on healthy options at these markets. The goal is to amend eating habits. The doctors hope to augment the amount of fruits and vegetables the kids are familiar with and will eat and increase their intake of fruit and vegetables by one serving a day.

This program is a great effort to make healthy food more affordable; though can it have a long-term influence on reducing obesity? The program not only relies on families getting to the markets to use the coupons, but also on families increasing their fruits and vegetable consumption and cutting back on their intake of junk food. It may take more than just a voucher for healthy foods to alter many years worth of poor eating habits.

Access to the markets also raises a concern. Lowering food cost can only be successful if the families are able to get to the fresh food; and what will happen once the farmers’ market season ends? Will the families revert back to their old snack habits without the access to affordable healthy food during the winter?

The doctors will be monitoring participants from 50 families, determining the effects on eating patterns and health indicators such as body mass index (BMI).

To read about the program, click below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/business/13veggies.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=obesity&st=cse