Publication: The Southampton Press

Schools focus on healthy eating at lunch time

By Erin Geismar

Dec 9, 09 2:34 PM

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For anyone sitting in on the weekly “Food for Life” class at the East Hampton Middle School, it would seem the days of rewarding children with a trip to get ice cream or a stop at McDonald’s is coming to an end.

The group of sixth-graders, whose parents are also invited to attend, have been taught well. They can rattle off an alphabet of vitamins and what each does for the body, and they scoff at the mention of Twinkies or Pop-Tarts.

Their teacher, Jennifer Taylor, executive director of the Wellness Foundation, asked them if there’s anything in their school cafeteria that is unhealthy.

“Chocolate-covered banana bread,” said one student.

“Oh, that’s disgusting!” another student called out.

“They have this yellow cheese for the nachos. I saw them take it out of the fridge, and I thought it was a paint can,” said a girl. “It’s all chemicals.”

Of course, not all students at the school turn up their nose at the less healthy cafeteria options, Ms. Taylor said, and that is part of the reason this generation of schoolchildren has shown more cases of diabetes, obesity and heart disease than ever before recorded. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has predicted that this generation might be the first in history that will have a shorter average lifespan than its parents’ generation.

“What do I keep telling you guys you have to be?” she asked her class.

“The Generation of Change!” they responded.

Farther west in Bridgehampton, the ingredients for lunch are found in the school’s backyard. The district instituted the “Edible Schoolyard” program a few years ago, and since then students have been gardening and harvesting their produce.

Judi Carmack-Fayyaz, the environmental design teacher at the school, said that the produce is used in both the school’s culinary classes and in the cafeteria.

Ms. Carmack-Fayyaz noted that this year students harvested basil to make a delicious pesto sauce. The district is also planning to build a greenhouse to enlarge the garden, offering more healthy produce for students to consume.

According to Ms. Taylor, national nutrition organizations and even the Obama administration, that change should start with the National School Lunch Program, which serves more than 31 million students every school day and can be the child’s most nutritious—and sometimes only—meal of the day.

The National School Lunch Program was created by the Childhood Nutrition Act in 1946 and is reauthorized every five years. The bill was last reviewed in 1995, when Ms. Taylor said Congress made very few changes, resulting in national standards for children’s lunches that are based on outdated nutrition guidelines. The program adheres to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans for 2005, but experts say there have been advances in childhood nutrition since then.

In October, the Institute of Medicine, at the request of the USDA, analyzed the current program and made recommendations for change, including increasing the amount and variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains offered; setting a minimum and maximum calorie count; and reducing saturated fat and sodium in meals.

“If you go into most public schools what passes as a meal is really a lot of processed food like chicken nuggets and soups and stuff that comes out of cans,” said Ms. Taylor, which is one of the culprits for the increase in diseases linked to diet in today’s children, she said.

The food service director for the Southampton School District, Regan Kiembock, has made every effort possible to cut down on processed food served to children in the elementary, middle, and high school. One effort is the farm-to-school partnership she initiated earlier this year. The effort places apples and other produce from Milk Pail Farm & Orchard in Water Mill in the hands of Southampton students, and also brings in potatoes from Wesnofske Farms in Bridgehampton and corn and tomatoes from Zaluski Farm in Water Mill.

“We have expanded it,” Ms. Kiembock said, adding that the Wesnofske potatoes are regularly used for soups.

In Bridgehampton, there is not yet a farm-school partnership, said Superintendent Dianne Youngblood. She said that the district’s wellness committee, however, is looking at myriad ways to make lunch in school healthier and more delicious.

On a more controversial note, Dr. Youngblood said that the wellness committee may be banning bake sales as a way to curb the number of unhealthy sweets available to students. She said that some people may disagree with that move because they believe that children should be able to choose whether or not they have a chocolate chip cookie or brownie after lunch.

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