View full sizeGoodbye, mystery meat and mushy peas. Today’s Portland Public Schools students enjoy lunch items such as chicken nuggets made with white meat and whole-grain breading, watermelon, roasted carrots and black bean and corn salad. The milk is low-fat.Oct. 17 is Take Your Parents to Lunch Day, meant to “celebrate what’s great about school lunch — and learn how we can all work together to make it even better,” according to the event’s website. Sponsors include MyHealthySchool.com, Stonyfield Organic, Whole Kids Foundation (the charitable arm of Whole Foods Market) and Kiwi parenting magazine.
The event comes on the heels of new U.S. Department of Agriculture school meal regulations that are being implemented this school year — the first significant changes to school meals in 15 years, according to the department. The new regulations include offering both fruits and vegetables every school day, increasing whole-grain offerings, offering only fat-free or low-fat milk and reducing saturated fats, trans fats and sodium.
Some Oregon school lunch programs take extra steps. In Portland Public Schools, for example, students cannot get food on an a la carte basis but must buy complete meals, Shannon Stember, assistant director of nutrition services, said in an email.
Not all students eat school lunch, of course, and a sack lunch from home isn’t automatically a healthy lunch. In 2010, a British study of 1,300 sack lunches concluded that only1 percent of them would meet the standards set for school lunches. In 2011, a U.S. study found that nearly 99 percent of 705 sack lunches tested contained perishables that were not kept cool enough to be safely consumed.
The Omamas asked community members involved in school lunch to weigh in on the subject and to offer tips for improving school food.
View full sizeNicole HoffmannNicole Hoffmann
Chef and garden educator
Abernethy Elementary School, Southeast Portland
The Abernethy Kitchen strives to serve nutrient-rich, local, handmade food for school breakfast and lunch as the demonstration kitchen for Portland Public Schools’ Nutrition Services. We embrace districtwide initiatives spun out of years of work at Abernethy, both in the kitchen and as part of our integrated Garden of Wonders program, which includes garden class as a pullout class much like music or PE. These initiatives include the Harvest of the Month program and extensive local procurement of produce and minimally processed, locally produced items like a vegetarian Three Bean Chili from Truitt Brothers in Salem.
Our students are adventurous, mindful, healthful eaters who get excited about Brussels sprouts and kale and take recipes home to make with their families. Parents often email me that their child asked for asparagus for their birthday dinner or that they chose Brussels sprouts at the supermarket. Smart food choices are especially reflected in the lunches of our upper-grade kids, who heap salads on over half of their lunch trays to complete their meal.
We engage the community by sending home salad dressing and roasted vegetable recipes. Roasted vegetables are always a hit. When we serve roasted broccoli or cauliflower, the kids eat four times as much as when we serve them raw. Lightly dressing vegetables or beans (garbanzos are a favorite here) with an herb and lemon vinaigrette is a nice change of pace.
We host cooking and gardening camps in the summer and find that if kids participate in growing, harvesting and cooking food, they become much more adventurous eaters. In fact, camp favorites include sushi, Indian curries with chutneys, and Mexican, including homemade tortillas, arepas (corn cakes) and a variety of salsas.
View full sizeMegan KempleMegan Kemple
Farm to School Program Director, Willamette Farm and Food Coalition
Oregon State Lead, National Farm to School Network
Farm to School and school garden programs are great ways to engage kids in fun, hands-on activities that help educate them about where their food comes from and how it’s grown while inspiring them to make healthy food choices.
Farm to School programs include activities such as farm field trips, cooking with food from local farms, tasting tables, school garden sessions and the incorporation of local food into school meals and snacks. There are successful Farm to School programs throughout Oregon: farmtoschool.org/or/programs.htm.
Oregon is fortunate to have a Farm to School/School Garden Coordinator within the Oregon Department of Education and a Farm to School Program Manager within the Oregon Department of Agriculture. And Oregon’s Farm to School and School Garden Network actively support farm to school initiatives and policy action, and include state agencies, food service directors, farmers, teachers, parents, school gardeners and community-based organizations. There are over 170 members in communities throughout Oregon.
Here are some simple first steps to develop a Farm to School program: Assess where you’d like to be, such as procurement of local foods to be served in school. Form a team and collaborate. Establish one or two attainable goals, such as identifying menu items that you would like to transition to local products.
If you are interested in implementing or supporting farm to school activities in your child’s school or school district, there are resources to help you get started. You can visit farmtoschool.org and/or contact me at mkemple@lanefood.org or 541-344-4329.
View full sizeMolly HaynesMolly Haynes
Manager, Community Health Initiatives, Kaiser Permanente
Registered dietitian and mom
School meals offer students fruits, vegetables, protein, grains and milk, with strict limits on saturated fat and portion size. They are designed to get kids following the same healthy eating tips that are part of the dietary guidelines for people of all ages. Here are some highlights:
Make half your plate fruits and vegetables: Include high-nutrient green/red/orange vegetables, not just starchy vegetables like potatoes.
Make half your grains whole grains: Portland Public Schools uses mostly 100 percent whole wheat buns/rolls and brown rice.
Choose low-fat and nonfat dairy: This helps limit saturated fat.
Parents can help their kids make wise choices in the lunch line by reviewing the school menu and encouraging kids to try new foods. We also encourage parents to join their child in the cafeteria for a lunch date once in a while.
School meals are a critical program in addressing food insecurity. About half of the students in Oregon qualify to receive free or reduced-priced meals. This provides vulnerable children with a healthy meal and frees up resources for their families to meet other important needs. Research shows that school meals are nutritionally superior to most lunches sent from home due to having more fruits and vegetables. Many schools now have salad bars where kids have unlimited access to fruits and vegetables.
View full sizeSarah MathenySarah Matheny
Vegan blogger, peasandthankyou.com
Author, “Peas Thank You” vegan cookbook
Keizer mom
I am a lunch packer — every day. I like to make sure my kiddos are getting nutritious food that they like but that also gives them a special boost in the middle of their school day. Don’t misconstrue this daily packing as being something I look forward to. But packing lunches is like a Band-Aid — you’ve got to just pull it right off. This means as soon as I empty the lunchbox for one day, I fill it right back up.
I like to balance a main dish (which is often, but not always, a sandwich) with a fruit (my girls love berries or unsweetened applesauce with a dash of cinnamon), a vegetable (carrot sticks and baby tomatoes are favorites), something salty (like whole-grain pretzels or rice cakes) and a sweet treat (homemade snack bars or a square of chocolate). Sometimes we go totally off the beaten path, with one of my recipe creations. We don’t do juice boxes or milk cartons — my kids each picked out a special water bottle at the beginning of the year and that keeps them happy with water every day. You can save money and give your kids healthy options if you just limit the snack packs and other processed foods.
View full sizeOwen HartsonOwen Hartson
Sixth-grader, North Clackamas School District
The reason I like hot lunch is that you get to have options. It also lightens up your backpack when you don’t have to pack your lunch. I like the salad bar and sandwich bar. You get to choose what you put on your own sandwich.
I also like the tater tots and the pizza. The reason is that the pizza is really cheesy and the tater tots taste really good in ketchup.
I have a few suggestions about how to make hot lunch better. A few of the foods that I like that aren’t on the menu are steak and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You can also add some more types of pizza and add some more things to add on to the sandwich bar like cucumbers and pickles. Another thing is that you could add berries and more fruits like pears and peaches to the salad bar.
Resources
Oregon Farm to School: Network of 53 Oregon schools that participate in programs matching farmers with school cafeterias. 541-344-4329.
Oregon Action for Healthy Kids: State chapter of the national nonprofit Action for Healthy Kids, which fights childhood obesity by helping schools become healthier places. The website includes a nutrition education page with numerous informational links.
TrayTalk.org: Website run by the School Nutrition Association, a national, nonprofit professional organization
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