Every weekday Chicago public schools serve almost 290,000 meals in 581 schools. It is one of the country`s largest mass-feeding programs, an operation something on the scale of providing meals to all our troops in the Persian Gulf.
On the administrative level, it involves hundreds of people, tons of foodstuffs and millions of dollars in contracts.
On the student level, a lunch at school may be the only hot meal of the day for some, and for many it will be the most balanced and most nutritious, said Claudie Phillips, interim director and manager of nutritional services for the Chicago Board of Education.
But how good are the meals the city`s public school pupils are being fed? According to a study by a national committee of nutrition and school-lunch experts put together by the Center for Science in the Public
Interest, meals in schools across the country are too high in fat and sodium and too low in fiber.
The CSPI ”white paper,” endorsed by the American School Food Service Association and the National PTA, said that typical lunches evaluated by the committee contained more than 40 percent fat calories and up to 1,800 milligrams of sodium, pretty much in line with the average American diet.
In Chicago, public schools do supply good doses of meat, milk and potatoes, and they do conform with the requirements for public school lunches established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Those requirements call for each lunch to contain two ounces of protein, 3/4 cup of fruit or vegetable, 1 3/5 servings of bread or an alternative starch and eight ounces of milk.
The USDA is assessing the lunch program across the country, and it probably will find that in Chicago and many other cities school lunches fall short of general diet recommendations of the American Heart Association, American Dietetic Association and many contemporary nutritionists who say fat should be only 30 percent of total calories.
Recently released guidelines by the USDA itself have called for Americans to cut down on fat and sodium, although the guidelines do not mention specific figures.
The white paper by CSPI, a public interest group, calls for schools to cut the fat calories first to 35 percent, then to 30 percent.
Chicago schools have made no official analysis of the average fat and salt content of the lunch meals, Phillips said, but there has been an effort in the last few years to cut down on fats, especially saturated fat.
However, the school lunch committee of the Chicago branch of the American Heart Association studied a representative sample of Chicago public school meals and found fat to be in the 40 to 42 percent range, said Alicia Moag-Stahlberg, chairman of the committee and a registered dietitian.
”We looked at the standard USDA recipes used in the schools and the foods being served and found quite a few instances where fat could be trimmed,” said Moag-Stahlberg, whose committee is working with the Board of Education on a pilot program for heart healthy school meals.
”We are conscious of nutrition concerns, but we must also serve food that pupils will eat,” said Phillips, pointing up perhaps the biggest problem facing lunchroom administrators: You can give a pupil green beans and skim milk, but you can`t make the child swallow them. How do you get youngsters used to burgers and fries at McDonald`s to eat something that`s good for them? ”One of the basic goals is to make sure that something nutritious also tastes good because if it doesn`t taste right, they`re just not going to eat it,” Phillips said.
”This is an entertainment business. Pupils want to be entertained so you have to entertain them and deliver a message at the same time, whether you use a cartoon character or whatever. You don`t just put something on a plate, you do a little promotion along with it. It`s merchandising, just like in a retail store.”
And the problem goes beyond the pupil, often into the home, authorities say.
”The family structure is not the same as it used to be,” said Joyce Meyers, the public health nutritionist for the Board of Education. ”Kids get little exposure to good food. Parents don`t want to make changes at home, and a lot of the parents have the same bad habits as the kids.”
Some lunchroom supervisors said that when they try to substitute low-fat milk for whole or cut back on butter and fatty meats, parents accuse them of skimping to save money.
Nonetheless, Phillips and other administrators said there has been a conscious effort to cut down on fat. Vegetable oil has been substituted for animal fats, and soy protein has been incorporated into ground beef and other meat entrees.
”We are conscious of new nutritional patterns,” she said, ”and when we order much of our prepackaged foods-the burritos, chicken nuggets, pizza and others-we are revising the specifications to call for lower sodium, fat and sugar.
”There also has been some revision of cooking methods, with more emphasis on steaming vegetables and less frying, less use of butter. Managers have been encouraged to bake chicken, but when you are dealing with high school students you have to compete with the fast food places down the street.”
”The school lunch program has improved,” said Meyers, the board`s nutritionist. ”It actually is getting lower in fat.
”We have our problems. The main concern seems to be if they are eating the food, they are likely to be getting more nutritious food than if they were eating at home.
”The school lunch program in general can`t accommodate things. They are mass feeding, and the philosophy is to have the kids eat something rather than nothing. As a nutritionist I think we can go further and give them a chance to try something more healthful.”
”School food service directors are not really serving what they want to serve,” said Victoria Leonard, who wrote the CSPI study, ”White Paper on School Lunch Nutrition.”
”They`re fixing more what the kids will eat. They are dealing with a population that is growing up with hamburgers and fries and doesn`t want vegetables and peas and a whole wheat roll. So we recommend more fresh vegetables and fresh fruits because we know kids will eat them, especially the fruits because they are sweet.”
But administrators and critics alike say the answers to school lunch problems involve more nutrition education.
”Students don`t have the opportunity to learn about healthful food,”
Meyers said. ”I would love to see more nutrition education for pupils and teachers, to involve parents in the process. They all need more involvement in food.”
”You can`t just give pupils something that`s not consistent with their eating pattern and that`s not followed up when they go home,” Phillips said. ”This year there is a nutrition-awareness program being worked through the school lunch councils and a pilot program in which teachers will incorporate nutrition information into the classroom . Maybe the pupils will be able to learn something and then go home to teach Mom and Dad.”
