Baby boom babies and their elders remember school lunches that typically consisted of a hunk of meat, a mound of mashed potatoes with flour-based brown gravy oozing over its starchy sides, and a ladle of buttered peas and carrots. The school lunch of the 90s, say food service professionals, is a different story.
Food service directors in northwest suburban school districts report that while some high-fat, calorie-laden foods are still offered in schools, the trend toward a healthier lunch menu is gaining a foothold.
”We`ve taken the fat out of many things,” said Susan MacDonald, food service director for Arlington Heights Township High School District 214. ”In our district, we have no french fryers so we have no french fries. We offer Tater Tots that are done in the oven.”
District 214 serves 10,500 students in six high schools. Unlike some districts that contract with an outside food-service provider, the cafeterias at all six schools are run by in-house staff.
Although the high school students in District 214 are free to leave campus at lunchtime and dine elsewhere, MacDonald estimates that 60 to 65 percent of the students buy their meals through the school lunch program. MacDonald said this means the schools must compete with fast food restaurants. ”I think (students) are very conscious of what they`re eating and the nutritive value,” she said. ”But the bottom line is, when making a purchase, how does it taste, how good does it look, how does it compare with fast food?”
Most schools try to make it possible for students to adhere to dietary guidelines suggested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Originally issued in 1980, the guidelines were revised in 1985 and again five years later.
The most recently adopted guidelines, issued in November 1990, recommend healthy American adults and children age 2 years old and older eat a variety of foods; maintain a healthy body weight; consume low amounts of fat, saturated fat and cholesterol; include vegetables, fruits and grains in their diets, and use sugar and salt in moderation, according to Laura Honek, president of the Illinois School Food Service Association.
The statewide association, affiliated with the national American School Food Service Association, concentrates its efforts on supporting legislation regarding school lunch programs and on pushing for government funding of such programs, Honek said. The group also promotes school lunch programs as an alternative to brown bag lunches made at home and food offered by fast-food outlets, she added.
Each District 214 cafeteria offers a daily choice of salad bar, hot sandwiches and casserole-type entrees, as well as an a la carte menu, MacDonald said.
Like most districts in the Chicago area, District 214 offers a complete menu of milk choices: skim milk, milk with 2 percent milkfat, whole milk and chocolate milk with 2 percent milkfat. Whole milk, once the only type of milk available, is still offered because its availability is mandated by the federal government, MacDonald said.
”We do not sell much of it,” MacDonald said. ”We`re lucky we have kids who have been educated through the elementary schools. They`ve been taught they should drink milk with less fat. And there are quite a few children who have been brought up on skim milk.”
Many districts in the northwest, including District 214, are members of the national school lunch program. In exchange for providing what the federal government calls a Type A lunch, districts participating in the program receive monetary subsidies and bulk food items such as butter, cheese, macaroni, rice and canned fruit.
While MacDonald acknowledges that some of the bulk items or commodities provided by the government are high-fat items, such as butter, cheese and shortening, since they are provided without charge, it is cost-effective to use them, she said.
”You try to do whatever you can to use commodities,” she said. ”Every month it varies. I put down what commodities I want delivered to my school. There`s a limited list and you choose from that limited list.”
The Type A lunch must include the following components, according to Paula Schmicher, food service director for Elgin Unit School District 46: two ounces of protein (after cooking), one serving of bread, three-fourths cup of fruit and/or vegetables and a half-pint of milk.
”They don`t tell you what kind of food you have to serve, they just tell you the (food) groups,” Schmicher said.
Type A lunches are priced at about $1.15 to $1.50 per meal, depending on the school district.
MacDonald added that school districts in the national school lunch program are also precluded from selling any item that does not supply at least 5 percent of the recommended daily allowance of one of the eight major nutrients (protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, calcium and iron).
Schmicher said Elgin school lunch programs, which serve roughly 10,000 of the district`s 28,500 students daily, have been adjusted to reflect health concerns.
”We bake everything, except french fries at the high school level, so we`re not frying anything,” Schmicher said. Vegetables are not buttered, low- calorie salad dressings are available, and the food is not salted but individual packages of salt are available at the students` request.
”We don`t offer desserts on a regular basis,” she said. ”We sometimes include one cookie to entice them to eat. They love anything they can pick up with their hands and eat. And they`re used to being taken care of quickly because that`s what they get at the fast-food restaurants.”
An effort is also made to stay within familiar culinary territory.
”Most children want to stay with things they know and recognize,” said Schmicher. ”If you serve things kids truly hate, they`re not going to get any nourishment because they won`t eat it.”
The five high schools in Palatine Township High School District 211 are served by a district-run cafeteria program overseen by food service director Ruth Jonen.
”When you`re dealing with teenagers, they are probably going to eat whatever is popular outside the institutional setting,” Jonen said. ”Kids tend to be very much like the rest of the population. We`re trying to do things to reduce the amount of fat in the students` diets without them seeing it as a negative.”
This year, for example, District 211 schools are experimenting with a pasta dish topped off with a plain tomato-based sauce, without the meat that is often responsible for increasing the fat content of the dish.
”Actually, this was a request from some of the coaches,” Jonen said. In fact, the meal is served on the day before most athletic events to accommodate carbo-loading players.
Turkey and turkey mixed with other meats are often used in lieu of red meats, Jonen said, adding that offerings of fruits and vegetables are also plentiful. ”We`re seeing a lot more people that are vegetarians than we used to.”
Rarely, Jonen said, are old-standbys such as meat loaf and beef stew dished out these days. ”Those are things students just don`t want to eat.”
Dietitian Therese Flaker oversees the lunch program in Crystal Lake School District 47, which includes two junior high schools and six elementary schools.
”We try to provide as wide a variety of food as possible because it helps (students) get all the nutrients,” Flaker said.
Flaker said cafeterias at a growing number of northwest school districts no longer fry food and have employed ways of reducing fat, sugar and sodium content.
”We have been purchasing fruit only packed in light syrup,” she said.
”(And we`re trying to increase fresh fruit as much as our budget can handle.” Students particularly seem to favor fresh watermelon and cantaloupe, she said.
Seeking input from students is one way school food service directors have worked at shaping successful lunch programs. Flaker said she met with 8th-grade student council members from Lundahl Junior High last year to explain the lunch program and solicit concerns.
