If you had followed Tunisia Tucker through the food line at the Gresham Elementary School on the South Side about 11:15 a.m. on a recent Thursday, you would have seen her pick up a molded plastic tray containing a plump frankfurter in a bun, a generous scoop each of canned corn and baked beans, and a peanut butter cookie. Then you would have seen her select a 1/2-pint carton of 2 percent chocolate milk.
Or if you had observed the lunch line at Greeley Elementary School, 832 W. Sheridan Rd., on a typical day, you might have seen children taking a piece of baked chicken, a small scoop of mashed potatoes, an apple or carton of apple-cherry fruit drink, a piece of French bread and milk.
For an extra quarter the Greeley pupils could have bought a butter cookie, a chocolate brownie or some gelatin with a dollop of whipped topping.
These are typical lunches in the Chicago Public Schools-not bad for a buck (less, or even free, for those whose family incomes are low).
Although the hot dog Tunisia is eating was made especially for the school-lunch program and has only about a third of the fat in a typical weiner, and although the chicken at Greeley was baked, not fried, as it might have been a few years ago, each lunch still is high in fat and sodium, exceeding U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines.
Nutritionally, these meals are some of the best the schools have to offer. And Tunisia eats all of her hot dog, all her milk and cookie and most of her vegetables. “It’s good,” she declares, succinctly.
But parents, consumer groups and even USDA officials say school lunches are not nutritionally sound. Public schools throughout the country are not doing their best to feed children what they should be eating, they say. The public schools in Chicago are no exception.
We took a close look at Chicago’s lunch program for elementary school children. Children at these ages require balanced nutrition and are developing eating patterns they will follow the rest of their lives, dietitians say. We talked with administrators, lunchroom managers, teachers, dietitians and pupils, and we sampled and analyzed some of the food typically served on the lunch lines of the city elementary schools. (We did not sample suburban school lunches because each of the dozens of districts varies in what it offers, with some choosing not to participate in the federal program, often because there are few students below the poverty level. Most of the city’s elementary school lunches are either fully or partially subsidized.)
A Tribune analysis of menus set out by the Chicago Board of Education’s Food Services shows that if Tunisia and her fellow pupils faithfully clean their plates each day, they will be getting almost 40 percent of their calories from fat and often more than half the recommended 2,400-milligram maximum of sodium. (See accompanying story and chart.)
Although the school lunch program meals meet one-third of the recommended daily allowances for vitamins and minerals, the excess fat and sodium and lack of fiber makes them fall short of providing the best protection for young people from developing diabetes, cancer, heart disease and obesity later in life, according to standards established by the National Institutes of Health and the USDA itself, which administers the school lunch program.
The amount of fat and sodium in lunches in the Chicago Public Schools and in many schools nationwide exceeds the limits prescribed by the federal government’s own Dietary Guidelines for Americans, established by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Human Services, according to the USDA’s own calculations.
These amounts also exceed guidelines for school lunch programs set in 1992 by the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service for child nutrition programs as well as the nutrition recommendations established by the American Heart Association, the American Dietetic Association and the American Cancer Society. Interestingly, nationwide and in Chicago the average amount of cholesterol in school lunches is pretty much within the guidelines.
The government’s dietary guidelines recommend that less than 30 percent of calories come from fat, with less than 10 percent from saturated fat, and that cholesterol be limited to 300 milligrams a day. Sodium intake should not exceed 2,400 milligrams.
A USDA study of school lunches nationwide administered under the National School Lunch Program found that fat calories make up 38 percent of the average lunch. And 13 percent of the total calories come from saturated fat.
Total sodium for the typical lunch was 1,900 milligrams, about 80 percent of the daily maximum. In addition, the USDA survey found that 35 percent of elementary school children (and 60 percent of teenagers) ate no fruit on the day of the survey, and 25 percent of the school-age children ate no vegetables. Dietary guidelines recommend from 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables each day.
A 1991 study of the eating patterns of America’s school children conducted by the national consumer group Public Voice for Food and Health Policy, a Washington consumer activist and lobbying group, stated that “children’s unhealthy eating patterns today will mean that, as adults, many will unnecessarily suffer from heart disease,” the No. 1 cause of death in this country.
Nutrition always has been a concern in the school lunch program, one that has changed as the food supply and the country’s habits have changed. In the 1950s and ’60s, when many of the guidelines and regulations were established, America still was worried about feeding its children enough protein, vitamins and minerals. But with some exceptions, those problems of supply have been solved. If anything, children are getting more protein than they need, most authorities agree. Along with that protein comes fat.
Last May, Ellen Haas, former executive director of the consumer advocacy group Public Voice for Food and Health Policy, was sworn in as assistant secretary of agriculture for food and consumer services. Soon after, she went on record saying the USDA was “not providing the critical leadership” to reduce “fat in school lunches” and promised that the meals would meet dietary guidelines, though she set no timetable.
“There is no longer any question that diet is related to chronic disease,” said Haas, who oversees school lunch programs. “Given the prevailing research linking diet and health, it is clear the department needs to expand its efforts to ensure that school meals are consistent with current nutritional recommendations.”
The USDA has been holding a series of four public forums around the country to get input from citizens and local groups on improvements in the school lunch program. Late last month the USDA acknowledged that its own study confirms earlier reports that nationwide school lunches give students more fat and salt than they need while shortchanging them on carbohydrates.
To that end Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy has promised to double the amount of fresh produce available to schools through the USDA commodities purchase program but has not said when. Most fruits and vegetables are high in carbohydrates and fiber and contain little fat. So far the USDA pledges carry no more weight at the local level than the department’s suggested nutrition guidelines.
Public Voice, a Washington-based organization Haas founded and ran until her government appointment, has questioned the efficiency and suitability of the USDA’s commodity program as a purveyor of fresh produce. In a September 1993 report on making fresh produce in the lunch program, Public Voice stated that less than one percent of spending for commodities goes for fresh fruits and vegetables. A survey of school food service directors said they wanted more fresh produce through the commodity program. But they were dubious about the feasibility of getting more produce because of “troubles with transportation, poorly timed deliveries, inadequate storage space and too-large shipments that cannot be used before spoilage,” says Allen Rosenfeld, co-director of Public Voice.
In the meantime Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vermont) last month introduced a bill that among other things requires the USDA to follow its own nutrition guidelines, provides an extra $40 million for the purchase of fruits and vegetables for school lunches and eliminates the requirement of offering whole milk while requiring the USDA to buy $35 million a year in low-fat dairy products and $10 million in lean meats.
The Chicago schools’ management recognizes the nutritional deficiencies of the lunch program. Thomas Costello, chief of the board of education’s food services, agrees with critics there must be more effort to reduce fat in children’s diets. But the former manager of food service for American Airlines, who came to the Chicago schools in 1992, says he has many administrative problems to contend with, not the least of which is finding enough money in his budget to repair stoves and refrigerators.
“My thrust is to reduce fat, sugar and sodium to meet national guidelines of 30 percent of calories from fat, but that is difficult to achieve,” he says.
“I think overall we’re running about 40 percent fat (calories) and trying to pull it down. We are trying to get it down to 35 percent. That seems reasonable. Whether we’ll get it to 30 percent, I don’t know.”
“School lunches in Chicago are high in fat,” says Joyce Meyers, a dietitian and nutritionist for the Chicago Board of Education’s early childhood development service. “Over the course of the last few years they have begun to come down a bit, but they are still high.”
Part of the problem with high fat is caused by the purchasing methods of the board, says Meyers who, as a nutritionist, is critical of the type of foods made available to the schools. “Most of the produce on the lunch lines is canned or frozen,” she says.
“There seem to be many obstacles when ordering fresh fruits and vegetables” she says, citing delivery, shelf life and availability. “And there are no salad bars where students might have a choice of several vegetables and fruits,” though these have worked in some suburban districts and in other parts of the country.
Often, lunchrooms offer more attractive but nutritionally deficient foods such as cookies, snack bars and other baked desserts or sometimes even vending-machine items to meet expenses not covered by USDA subsidies. That works at Greeley, but those alternative foods are not available at Gresham, where principal Alfred Bridges says, “I stopped them because they were eating them in place of real lunch.”
Budget realities set in
The food at Greeley is prepared by a staff under the leadership of manager Patricia Liberty, who says she tries to stress using less fat and salt.
“When we cook with ground beef, we take every drop of extra grease out,” she says. “And with vegetables, I don’t even put one drop of butter in.”
But like other food service managers in other schools, Liberty follows recipe plans and guidelines established by the Board of Education and by the USDA, recipes that are being updated but that still contain excess fat, sodium and cholesterol. She also must make use of government surpluses such as cheese and butter that are supplied at a discount. And if she is to meet her budget and fulfill weekly menu requirements, she has little choice other than to use the bulk frozen products also supplied at a discount-products such as pre-weighed portions of pork molded into the shape of rib slabs, which some officials say children want to eat.
Those “ribs,” for instance, are more than 58 percent fat, slightly higher than most of the meat entrees served in the schools, but they are easy to store in the school freezer, easy to cook and taste like ribs.
Just before Haas became school lunch czarina, the USDA published a “Nutrition Guidance for Child Nutrition Programs” for food service professionals that recommends offering meals lower in fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. But it stops short of prescribing the 30 percent limits set by the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, saying only that “step-by-step changes in menus over time can achieve an average of 30 percent of calories from fat.”
There are several problems with putting such recommendations to work in Chicago schools, says Alicia Moag-Stahlberg, a registered dietitian who headed a pilot study sponsored by the American Heart Association in two Chicago elementary schools in 1991 and has followed the lunch program for the last few years:
“First, there’s the lack of budget and commitment on the part of school personnel, and of course there’s the kids themselves. You can’t just walk in one day and take all the fat out of the food and expect the children to gobble it down like hot dogs and pizza. Give kids something they aren’t used to, that tastes funny and they don’t understand or don’t have a stake in, and they’ll toss it in the garbage.
“But if the food is familiar, if it tastes good and if the kids are taught about how fruits and vegetables and grains contribute to better health, then they’ll at least go along for a while. They’ll try it. An awful lot about going to school is a matter of habit and learning, and good eating is no exception.
“But it is hard to turn the system around because it means changing thinking all up the line, from the children to the lunchroom cook to the school food manager, the teachers, the parents, the principal and then the board and all those people who are involved in procuring the food and setting up the menus and, of course, paying for everything.
“We went in on a one-shot basis and showed that you can change school lunch and make it healthier. Putting it to work systemwide is a whole other problem.”
Costello looks at his job as customer service, just as at the airline: “Maybe the customers are shorter, but what we’re dealing with here is customer satisfaction, cost and quality.
“One thing we are incorporating into the menus is a soy isolate-a protein from soybeans that substitutes for meat. We can use up to 15 percent in meat products (such as ground beef) before it becomes detectable.”
But that points to another problem of the school system, which is a public bureaucratic organization that can’t react as fast as a business in the private sector, he says.
“Here it takes months rather than minutes” for such simple things as finding a distributor and buying the food. “It’s a different set of forces, and you have to plan better. You have to see needs four to five months in advance.”
Ronald Cestar, who was principal of Greeley School last year, ate in the school lunchroom each day and sums the feelings of many school authorities when he says: “The kids are getting the best nourishment of their day in that lunchroom. I’ve seen what they’re eating for dinner: McDonald’s and Subway sandwiches, maybe worse.”
“But that makes it even more important that lunchroom foods are nutrient-dense and lower in fat,” Moag-Stahlberg says.
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Next week: Nutrition education in the lunchroom and the classroom.
