4/24/2016 How to improve school lunch - Improve school lunch | GreatSchools http://www.greatschools.org/print-view/improvement/slideshows/3852-How-to-improve-your-schools-lunch-program.gs?fromPage=1 1/4 By Sarah Henry Lobbying for lunch Credit (lunch lady and gent) crusaders like Alice Waters, Jamie Oliver, Ann Cooper (also known as the Renegade Lunch Lady), and First Lady Michelle Obama for working hard to reform school food in the U.S. Ditto concerned parents and educators. Michelle Stern in San Rafael, CA, is a nutritionist, chef, and author of The Whole Family Cookbook. She's also the mother of two children who saw what her kids were being offered to eat at school – heavily processed and packaged foods – and started a campaign to fix the food in her school district. Stern counts removing sugary cereals and introducing salad bars in her kids' schools among recent victories. "If we can do it in my school district, you can do it in yours," Stern says. "This is not something that only other people do – we can all do it." Here's her sevenpoint plan for turning around your child's school lunch program. See for yourself It might sound obvious, but do what Stern did: Go see the lunch offered in your child's school cafeteria. You may be shocked. What is that wobbling brown mass? Or you may be pleasantly surprised – look, fresh fruit! But you won't know until you go. It's not enough to rely on the school menus sent home or what your child tells you. An anonymous elementary school teacher in the Midwest ate school lunch for a year, and lived to blog about it, in all its How to improve your school's lunch program Tired of seeing chicken nuggets, tater tots, and chocolate milk on the school lunch menu? Here are seven simple steps to give your school cafeteria a healthy makeover.
Transcript
4/24/2016 How to improve school lunch - Improve school lunch | GreatSchools
Credit (lunch lady and gent) crusaders like Alice Waters, JamieOliver, Ann Cooper (also known as the Renegade LunchLady), and First Lady Michelle Obama for working hard toreform school food in the U.S. Ditto concerned parents andeducators. Michelle Stern in San Rafael, CA, is a nutritionist,chef, and author of The Whole Family Cookbook. She's alsothe mother of two children who saw what her kids were beingoffered to eat at school – heavily processed and packagedfoods – and started a campaign to fix the food in her schooldistrict.
Stern counts removing sugary cereals and introducing saladbars in her kids' schools among recent victories. "If we can doit in my school district, you can do it in yours," Stern says."This is not something that only other people do – we can alldo it."
Here's her sevenpoint plan for turning around your child'sschool lunch program.
See for yourself
It might sound obvious, but do what Stern did: Go see thelunch offered in your child's school cafeteria. You may beshocked. What is that wobbling brown mass? Or you may bepleasantly surprised – look, fresh fruit! But you won't know untilyou go. It's not enough to rely on the school menus sent homeor what your child tells you.
An anonymous elementary school teacher in the Midwest ateschool lunch for a year, and lived to blog about it, in all its
How to improve your school's lunch programTired of seeing chicken nuggets, tater tots, and chocolate milk on the school lunchmenu? Here are seven simple steps to give your school cafeteria a healthy makeover.
packaged, processed glory over at Fed Up With Lunch: TheSchool Lunch Project. At the site Simple, Good, and Tasty, LeeZukor served up a school lunch challenge to his readers.Parents across the country ate, snapped pics, and got all firedup over the muck that passes for a meal in their schools.Before you hit the school cafeteria, read this handy checkliston what to look for at lunch, courtesy of the nonprofit BetterSchool Food.
Photo credit: Ellie Strikes Weird
Do your homework
So much is happening on the school food front, you'll want todo some research to get up to speed. Late in 2010, PresidentObama signed into law the Healthy, HungerFree Kids Act,which bans some junk food in schools and gives a smallincrease in the rate of reimbursement per child for lunch. Thefederal government is also behind Chefs Move to Schools,which enlists culinary professionals – like Stern, who signed onwhen the program launched – to help revamp food in schools;some 550 schools across the country are on board.
Independent school lunch success stories have sprouted inChicago, New York City, and Boulder, Colorado, where Cooperruns the program, as well as elsewhere in the U.S. Schoolfood advocate Dana Woldow offers logistical and budgetaryconcerns to consider as you rethink school food on the blogThe Lunch Tray. Woldow also recently cofounded a newschool lunch reform resource for parents, PEACHSF, that's fullof practical advice.
Seek out likeminded souls
Look for allies concerned about your school's food, includingother parents, teachers, cafeteria staff, and the principal. PTAmeetings, the school newsletter, and email listservs are allgood places to find folks. Different individuals will want totackle different lunchrelated issues, Stern says. Some willwant to outlaw packaging or introduce composting, others willwant to get more fresh food or scratch cooking into thecafeteria, others may want to help serve the food.
Find out what's been done to improve the school's food beforeyou showed up, advises Better School Food's Susan Rubin,one of the moms featured in the school lunch documentaryTwo Angry Moms. There's no need to reinvent the wheel.
Form or join a task force
Once you have a core group of interested people, get involvedwith or start a nutrition committee in your school or district.You'll want your group to include a cross section ofstakeholders, Stern says, including food service directors,parents, teachers, and even students. (Check out therecommendations that a group of school kids from NewOrleans came up with to improve school food. Top of their list?No more sporks!)
Find out how other schools have handled school food rules,budgetary constraints, and logistical considerations. Onlineresources include Lunch Love Community, a series of shortfilms that document the steps taken by parents to overhaulschool food in the Berkeley Unified School District, considereda model program. The Berkeleybased Center for Ecoliteracyand The Chez Panisse Foundation (which supports AliceWaters' Edible Schoolyard program) also offer concrete ideasfor revamping school lunch. And Ann Cooper's The Lunch Boxprovides loads of practical advice for overhauling school lunch.
Prioritize change
Come up with a list of ten things you want to fix. Eliminatingtrans fats, high fructose corn syrup, and highlyrefinedcarbohydrates often top the list. Increasing fresh fruits andvegetables, vegetarian meal options, and whole grains areother typical goals. Stern wanted to get rid of highlyprocessedpackaged foods as soon as possible, and hopes one day soonto help the district replace factoryfarmed meat with animalprotein sourced locally from sustainable farmers.
Check sites like Let's Move Salad Bars to School and Farm toSchool to find simple steps you can take to improve food inschools.
It's not enough to pull processed food from the cafeteria, installa salad bar, and expect everyone to get on board. Stern and anutritionist on her committee were hired by the school districtto educate the students about the importance of eating fruitsand vegetables and how to navigate the salad bar. They alsogave taste tests, which generated a lot of excitement about thenew additions in the cafeteria.
The grownups learned things, too. "We discovered that thesalad bar and the sneeze guard were too high, and the tonghandles too short, for the littlest kids," Stern says. "And we'vedone what we can to fix those problems."
Photo credit: BernalKC
Celebrate success
Even small steps toward improving food are worth honoring.They can help build momentum for change while educating theschool community. Stern suggests celebrating progress (whilebeing open to constructive feedback) by holding an event –with food, of course! At such gatherings, consider showing oneof the many documentary films that address healthy eating forkids, such as What's on your plate?, Lunch Line, or Nourish.
Photo credit: Will Merydith
Sarah Henry is the voice behind the blog Lettuce Eat Kale.She has written about school food for The Atlantic FoodChannel, Edible East Bay, and Civil Eats.
Sarah Henry is a Bay Areabased freelance food writer and the voice behind the blog Lettuce Eat Kale.
