Sorry, We Can't Cook: D.C. Schools Say 'No' to More Vegetables

by: euclidarms

Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 02:58:14 AM PDT

In a move that could signal a serious fault line in the argument for more vegetables as a tonic for childhood obesity, drafters of "Healthy Schools" legislation pending before the D.C. Council have skuttled a push for additional produce in school meals after school officials said they cannot guarantee their kitchens can prepare vegetables that kids will actually eat and not throw in the trash.

"More vegetables" has become a mantra of advocates for healthier school food, including first Lady Michell Obama, whose White House vegetable garden created a sensation. The "Healthy Schools" bill, scheduled to come up for a hearing next week, had embraced standards proposed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that would require larger servings of fruits, vegetables--especially green and organge vegetables and legumes--and whole grains as part of an upgraded school nutrition package designed to bring school meals in line with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The IOM panel that made the recommendations, working at the behest of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, warned, however, that requiring more produce and whole grains would drive up the cost of school meals, and that there could be no guarantee that children would eat them. The requirement for heftier vegetable servings was dropped from the "Healthy Schools" bill after D.C. school officials asserted they did not want to spend precious resources on food that would only end up being thrown away.

"We heard from many that if schools are serving mushy, flavorless green beans that students are simply throwing away, that doubling the portion size would simply double the amount of mushy, flavorless green beans that are thrown away," said an aide to Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), author of the bill. "Instead, many have said that we should focus our energy and money first on improving the quality of the foods being served before we consider mandating an increase in portion sizes."

Advocates of farm to school programs here and across the country contend that schools can serve meals that are more healthful and appealing by using more locally grown produce. But vegetables traditionally are a hard sell in school cafeterias. The foods most favored by children are pizza, all forms of potatoes and corn, in that order. As I found while spending a week in the kitchen of my daughter's elementary school here in the District, vegetables typically are cooked to death and rejected by kids. A 1996 nationwide survey of school food service managers by the U.S. General Accounting Office revealed that 42 percent of cooked vegetables - and 30 percent of raw vegetables and salad - ended up in the trash.

The move to eliminate additional vegetables from "Healthy Schools" legislation suggests that mandating better school meals may not work without funding improvements to school kitchens. In fact, the trend in school food service for years has been in just the opposite direction--to reduce labor costs, which represent half of food service costs, by hiring less skilled kitchen workers who do not work enough hours to qualify for benefits. Frequently, school kitchens are staffed by "warmer-uppers" whose sole skill is being able to re-heat foods that have been pre-cooked in distant factories and shipped frozen. Sensitive perishables such as vegetables suffer as a result.

"If we're going to win Michele Obama's war on obesity and if her 'Let's Move' campaign is going to be successful, then we need to ensure healthy delicious food. We need funds to pay for cooking kitchens, to train staff, and to market to kids to eat the food," said Ann Cooper, noted school food activist and director of nutrition for schools in Boulder, Colorado.

"That seems like nonsense about kids not eating the veggies...of course they won't if it looks and tastes like cardboard," said Debra Eschmeyer, director of the National Farm to School Network. "Kids will eat fresh tasty veggies if they have a chance to access them and learn about them. I didn't believe it until I saw it with my own eyes hundreds of times. Kids will eat chard, broccoli, beets, etc. and love it when they have a chance to grow it and have a real learning experience."

The IOM report suggested there might be funds for school kitchen upgrades in the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" (PDF) program instituted last year by USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan. Merrigan has said that nearly $1 billion in federal grant funds used in the past for building rural fire stations, hospitals and community centers could be allocated to food-related projects, such as building storage facilities for locally grown produce, food markets and school kitchens. But schools would need to apply for the money.

In a separate development yesterday, legislation making its way through the U.S. Senate would provide an additional 6 cents per school meal--something less than $500 million more annually--but that money would be contingent on federally-subsidized meal programs adopting the IOM standards. The School Nutrition Association, representing food service directors across the country, has asked for a minimum increase of  35 cents per meal. But others, such as Cooper, say anything less than $1 a day for each child in the program falls short of what is actually needed.

Still, the retooled "Healthy Schools" legislation sets forth substantial increases in local financial support for school meals, some of which could be used to purchase more vegetables and other healthful ingredients. The bill would provide an additional 10 cents for each breakfast served in D.C. public schools and 10 cents for each lunch, plus a bonus of 5 cents for lunches that include local produce. In addition, the District would fund 50 cents for students who qualify for reduced-price breakfast and lunch, meaning those students would not have to pay for their meals at all.

The bill also provides for construction of a local "super kitchen" where city schools could store and process local produce. The kitchen could also house a greenhouse, bakery or other features and provide a culinary training center.

Significantly, the "Healthy Schools" bill still does not identify funding to pay for the improvements it outlines, but Cheh has vowed to find it.

The Scourge of Chocolate Cake

by: brodog

Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 10:33:48 AM PDT

Actually, no it does not! There are ways and means of avoiding obesity while still being able to enjoy that devilishly tempting chocolate cake. The problem is, it involves some work and most people, especially those who lead sedentary lifestyles, do not like the sound of that! Especially when that work comes in the form of exercise coupled with eating a good, healthy diet. But this is a necessary evil to have to put up with if we want to indulge in the dark side of life - by dark, I am of course referring to that dark brown, sweet, sweet chocolaty stuff!

The trick to keeping the weight manageable is to make sure your body burns as many calories as you can cram into it. So, theoretically, if you want to eat a whole chocolate cake a day, then you are going to have to exercise like its 1999. But also, there are hidden health risks to doing that, not least of all the specter of diabetes from overdosing on the sugar and let's not mention the increased risk of heart attacks from the increase in bad LDL cholesterol and triglycerides!

But there is even a way of getting around that, to a point. Its not just the refined white sugar that is present in chocolate cake that makes it bad. there is also the refined white flour, butter or margarine and of course the chocolate itself.

Believe it or not, there are some changes that you can make that will still create a very tasty chocolate cake with a far lower level of bad ingredients to harm your body. For a start, you can cut the level of refined white sugar almost in half on a general recipe. It will still be sweet, just not quite as sickly sweet. You can replace the refined white flour with wholemeal flour. Yes you can! You can replace the butter or margarine with extra virgin olive oil. Again, yes you can! And use cooking chocolate that is plain with a cocoa content of around 50-60 percent and that's a lot less dangerous than using milk chocolate to cover the cake (yes, I used to be guilty of doing that too).

The resulting cake will be still come out tasting great but will contain lower levels of harmful ingredients, meaning you can eat more of it without feeling quite so guilty.

Okay, as weight loss tips  go, this is probably not the best, because you really should avoid all cake, but if you really, really have to have some, making it this way will not be quite so bad for you and if you can still exercise enough to burn off those extra calories you loaded on by eating the cake, then you can go a long way to avoiding obesity too!

New Study: Kids Who Eat School Food Are Fatter

by: euclidarms

Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 02:55:44 AM PDT

A new study from the University of Michigan finds that kids who eat the food served in schools are more likely to be overweight or obese than peers who bring lunch from home, and also are more likely to suffer from high levels of "bad" cholesterol.

More Gardens, Less Sugar, Says D.C. Schools Chief

by: euclidarms

Mon Feb 22, 2010 at 04:05:22 AM PST

Anthony Tata, a former brigadier general and career Army officer in charge of procurement in Afghanistan, is the chief operating officer for D.C. Public Schools,  second in rank to chancellor Michelle Rhee. Tata was a close reader of our recent series of articles on the food served in D.C. schools--Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen--which questioned the highly processed and frequently sugary fare being served to children on a daily basis. Tata told The Washington Post that he is considering other options besides the school system's current food provider, Chartwells. You  won't find him disparaging Chartwells in this interview with The Slow Cook, except to say that school officials "are working with Chartwells to address concerns."  Tata does say he is looking for ways to include more local produce in school meals and is considering a switch from highly-sweetened flavored milk. And there's a new director of school food services on the scene who is particularly keen on school garden.

Can Michelle Obama Make the Math Work for Better School Food?

by: euclidarms

Wed Feb 17, 2010 at 02:07:00 AM PST

Launching her anti-obesity campaign--Let's Move--last week, first lady Michelle Obama vowed to add 1 million kids to the 31 million already being served daily by federal reimbersible meal programs while cutting back on the foods kids like most--refined grains, potatoes, sugar, salt--and adding things kids like least--vegetables and whole grains. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama offered to split $1 billion per year over the next 10 years between schools and other meal programs, an amount school food advocates say isn't enough to add even an apple to kids' cafeteria trays.

Sound like a winning strategy?

Impressively, Michelle Obama has rounded up a bevy of national interest groups and corporations to attempt yet another transformation of school meals. A program that started as a convenient way to dispose of farm surpluses during the Great Depression and turned into an anti-poverty weapon in the 1960s would now become, with the Obama imprint, a teachable moment in the country's battle against swelling waistlines. But success could hinge on whether the government antes up to pay for it, and whether kids will actually eat it. Skeptics are yet to be convinced.

"Michelle Obama is leading a grassroots effort to try and bring the country along. But I don't think the USDA or the White House have the 'clout' or the political will to make the hard changes," said Ann Cooper, nutritionist for schools in Boulder, Colorado, and a leading advocate for improved school food. She said "true change" would require at least another "$1 a day" per child in federal reimbursements. The federal government currently pays $2.68 for each fully-reimbursable school lunch.

Much of the Let's Move agenda turns on nutrition standards recommended last October by the Institute of Medicine at the behest of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The IOM found that kids are eating too much pizza, french fries and candied cereals. But it warned that  replacing Tater Tots with fresh broccoli is bound to raise the cost of school meals considerably, including the addition of kitchen equipment and skilled staff to prepare attractive, palatable meals.

Specifically, the panel making the recommendations called for adding five servings of fruit each week in the subsidized breakfast program as well as seven or more servings of whole grains. The panel recommends adding two to four servings of fruit at lunch (six to eight servings  for high schoolers), and two to four additional servings (four to six servings for high schoolers) of vegetables, especially dark green and orange varieties, and legumes.

"A change in the meal requirements could have a major effect on the cost of food to school food authorities (SFAs) if there are large changes in the types and amounts of foods required by the standards for menu planning," the IOM panel reported. The panel said it could not predict exactly how much food costs might increase. But the IOM estimated that if students actually select the increased offerings of fruits, vegetables and whole grain products when they are in the meal line--which is, after all, the point of improving the standards--the cost of breakfast would likely rise 23 percent, lunch by 9 percent.

Replacing refined-grain products with whole grain foods, for instance, would result in increased costs of between 3 and 20 percent. But the cost could be higher as there are few whole grain products readily available for school meal programs. They would need to be developed. The IOM recommendations are potentially years from being implimented by the USDA.

Cooper, who previously teamed with Alice Waters to introduce school meals with freshly cooked, local ingredients in Berkeley, Calif., said that while the average cost of food in a school lunch runs around $1, she spends about $1.20 in Boulder, and the budget in Berkeley is around $1.30.

Raising the cost of school food by improving quality is just half the picture, however. The other half of school food budgets is taken up by labor, and Michelle Obama's action plan runs exactly counter to the trend of the last several decades. To cope with tight budgets, schools and their contracted food providers have moved away from skilled kitchen workers and replaced them with "warmer-uppers" who don't work enough hours to qualify for benefits and whose primary qualification consists of being able to re-heat highly processed, precooked meal items shipped from industrial food factories. Introducing more vegetables and other whole ingredients to school menus and making them palatable, the IOM warns, would certainly require more qualified chefs--as well as improved kitchen equipment to work with.

"One possible approach to offering school meals that meet the recommended standards for menu planning is to introduce more on-site food preparation," the IOM states. "This approach requires greater managerial skill, often requires susbstantial one-time investment in equipment, and most often would require more skilled labor and/or training..."

The IOM panel cited an analysis of data from 350 Minnesota schools suggesting that "healthier" meals required higher labor costs, but lower expenditures for processed foods. "The authors call for funds to be made available for labor training and kitchen upgrades." But if these kinds of improvements are made on the front end, and lower food costs offset higher labor costs as a result, an increase in federal reimbursement rates might be unnecessary, according to this analysis. Many schools do not have kitchens at all, but could fit within a different model in which meals are prepared fresh in central kitchens, then distributed.

"It's really hard work," said Cooper of the kinds of changes envisioned in the IOM recommendations. "You need to change the menus, change your procurement system, train the entire staff, get more equipment, find more money, do fundraisers, train the staff some more, market to parents, market to teachers, market to kids, retest recipes. work with unions, figure out the budget...It goes on and on. I've often said it's the hardest thing I've ever done."

Where would the money for kitchen upgrades come from? The IOM report suggests there might be some in the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" (PDF) program instituted last year by USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan. Merrigan has said that nearly $1 billion in federal grant funds used in the past for building rural fire stations, hospitals and community centers could be allocated to food-related projects, such as building storage facilities for locally grown produce, food markets and school kitchens. But schools would need to apply for the money.

The IOM panel also warns that implimenting the standards it proposes could attract more children to the federal school meal program--or drive them away. Kids norotoriously don't like vegetables when they are overcooked and slapped on cafeteria trays.  As I found while observing the kitchen operations at my daughter's elementary school recently, kids will refuse the standard vegetable offerings when given a choice, and the IOM acknowledges that while new standards might result in more vegetables being served in school cafeterias, that doesn't mean kids will actually eat them. A 1996 nationwide survey of school cafeteria managers found that 42 percent of cooked vegetables--along with 30 percent of raw vegetables and salads--ended up in the trash.

Kids also don't like whole grains much. Nevertheless, Michelle Obama said several national school food suppliers--Sodexho, Chartwells, Aramark-- have "voluntarily committed" to meet the Institute of Medicine's recommendations within five years to decrease the amount of sugar, fat and salt in school meals, and increase the whole grans and double the amount of produce they serve within 10 years--a rather long time frame, as far as advocates such as Ann Cooper are concerned.

In fact, the Obama plan proposes a model of school wellness that incorporates fresh, local produce, school gardens and nutrition education at a time when most school administrators seem incapable of focusing on anything but reading and math scores.  "Let's Move" sets worthy goals for school food, but whether those are achievable within the confines of the Obama budget proposal is anybody's guess

It's Not the TV, It's the Commercials

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Feb 16, 2010 at 00:22:48 AM PST

According to the authors, the findings strongly suggest that steering children away from commercial television may be effective in reducing childhood obesity, given that food is the most commonly advertised product on children's television and the fact that almost 90 percent of children begin watching television regularly before the age of 2.

By the time they are 5 years old, children have seen an average of more than 4,000 television commercials for food annually. During Saturday morning cartoons, children see an average of one food ad every five minutes. The vast majority of these ads -- up to 95 percent -- are for foods with poor nutritional value, the researchers say.

To Make School Food Healthy, Michelle Obama Has a Tall Order

by: euclidarms

Sun Feb 14, 2010 at 04:32:02 AM PST

What's for Breakfast at School Today: 13 Teaspoons of Sugar

by: euclidarms

Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 03:01:16 AM PST

Yesterday I stopped by the cafeteria at my daughter's school here in the District of Columbia--H.D. Cooke Elementary--and this is what many of the kids were having for breakfast: A package of sugar-glazed cookies called Kellogg's Crunchmania Cinnamon buns; chocolate- or strawberry-flavored milk; grape juice.

A 1.76-ounce packet of Crunchmania contains 13 grams of sugar, or 3 tespoons. Chocolate milk packs 26 grams of sugar, somewhat more than 6 teaspoons. And the grape juice delivers 18 grams of sugar in a little four-ounce container, another four-plus teaspoons. Altogether, that's more than 13 teaspoons of nutritionally worthless sugar first thing in the morning, courtesy of the public school system and its food service provider, Chartwells.

Hear The Slow Cook with Kojo Nnamdi Today

by: euclidarms

Wed Feb 03, 2010 at 01:49:35 AM PST

I will be in Kojo Nnamdi's studio today at 12:30 pm for a half-hour segment on the "Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen" series that recently appeared in this space, detailing the food being served at my daughter's elementary school--H.D. Cooke--here in the District of Columbia.

The series has created quite a stir in the food policy blogosphere, and got some recognition from Washington City Paper. But not so much from the mainstream media. It should be a lively discussion with lots to talk about, and timely, too, since "Healthy Schools" legislation is scheduled to come up for a hearing next Wednesday, Feb. 10, at the John A. Wilson Building.

(It's not too late if you want to sign up to testify. Just send an e-mail here: ABenjamin@DCCOUNCIL.US.)

You can find Kojo's show at 88.5 on the local FM dial, or at the WAMU radio website. If you can't listen live, the shows are archived for listening over the internet.

Just Say No: Schools Need to Man Up to Sugar and Flavored Milk

by: euclidarms

Tue Feb 02, 2010 at 00:34:09 AM PST

One of the most disturbing things I saw during the week I spent in the kitchen at my daughter's elementary school recently was all the  sugar being served to children. From the Pop Tarts and Apple Jacks on the breakfast line, to the fruit juice, the chocolate- and strawberry-flavored milk on constant display, to the fruit mix in "light syrup" offered with lunch, sugar is ever-present at H.D. Cooke Elementary. So it is in most public schools.

And we haven't even begun to talk about all the birthdays and other celebrations and even everyday events where cookies and cakes and candy are commonly dished out at school. At a recent "family game night" at H.D. Cooke, every table had bowls of Hershey's Chocolate Kisses for the taking. Sources for sugar seem to be everywhere, all the time: You can hardly spend an evening with the family without a dose of sugar.

In the midst of a childhood obesity epidemic, is it time to stand up to sugar and the empty calories it represents? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the rate of adolescent obesity in the District is the highest in the nation. Former U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler--who has battled his own weight issues--argues in a best-selling book embraced by Michelle Obama's policy team that Americans are fat because they're addicted to convenience foods laced with fat, salt, sugar. Should schools be enabling an addiction to sugar?

Taking a Page from Michelle Obama's Playbook: D.C. Pol Pushes "Healthy Schools"

by: euclidarms

Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 02:30:10 AM PST

"My bill will see to it that students are eating fresh healthy food in school cafeterias throughout the District"--Mary Cheh

D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) has introduced landmark "Healthy Schools" legislation that integrates nutrition standards, locally produced foods, school gardening, broader access to subsidized meals and increased physical exercise to address obesity and other children's health issues in the nation's capitol. I recently submitted 34 written questions to Cheh about her bill, resulting in this interview by e-mail. The questions were submitted before I reported a six-part account of the food being served in D.C. schools.  

Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen: Washington Times Puts Screws to Chartwells

by: euclidarms

Tue Jan 26, 2010 at 10:06:21 AM PST

By some sort of crazy coincidence, a reporter for the Washington Times newspaper was investigating Chartwells, the contracted food provider for D.C. Public Schools, at the same time that I was spending a week in a school kitchen discovering just how bad our school food is. Last week I published a six-part series under the title Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen detailing what I found.

Times reporter Jeffrey Anderson, meanwhile, reveals in a report today that Chartwells in the past has continued to use the same foods that have been linked to disease outbreaks in different cities where they hold school contracts. The Times questions whether the food Chartwells is serving in D.C. actually complies with federal standards. It also rakes the food provider for failing to provide nutritional information for the food it serves, for defending the practice of serving desserts to children in Chicago and for serving "cheese nachos on a daily basis as a means of getting children to partake in school lunch options."

Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen, Part 4--Hold the fat and please pass the sugar

by: euclidarms

Fri Jan 22, 2010 at 03:46:14 AM PST

I recently spent a week in the kitchen at H.D. Cooke Elementary School here in the District of Columbia observing how food is prepared. This is the fourth in a six-part series of posts about what I saw.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen, Part 3: What Kids Will do to Avoid Vegetables

by: euclidarms

Thu Jan 21, 2010 at 04:12:08 AM PST

I recently spent a week in the kitchen at H.D. Cooke Elementary School here in the District of Columbia observing how food is prepared. This is the third in a series of posts about what I saw.

Part 1
Part 2

Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen: Part 2

by: euclidarms

Wed Jan 20, 2010 at 02:56:49 AM PST

I recently spent a week in the kitchen at H.D. Cooke Elementary School here in the District of Columbia observing how food is prepared. This is the second in a six-part series of posts about what I saw.