Schools
fight fat with new policies
Sunday, November 14, 2004 • By LINDA
LISANTI • The Express-Times
Since eighth grade, Matthew Getter has brought his lunch
to school.
He likes to avoid spending most of his lunchtime waiting
in long lines to pay high prices for food that looks like a
science experiment gone bad.
But while he chows down on his sandwich, Getter says
others at his table find nourishment in two bags of potato
chips and an ice cream.
"I see lots of kids with junk piled on their plates,"
the Phillipsburg High School sophomore said, adding that he
figures about 60 percent of the student body falls into that
group.
"Most kids just don't care."
One in every 10 high school students in New Jersey is
overweight, according to one federal study, and only a
quarter of all students eat the recommended five daily
servings of fruits and vegetables in a week.
Officials in the Garden State hope to improve the
statistics by pushing school districts to adopt stricter
policies on what kids can eat.
Beginning this month, every school lunch program in the
state will have a 3-ounce cup of home-grown frozen
blueberries on the menu.
By September 2007, all beverages served in the state's
grade schools will be 100 percent juice, milk or water if a
new policy being pushed by New Jersey Agriculture Secretary
Charles Kuperus is adopted.
The new rules also call for at least 60 percent of all
beverages in middle and high schools, aside from milk and
water, to be 100 percent juice, and a ban on nearly all
candy and soda.
Soda -- kept off the menu since 1989 -- would not be
allowed to be sold in vending machines until school lunch
periods end. A bill in the Assembly would extend that ban
until the school day ends.
Schools would also be required to cut back on high-fat
ice cream, while providing frozen yogurt or other
low-calorie deserts. Older children would get more freedom
to choose, while younger students would see only healthy
foods and beverages.
Healthy eating advocates see school children as a
captive audience and those meals as the perfect opportunity
to teach them how to choose what's good for them.
"What we're trying to do is approach this as a choice.
If we're going to offer things on the menu, then let's make
them healthy choices so they can pick healthy foods," said
Kathy Kuser, manager of school nutrition programs for the
New Jersey agriculture department.
Although these new state rules are still nearly three
years away, students in some local school districts are
already seeing menu changes.
In Phillipsburg and Hackettstown, where Chartwells
handles the dining services, a la carte snacks, beverages
and entrees high in calories and fat are being replaced with
healthier options, such as low-fat granola bars, baked
potato chips, wraps, salads and flavored water, according to
Director of Nutrition Margie Saidel.
The changes are part of Chartwells' Balanced Choice
Program.
"You'd be surprised how many kids look for these
things," she said.
The Wilson Area School District in Pennsylvania
implemented a similar program this school year.
The schools offer foods that are 30 percent less fat and
10 percent less saturated fat. Foods that meet these
standards are specially labeled to let students know they
are a part of the "Balanced Choices" program, Food Services
Manager Karen Waitz said.
The choices include a variety of wraps, sandwiches and
salads and even a healthier version of pizza.
"We do see the kids go for these items," Waitz said.
"It's surprising. It's pretty amazing actually."
Unlike New Jersey, Pennsylvania doesn't have any
policies for school nutrition in place or proposed.
Schools follow the standards laid out in the National
School Lunch Program, according to Stephanie Suran,
spokesperson for the state Department of Education.
Requirements include that no more than 30 percent of an
individual's calories come from fat and less than 10 percent
come from saturated fat and that school lunches provide
one-third of the recommended dietary allowances of protein,
Vitamins A and C, iron, calcium and calories, according to
literature.
School lunches must meet federal nutrition requirements,
but decisions about what specific foods to serve are made by
local school officials.
Pennsylvania is working now to fulfill a 2006 mandate
that requires all states participating in the national lunch
program to develop a wellness council and policy, Suran
said.
Getter, the Phillipsburg High student, said it's going
to take more than just offering kids choices to get them to
eat healthier.
"They'd have to do something else like lower the price,"
he said of the healthier fare. And even then, many students
wouldn't change.
Saidel said whatever measures are taken to improve the
nutrition of school meals, they will have to be done
gradually. Kids are not risk takers in terms of what they
eat, she said. Food needs to very familiar for them to buy
it.
The more they see something in the cafeteria, the more
likely they are to try it one day, she said.
It takes kids a while to buy into the new, Saidel said.
They have $3 in their pockets and they want to spend it on
something they like.
© 2004 The Express-Times. Used with
permission.
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