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When I think back to lunch in grade school, I remember three things: mystery meat, canned corn, and chocolate milk. My memories of my university meal plan are equally uninteresting, leading me to opt for pizza (and all the fat that comes with it) and mini-fridge dinners during most of my collegiate life. Many years (and many workouts) later, I’m happy to report that school meals have much improved for a growing number of students. Guided by local organizations and national initiatives, both public and private institutions are moving to fresher, healthier options for students.
Edible Schoolyard
I confess that I was 22 before I tried a fresh blueberry. As a child in an urban school district with a hard-working single mom, my exposure to fruits and vegetables was often limited to what was available in a can or on the lunch line. Many children in Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) are afflicted with the same lack of exposure to fresh produce, leaving them with a conditioned aversion to the foods that are good for them. Grow Pittsburgh, an organization dedicated to demonstrating, teaching, and promoting urban food production, is working to change all that, along with some help from PPS.
Through the Edible Schoolyard project, Grow Pittsburgh has set up and maintained gardens at four schools in and around the East End: Pittsburgh Colfax, Pittsburgh Montessori, Dilworth Elementary, and Helen S. Faison Arts Academy. As Michael Peck, director of food services for PPS, explains, the program shows children that “food does grow and that it doesn’t necessarily come out of a can or a bag.”
Grow Pittsburgh’s Educational Director, Josh Burnett, highlights the program’s kick-off event, Chef in the Garden, during which students harvest the produce they’ve been growing and watch a chef prepare a meal with the fruits of their labor. Science instructors like Helen S. Faison Arts Academy’s Cary Allen work to connect garden activities to the classroom in the weeks that follow. “Part of what I do is teach the kids about plants and how they grow. So [participating in the Edible Schoolyard project] was a natural connection for me in terms of my curriculum,” he explains.
Growing Numbers
4 the number of Pittsburgh Public Schools with an Edible Schoolyard.
2006 the year of the first Edible Schoolyards planted in Pittsburgh.
National Legislation
Some issues require swift and sweeping reform from the top down. Childhood obesity is one such issue: According to the Center for Disease Control, childhood obesity rates have tripled in the past 30 years. When First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled her “Let’s Move” campaign on February 9, 2010, she confirmed that this problem was on the back burner for far too long. Her approach focuses on improving four aspects of child nutrition: choices at home, school lunches, access to healthful foods, and physical activity.
Already, the initiative has spurred six congressional bills, the first of which was passed on March 24, 2010. Dubbed the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, Senate bill 3307 secured 4.5 billion dollars of new funding for child nutrition programs over the next ten years. The measure will revamp nutritional standards for all foods sold in schools, including a la carte and vending machine items. The act is also meant to improve farm-to-school partnerships and increase the availability of nutritious foods to childcare providers. Most importantly, S. 3307 will change how federal subsidies are dispersed to school districts, ensuring that all funds are put toward their intended purpose.
The measure could not come sooner. As the 2010 Food Research and Action Summary reports, of the 510,655 children in Pennsylvania who participated in the National School Lunch program during the 2008-2009 school year, only 78,403 participated in the summer lunch program that year.
The slew of child nutrition bills that are still in the works could change the health of a generation. UPMC reports that obese children can suffer from high blood pressure, orthopedic problems, depression, and even type 2 diabetes.
Moving Dates
February 9 First Lady Michelle Obama launches her “Let’s Move” campaign to improve child nutrition and activity.
March 24 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act passes in the Senate, securing 4.5 billion dollars for child nutrition programs.
2005 The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans were written.
1946 The National School Lunch Act was signed into law by President Truman
In Public
Nothing is as challenging to a healthy eating regimen as visible and constant temptation — vending machines, anyone? To help students resist the call of unhealthy foods, Pittsburgh Public Schools are eliminating them from lunch lines and vending machines altogether.
When the Pennsylvania Department of Education recommended that school districts adopt a policy for “competitive foods” — foods that are not a part of the National School Lunch Program, including al la carte, fundraiser, and vending machine foods — PPS was among the first to make the change. The wellness policy limits the amount of fat to less than 35 percent and calories to less than 250 per item of food. School stores may not sell deep-fried foods or foods with sugar as the first ingredient. The policy even explains that 75 percent of the beverages sold at schools must be healthful, e.g. low-fat milk, 100 percent juice, and water.
Aside from doing away with the not-so-good for- you fare, PPS is introducing students to fresh meal options through the Pennsylvania Peak Harvest program. Food Services Director Michael Peck works with Grow Pittsburgh to feature a seasonal fruit or vegetable on PPS menus every month. Some selections have been extremely successful. For instance, when fresh Pennsylvania peaches were delivered to the schools in wooden crates, demand was so overwhelming that the grower ran out of the fuzzy fruit halfway through the month.
This coming school year, one PPS institution, Dilworth, will be receiving a federal grant under the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program. This program helps schools make fresh produce available to students for snacking, outside of the lunch period. It also encourages schools to publicize the availability of the foods and to talk to students about healthy choices.
Enormous strides have been made in the way of eliminating unhealthy options and providing children with nutritious alternatives at PPS, but there is a long road ahead. As Peck explains, “we’ve got a lot of work to do and I think it’s important… that we carefully make baby steps so that the steps are successful.” Despite limited resources and an enormous scale of production, Food Services forges on, hoping to improve school lunches in our region every day.
In the Private Sector
During my college orientation, I toured my school’s dining facilities. As a
lifelong lover of food, I was excited about the prospect of twenty-four hour access to healthy, fresh meals. My hopes of cruising past my first year sans “the freshman 15” were quickly dashed, as I realized that private institutions are not immune to the fatty, processed food epidemic.
Because of their small scale of production, private institutions are able to contract out their dining services. Both Chatham University and Robert Morris University (RMU) have adopted this trend by contracting with Parkhurst Dining Services, a division of the Eat’n Park Hospitality Group. With their FarmSource program, Parkhurst has made a commitment to purchasing at least 20 percent of their food from local sources, allowing the company to focus less on transporting produce and more on preparing fresh, made-from-scratch foods. “We try to be as balanced as possible… [and] source as many products as we can locally,” says Leslie Ekstrand, general manager of Parkhurst Dining Services at Chatham. Public school lunch planners can learn from the private sector model. The introduction of fresh, local ingredients can have a major impact on the appeal and nutritional value of school meals without a heavy burden on the district budget.
Nutrition Facts
75 percent of the beverages sold in Pittsburgh Public Schools must be healthful
35 percent is the maximum amount of fat allowed in food items available at PPS.
250 is the maximum amount of calories for a single food item at PPS.
1/3 is the fraction of the Recommended Dietary Allowances for protein, iron, calcium, and vitamins A and C that school lunches must provide.
30 is the maximum percentage of calories from fat that a school lunch meal should contain.
28k is the approximate number of children that PPS serves at lunchtime.
Chatham University, 412.365.1100. www.chatham.edu Robert Morris University, 800.762.0097. www.rmu.edu Parkhurst Dining, 412.464.3463. www.parkhurstdining.com Pittsburgh Public Schools, www.pps.k12.pa.us Grow Pittsburgh, 412.362.4769. www.growpittsburgh.org Let’s Move, www.letsmove.gov UPMC, 800.533.UPMC. www.upmc.com United States House of Representatives, www.house.gov United States Senate, www.senate.gov
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