July 14, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Is this what your child's eating?

by Alexandria Rocha

Shortly after the last school bell rings, a flock of children stand like weeds in retired teacher Karen Harwell's garden, devouring fresh tomatoes and Bing cherries as if they were Gummi Bears.

It didn't take Harwell long to name the Dana Avenue vegetable patch the Dana Organic Children's Garden.

"Kids would come by and say, 'What are you doing? What are you growing? Can we have some tomatoes?'" recalled Harwell. "You would have thought they were finding gold."

Harwell is one of a growing number of adults and parents in Palo Alto who believe kids are just as happy eating grapes and apples as pizza and cheeseburgers. The healthier choices simply need to be readily available. The best venue, they say, is school.

A group of parents known as the Healthy School Lunch Committee is pushing to revamp the Palo Alto Unified School District's cafeteria menus, replacing pudding with fresh fruit and pizza with sandwiches on whole grain bread.

If the district offers better food, they claim, more students will eat the cafeteria fare while learning a thing or two about healthy cuisine. Their efforts have drawn the district into a search to replace the current food vendor, Sodexho USA.

But is it a futile effort?

In a district that has faced budget cuts and frozen new programs, money is tight, especially for a lunch program in which only 14 percent of students participate. Additionally, finding a new food vendor could prove tricky, since there are only two others in the state. Lastly, it seems the committee's premise -- offer healthier food and they will come -- goes against national statistics that show kids are becoming increasingly plumper thanks to fast food.

According to the American Obesity Association, 30 percent of children and teenagers are overweight while 15 percent are obese. The figures have doubled in children and tripled in adolescents over the past two decades.

Many high school kids agree that the cafeteria food lacks taste and variety. They would rather go off campus to munch. Yet, they are not drawn to the healthy foods these parents and adults claim are so alluring. Instead they're eating the same quick, easy and cheap snack-type foods that are in the cafeteria.

The committee, however, is not deterred.

"We are confident that Palo Alto can have a (nutrition) policy that can help fight child obesity," said committee member and nutritionist Gerda Endemann. "Right now we have no policy that guides the food service."

Another committee member, Penny Gertridge, said, "No one's asking for something perfect. We're just asking for something better."

The subject of what Palo Alto children eat is at the forefront of popular discussion. It's talked about at school board meetings, pediatric clinics, parent groups and behind the cafeteria counter.

With a national obesity epidemic grabbing headlines and state legislation restricting sodas on campuses, it seems the fervor about what local kids are eating has become an even hotter topic. In 2002, a group of parents formed the Healthy School Lunch Committee and launched a proactive campaign to fight kids' bad eating habits.

Their beef is with Sodexho USA, the food vendor that has provided fare for the district's 17 cafeterias for the past 14 years. The Maryland-based company plans menus around guidelines from the United States Department of Agriculture.

For elementary school, that means each meal has about 650 total calories, with a maximum of 195 calories from fat and 65 calories from saturated fat. In middle school, meals have about 780 total calories, with about 230 calories from fat and 80 calories from saturated fat. In high school, meals have about 850 total calories, 255 calories from fat and 85 calories from saturated fat.

"Kids need fat to grow and be healthy. They're not like adults just sitting around at their desk," said Madeline Marquez, the district's Sodexho consultant. "A lot of people tend to forget that when they think we're feeding them too many calories."

Students are offered seven entrees daily, from hot dogs to spaghetti to Caesar salad to pizza, one of which rotates every day while the other six remain the same monthly, said Marquez.

The total calorie content for school lunches is averaged per week, not per meal, said Marquez, who has been with the Palo Alto district for one year. She plans weekly meals using Sodexho computer software, which flags any meals pushing the week over the calorie content guidelines. The idea is that students who choose a slice of pizza one day will choose a salad the next.

Sodexho also provides middle and high school campuses with a la carte items, such as New York City pizza, teriyaki chicken bowls, burritos, yogurt and trail mix. A la carte items are not subject to USDA nutritional guidelines.

During the school year, Sodexho sells about $2,500 worth of a la carte items per day, which surpasses the sale of whole lunch meals, Marquez said.

For the Healthy School Lunch Committee, Sodexho's offerings are not good enough and the manner in which they choose the menu is flawed. The committee wants all campuses stripped of meals they consider junk food, such as pizza and cheeseburgers.

A taco salad with lean ground beef or chicken, beans and rice for the protein, dark green lettuces and orange carrots are much healthier options, according to the committee. More specifically, a meal should include a milk beverage, protein and starch sources, and lots of fruits and vegetables.

So that "when you're looking at the food on the plate it's not all one color," Gertridge said.

Committee members also frown upon the a la carte items, saying students are not likely to make a healthy meal out of the choices. They say kids will choose pizza from the a la carte menu five days a week if it's offered -- simply because it's there.

"I've seen many children sit down with chips and a cookie for lunch," said committee member Janet Leader.

Committee members are advocating for a la carte snacks such as sliced fruit, nuts and baked goods. They're in favor of any food low in partially hydrogenated fat.

"Yes, kids want soda," Leader said. "But I feel we should provide an environment that makes it easy for students to make the healthy choice."

While the district's Board of Education has gone along with the committee's push for a new food vendor, it won't be a simple task. The goal is to have a new supplier in place by the 2005-2006 school year. This year, a committee -- which has yet to be assembled by the district -- will begin researching different options for providing a school lunch program and creating a nutrition policy.

The challenge will be finding a company that can stay within the district's food service budget of $1.7 million and meet the committee's interests.

No one knows exactly how much it would cost to overhaul the district's current program and offer healthier, fresher food. Currently the district is losing money with Sodexho, said Bob Golton, district deputy assistant superintendent.

Since the state's two other food providers haven't bid for the district's contract in the past, school officials aren't sure whether they will be able to stay within the district's budget.

Sodexho runs the lunch program for about 40 percent of the districts in Santa Clara County, according to the California Department of Education. The remaining districts have various means of providing meals to kids, from running the program in-house to combining a self-operated program with a contract for some items with Sodexho.

The district plans to investigate the cost of running the program itself. The Cupertino Unified School District - which serves about 15,000 students -- runs a self operated program that boasts a student participation rate of about 40 to 50 percent. The district's food service budget is about $3.1 million, about twice the funds allocated in Palo Alto.

"Districts that successfully implement healthier, tastier food programs do it by hiring their own food service person. Someone who would make the extra effort to make the salads better," Endemann said.

The Healthy School Lunch Committee's plan to change cafeteria menus could be a success at elementary and middle schools where kids are confined to campus. But at the two high schools with open campus policies, it seems to be more of a toss up.

Especially at Paly, where students use lunch time to get off campus and pick up where that's just as greasy and fast as what is found in the cafeteria. The bottom line is that teenagers like the freedom to choose what and where they eat.

Palo Alto High School junior Chris Lewis, 15, beelines to the Town and Country shopping plaza for lunch every school day.

At Town and Country, Lewis munches on hot wings and pizza. He's against the items sold on school grounds that could already be considered healthy, like yogurt and Chinese chicken salad.

Lewis and his friends say it's unlikely they'll stay on campus if the school lunch menus are revamped with healthier food. They said school food is greasy and expensive, yet healthier food wouldn't override their need to get off campus.

"Unless something was extraordinarily good, there's no reason to be on campus," Lewis said. "It's more fun to come over here."

Julia Hill-Wright, 15, also heads to Town and Country everyday. But she might consider staying on campus if the district offered a variety of better-tasting food.

"A lot of people come over here because you can get sushi, pizza, sandwiches," she said.

Lowell Reade, an incoming Paly freshman, said he didn't really buy lunch at Jordan Middle School -- he usually brought his lunch -- but he will buy at Paly if the school offers sushi and fruit smoothies.

Sophomore Bethany Pearson, 15, said she would also probably stay on campus to buy school food more often if the district revamped the cafeteria menu. Last year, she brought her lunch every day but still walked over to Town and Country with friends to eat.

Pearson's mom, Leslee, who is not a member of the parent committee, packs Bethany's lunches every day. Leslee usually includes a sandwich on whole grain bread, fruit, yogurt and sometimes low-fat mozzarella string cheese.

"It's nothing fancy, but along the lines of something healthy and nutritious that is going to stay with her the whole day," she said.

Nutrition plays an important roll in the Pearson household. Since Leslee runs marathons she understands the necessity of nutrient-dense foods. She said she would probably allow Bethany to eat school lunches more often if the district revamped the menus.

"Their foods are so processed and prepared, they have very high fat content, little fiber and high sodium. The things they offer are things I give my kids as a treat, it's not something they should be eating every day for lunch," said Leslee, adding that kids are "not buying anything better (at Town and Country) than what they can get on campus."

Board member Mandy Lowell's solution is to include students in the development of the district's nutrition policy.

"If we work with the students and when they thoughtfully consider the food issues, I think they will come up with a food policy that will really work with the high schools," Lowell said.

There has to be a balance, according to board members. The concept of school campuses serving nothing but healthy food is a bit unrealistic for some school officials.

"The world is full of choices," said board member John Barton. "I'm not sure we can build an artificial world on these two campuses. We can't just put in something that's great that no one is buying. It has to work."

Staff writer Alexandria Rocha can be e-mailed at arocha@paweekly.com

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