Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 2, 1993 TAG: 9309020443
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"I don't like a big lunch," the 16-year-old junior said. "I'm not a real fan of school food."
Of course, that was last year's school food. In last year's cafeteria.
This year, Fleming students will browse through an elaborate food court, modeled after the one at Tanglewood Mall. They'll dine at octagonal burgundy tables in the warm glow of Kelly-green walls. They'll sidle up to salad bars, deli cases and awning-covered Italian and American food stations.
At least, Roanoke School administrators hope they will. The school system is spending more than $50,000 in federal grant money to renovate the cafeteria and upgrade food services at Fleming in an attempt to draw students like Amy into the school lunch program.
"We're trying to entice them to eat a meal and to improve their eating habits," said Thomas Powers, director of food services for the Roanoke city school system.
"It's going to be expensive, but it should be worthwhile," he said.
Poor student nutrition and low participation in school lunch programs are problems that extend beyond the city limits. School systems throughout the region and across the country have been struggling for years to compete with fast-food chains, home pantries and student disdain for cafeteria food.
More recently, school administrators have pricked up their ears at reports that poor childhood nutrition translates into low test scores, shorter attention spans and bad eating habits that can last a lifetime. Research shows children who skip meals or eat too much fat, sugar and salt are more likely to get sick and do poorly in school.
Simply put, children who eat well do well.
They'll be eating better at schools all over the Roanoke Valley this year if students buy into changes in their lunch programs. Local school divisions say they'll be adding more fruits and vegetables and removing fat, salt and cholesterol from the food plan.
"We are going to work on a better nutritional menu this year," said Ron Wall, director of food services for the Salem school system.
Following suggestions from administrators, teachers, school nurses and parents who served on a health advisory board, Salem schools will skim fat, sugar and calories from the cafeteria fare, Wall said.
That means more bran flakes for breakfast, a push toward low-fat or skim milk and new methods for preparing foods.
Hamburgers and french fries won't make an exit, but they'll be less greasy. The hamburgers will be broiled; the fries, baked.
Craig County students will find less breading and more white meat on their plates and less fat in their chocolate milk, said Kitty Keffer, cafeteria manager.
She said she cuts some of the fat out of federally supplied ground beef by rinsing and draining it and mixing it with ground turkey.
Students in Roanoke County will find less salt in their seasoning and more fruit on their trays, school spokesman Marty Robison said. The county has been reducing fat, salt and sugar from its food plan for the past three years.
Last year, it started buying reduced-fat hamburger meat, he said.
In Roanoke, turkey will be added to the chili recipe and the hot dog stand. Fudge brownies will disappear from the snack stack and sugar-coated donuts will become scarce.
But administrators dare not yank all junk foods off the cafeteria trays.
"We don't want to completely cut ourselves out of business," Powers said. "This may be the unfortunate aspect of it: We have to make money. But we want the kids to eat well."
Roanoke's food service department, which does not receive a budget as do other school administration departments, is supposed to be self-sufficient, he said. The $3.1 million operation sometimes breaks even, sometimes inches into the red.
Financial concerns and popular teen-age tastes secure a fixed place on the menu for pizza and french fries, Powers said.
"You have to offer the things that the kids want, or they won't participate in the school lunch program," said Larry Hall, food service supervisor in Botetourt County.
At Botetourt's nine school cafeterias, food service managers set their menus independently, using state nutritional guidelines but attempting to cater to the tastes of children in each community, Hall said.
To make the meals more exciting, schools sponsor such events as Mexican Day or Country Day and incorporate the themes into classroom instruction, Hall said.
In Roanoke, elementary-school cafeteria workers sport baseball uniforms and hand out free baseball cards to students who buy lunch during the World Series.
"It's a constant effort to get the kids," said Powers.
That worries Keffer, who sees even the elementary students arriving with lunch boxes filled with crackers and snack cakes instead of sandwiches or other nutritional foods.
Craig County serves an average of 412 students a day in its one cafeteria, only 58 percent of the student body. It doesn't have the space for separate pizza and hamburger lines as do some schools, said Keffer, who worries that fewer options mean fewer students eating.
Powers said Fleming used some of its federal magnet grant money to overhaul the cafeteria in hopes that it would be more appealing to students, who, by the time they reach high school, rarely buy lunch.
Less than 40 percent of Roanoke's secondary students buy cafeteria food. Participation is far greater at the elementary schools; but even there, about 20 percent are brown-bagging it or skipping meals altogether.
"The captive audience is not as captive as it used to be," Powers said.
Salem parent Cindy Neathawk said that is because parents can provide more nutritious meals from home.
"All four of my children pack lunches," said Neathawk, who served as chairman of the health advisory board.
She rises early each morning to fix turkey, peanut butter or cheese sandwiches for her children, who also get boxed juices, fruit and pretzels or other low-fat snacks.
Neathawk was excited to hear about Salem's menu changes. She said she hopes her children like the food well enough to start buying it.
"It certainly would be a lot easier for me if they would do it that way," she said.
And Amy Johnson?
She's willing to give the food court a shot.
"I would probably eat some of that stuff," she said. "I like pasta."
\ School lunch prices\ \ Salem Roanoke Roanoke Co. Botetourt Craig Secondary $1.70 $1.05 $1.10 $1.00 $1.05\ Elementary $1.10 $.95 $1.00 $.95 $.95\
Memo: ***CORRECTION***