Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 23, 1994 TAG: 9401210189
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
That's the only way some finicky school kids will eat healthy vegetables.
Recently, the Department of Agriculture said most American school lunches and breakfasts contain far too much fat and sodium.
In response, local schools say they're preparing healthier meals these days, with less fat and more fruits and vegetables.
Problem is, much of this nutritious fare winds up in trash cans rather than students' stomachs.
"We can put it on the tray. But will they eat it?" is the question du jour for Michael Marcenelle.
Like fellow food service professionals, Marcenelle, supervisor of nutrition for Montgomery County schools, tries to serve students both what they want and what they need on the same plate.
The food concoctions that result can be pretty unusual - low-fat turkey franks, for example.
"That was a flop," Marcenelle laughed. "The kids would not eat them. The franks turned a funny color and split open when you heated them."
Pleasing school-age palates is financial necessity. Local school food programs are big, high-volume businesses.
Montgomery County schools, for example, have a $2 million annual budget and serve about 6,000 meals every school day.
Their food programs, and those of other New River Valley schools, operate solely on meal receipts. Like restaurants, they must satisfy customers.
"We cater to them," Ethelene Sadler, Pulaski County High School's cafeteria manager, said. "We have to."
Publicity about unhealthy school lunches gave the American Heart Association's Radford chapter a case of heartburn.
"It's an important thing," said the Rev. Thomas H. Magri, president of the Radford heart chapter. "We want to see healthier children."
Too many children get off on the wrong foot nutritionally by eating fast foods or meals with high fat content, he said.
"We're cutting back with fat content as much as possible," said Lola Hedge, Radford's director of cafeterias, after meeting with city AMA members. "But it's very hard to do."
On a typical school day - Monday, Jan. 10, for example - Montgomery County middle and high school students had a lunch choice of a hotdog with chili or steak and cheese sandwich with lettuce and pickles, baked beans, french fries, chilled peaches and a rice crispy treat; Pulaski County students had a hamburger or cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato and dill pickle chips, onion rings and apple crisp; and Radford students had crispy steak, hash brown potatoes, applesauce, a biscuit and milk.
According to federal guidelines, less than 30 percent of the calories in these or any other school meal should come from fat.
"I think we're making headway," said Robert Poff, Pulaski County schools' food service supervisor. "I'm just not sure everybody is zeroed in on the same target."
In school kitchens, business and nutrition often conflict. "You're pulled in two different directions," Poff said.
Part of the problem concerns bulk food commodities provided free to schools by the federal government. It makes financial sense for schools to use these freebies, but many of them - butter, cheese, oils, for example - are laden with fat.
Also, many veteran kitchen employees accustomed in earlier years to preparing meals without a concern for fat content have had to be retrained.
"When I first came here everything was seasoned with pure butter. That's the way the older ladies were used to cooking," Hedge said.
Now butter's been replaced by other food seasonings - and using sausage drippings is out, too, she said.
Deep frying, a practice sharply criticized by the Agriculture Department, has mostly been replaced by oven baking.
However, some kitchens, such as Radford High School's, still cook some potato dishes in a deep fryer. "There are some children, that's the only thing they will eat," Hedge said.
Service options have been diversified, too. The Pulaski County High School lunchroom has salad and snack bars in addition to the cafeteria line, and Sadler said both are popular.
But the bottom line remains students' tastes.
"Oh lord, they love hamburgers and hot dogs," Poff said. "They just flat out will not eat the traditional meals."
Many of the consistently successful menu items for breakfast or lunch have been adjusted to resemble fast-food offerings.
Even kindergarten pupils enter school already used to eating fast food, and older students want little else.
So chicken nuggets, tater tots, burritos, pizza, corn dogs, submarines and other fast food staples dominate the menu.
"They've made us conform, because we have a fast-food place on each corner," Sadler said.
It's a matter of competition, Poff said. High school students in particular have transportation and money to spend at fast-food restaurants unless the school kitchen serves what they want.
Dietitians are forced to be sneaky about preparing and serving nutritious food. Radford schools offer a 1 percent fat chocolate milk, and mix turkey meat with ground beef to reduce the fat content.
Yet, try as they might, schools can't make children eat properly if their parents neglect nutrition, Marcenelle said.
"Until they're offered healthy choices at home, we'll continue to get bashed."
"It's society," said Poff. Children come from households where both parents work, or from single-parent households. And with little time to prepare solid meals, fast food rules the roost, he added.
"It's easier to just go get a pizza," Marcenelle said. "I just wish parents were more involved in it," Poff said.
It's a painful sight for school dietitians and cooks to see good food tossed in the trash can each day, but typically that's where the fruits and vegetables go.
"I hate wasting the food," Sadler said. "But it's hard to control."
The government says the commodities it provides cannot be distributed beyond the schools, to the hungry or the homeless or anyone else.
"It's a difficult position to be in," Marcenelle said.
by CNB