THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 31, 1994 TAG: 9408310457
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
For kids who begin filing back into the city's public school cafeterias next week, lunch may not compare to fare at The Four Seasons.
But it will be nutritious.
Norfolk's school system has become a national leader in serving up healthy meals low in fat and salt, a Washington-based consumer advocacy group says in a report released Tuesday.
The study, ``Serving Up Success: Schools Making Nutrition A Priority,'' identifies Norfolk's school lunch program as one of 41 across the country that offers a ``role model for reform.''
By doing such simple things as buying low-fat mayonnaise and cheese and avoiding buttering and salting vegetables during cooking, Norfolk has found itself in the forefront of countrywide efforts to make school lunches more healthful.
``The changes we made really didn't cost us any more money,'' Peggy H. Lee, senior director of Norfolk public schools' child nutrition services, said Tuesday. ``You just have to make a concerted effort.''
Issued by the Public Voice For Food and Health Policy, the report showcases Norfolk as an example of why the U.S. Department of Agriculture should speed up plans to raise the nutritional standards of school lunches.
In June, the Agriculture Department announced that school systems would be required to meet new school-lunch guidelines beginning in 1998.
The move was based on research showing that most of the nation's children were eating school lunches high in fat and low in essential nutrients - a prescription for health problems such as cancer, heart disease and stroke later in life.
Public Voice officials said Tuesday that updated standards should be implemented by the 1996-97 school year, arguing that many schools already had made improvements.
With changes made over the past three years, Norfolk schools already meet or exceed the proposed guidelines, officials said. An example is that no more than 30 percent of the total number of calories in lunches come from fat.
``These case studies show that the creativity, commitment, knowledge and technology to create healthier lunches already exists from coast to coast,'' Mark Epstein, executive director of Public Voice, said.
Fairfax County, cited for increasing the availability of fruits, vegetables and grains, was the only other Virginia school district mentioned in the report.
Lee said she initiated an overhaul of Norfolk's lunch program three years ago after discovering that it was viewed negatively by most students and parents.
``My impetus was wanting to prove to myself and to the customers we were serving that what we were doing was good,'' Lee said. ``I feel it's important that we're always aboveboard with what we're doing for our children. We're not french-frying our youth.''
This year, Lee has hired a registered dietitian and bought a computer software program that will enable her office to do a total nutritional analysis of the foods served, including such things as vitamins, fiber and cholesterol levels.
Norfolk is the only school system in Virginia with a central-production system using a ``quick-chill'' kitchen, Lee said. Foods such as spaghetti, chili sauce and lasagne can be cooked in bulk, quickly chilled and stored, eliminating the need for preservatives and other additives. The kitchen delivers food to 55 schools.
A healthier meal, though, doesn't guarantee students will like it. As many as 65 percent of Norfolk's 35,000 students - about 23,000 - chow down on school-served lunches on any given day.
``A lot of students say it could be better,'' said Demetria R. Jackson, a rising senior at Lake Taylor High. ``It's not anything like home cooking.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff illustration by Janet Shaughnessy
[student holding a school lunch tray]
MENU CHANGES
Peggy H. Lee, senior director of nutrition services, said Norfolk
has reduced fat and salt in school lunches by making these changes:
By offering 1 percent-fat milk. (Federal rules require that
whole milk be offered.)
By specifying items low in fat and salt content when seeking bids
for food supplies.
By using part-skim mozzarella cheese and turkey pepperoni on
pizza, an item served every week. Turkey also is processed into ham
and bologna.
By using tuna packed in water instead of oil.
By avoiding butter and salt on vegetables. ``We used to drown
peas and broccoli in it,'' Lee said.
By baking instead of frying foods.
By providing more and different varieties of fruits and
vegetables, such as kiwi, offered last year for the first time. ``It
was a big hit,'' Lee said.
by CNB