THOUSAND OAKS : Leaner School Menu Trims Pizza, Hot Dogs

There will be less pizza and fewer hot dogs in Thousand Oaks’ elementary schools this year as the school district moves to trim the fat from hot noontime meals.

To promote healthier eating habits, the school district each month will send home lunch menus revealing the fat content of school meals.

“We are trying to do a better job of informing the parents,” said Connie Noggle, director of food services for the Conejo Valley Unified School District.

The majority of the daily lunches are at or below the American Heart Assn.’s recommendation that no more than 30% of calories come from fat, district officials said. To reduce fatty foods, elementary schools will limit the number of times they serve hot dogs and pizza--two of the district’s most popular lunch items.

Cafeterias will also reduce the fat in baked goods, such as cookies and cakes, district officials said.

“I think most school districts are health conscious,” Noggle said. “(But) it is not always the easiest thing to do.”

Budget restrictions, bulk foods and finicky eaters make it difficult to devise a healthy school lunch menu, Noggle explained. To make it easier, the district recently purchased a $500 computer software package to provide nutritional breakdowns of school lunches.

But the changes have not been welcomed by some elementary-school students, who would rather have fast-food chains such as Taco Bell and Pizza Hut cater their lunchtime meals.

“I don’t really buy the school food because it is not what my taste buds like,” said 11-year-old Christina Burke, a sixth-grader at Ladera Elementary School.

But Leslie Taylor, 10, said she liked Ladera’s lunches. “I think they are pretty good,” she said. “It depends on what they are serving.”

But for some health-conscious students, the hot school lunches aren’t so hot.

“It is not good stuff,” said Dalissa Ramalho, 12, picking at her cold hamburger patty on Monday. Dalissa said the district should serve more fruit and larger cartons of milk and orange juice if it wants to improve school nutrition.

Ten-year-old Alicia Canfield agreed. “The best food they ever have is spaghetti,” she said. “Everything else is gross.”