ALL ABOUT FOOD:Fighting for good food on school menus

About 28 million school lunches are served each day — or about 5 billion a year — in the U.S. Most of them are pre-packaged, processed and full of preservatives. Not surprisingly there has been an alarming rise in type 2 diabetes.

It is expected that by the year 2010, nearly half the children in North America will be overweight or obese. Do you know what your children are eating?

Some states have been trying to address this problem, but it’s not simple. Besides the problems involved in changing awareness, many school administrators are hooked on the easy cash, reportedly as much as $75,000 annually, that soda and candy vending machines can bring in.

California, New York and Texas have passed new laws to limit junk foods sold on school grounds and some districts in California have begun buying produce from local farms.

Alice Waters, the famous godmother of California cuisine, has taken up the gauntlet and is fronting millions to realize her dream of teaching another kind of relationship with food.

Waters has proposed a new paradigm for a school program that involves children in every aspect of planting, harvesting and preparing fresh food as well as learning about nutrition. These experiential lessons would be fully integrated into the core academic curriculum. She has committed her Chez Panisse foundation to fund this program to the tune of $4 million in three years at Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley.

Here in Laguna Beach, Debra Appel, who is the supervisor of food services for the Laguna Beach Unified School District, is fighting the good fight.

She is struggling valiantly to change the perception of “the lunch lady” and to provide better-tasting and healthier meals that also have student appeal.

Her affiliation with food service in Laguna began one day when she helped out at the El Morro school cafeteria where her children were attending school. On that particular day the person in charge of cooking lunches told her that she was quitting and suggested that Debra might be interested in applying for the job. She was and she did and she was hired, thus becoming the “lunch lady.” She stayed there for four years and then moved on to cook at Laguna Beach High School for another four years, after which she took the supervisory position with the district.

We are sure you have memories of the unappetizing food presented in the school cafeteria. Terry can’t forget John Marzetti (on the East Coast, Elle knew it as Johnny Mazzetti), the glutinous mixture of overcooked pasta and meat sauce (light on the meat) that was one of the better dishes.

All were heavy on carbs, heavier on fat, with nary a fresh vegetable in sight. It’s amazing to think that as bad as that food was, professional nutritionists planned school menus in those days and they were well-balanced meals according to the nutritional guidelines of the time. While Debra is not a nutritionist, she has studied nutrition at Saddleback College.

When she took charge six years ago, one of her first actions was to remove all soda from the vending machines. The surprising amount of flak that she received made her realize that she had to include the student body in future decisions. Furthermore, she had to face the fact that progress would have to be made “in baby steps” because changing habits and attitudes is a slow process.

One of the biggest hurdles is that our school lunch program receives no funding other than a very small stipend for the 7% of students who need financial help to buy lunch. She must generate enough income to pay for her expenses including cost of goods and labor.

Her goal is simply to break even. Obviously, if she had some funding, she would have more options for healthier food. She must borrow from the district’s general fund to begin the program each year and then pay it back slowly.

This means that if the menu is not varied and appealing enough, students will spend their money off-campus or not at all. The school’s official policy is that no one may leave campus, even for lunch, except juniors and seniors who have prior written permission of their parents.

In 2004, the state adopted a Mandatory Student Wellness policy for nutrition and exercise. For example, now there is an approved list of vending-machine snacks. There is a 35-10-35 rule that means no more than 35 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat and 35 grams of sugar can be allowed in all foods sold and served on campus.

This is clearly better but not perfect. Debra asked the student body to decide which snacks they wanted from the approved list. There is no candy, but baked Cheese-Its, pretzel snacks and Red Vines licorice are included. Beverage machines offer several waters, Gatorade and chocolate milk. All milk at our schools is now 1% or 2%.

One of Debra’s biggest achievements is the establishment of salad bars at all the schools except for Thurston (due to a space problem) and they are very successful, even with the little ones.

Back in the days when she was cooking and serving lunches at El Morro, children, attracted by the smell of food, would come to the kitchen door and ask for something to eat. She asked her supervisor if she could provide a snack cart with juice, milk, bagels and cereal at recess. It was very popular and now all the schools offer a recess snack.

Debra has arranged for fresh fruit to be available at breakfast, lunch and nutritional break. What’s more, all lunch entrées include milk and fruit.

Solving the problem of keeping the high school students on campus meant providing them with some of the food that they were leaving school to buy. She has sandwiches from A La Carte, pizza from Jojos, Chinese food from Mandarin King and a taco bar and pasta bar made by Brian Armstrong, the chef/kitchen manager.

Debra has also tried to make the lunchrooms more attractive. The idea is to create an atmosphere more like a restaurant and less like a big schoolroom. It’s called The Breakers Café at the high school.

The updated California Student Wellness policy of January 2007 sets updated guidelines for exercise, prevents detention during lunchtime and mandates no sodas or candy, and state officials are planning to eliminate fried foods in the future. Although no food is ever fried in our schools, they do re-heat some items that are fried elsewhere, such as chicken strips, egg rolls and tostadas.

Debra’s newest programs include: a new computerized system at the cash register that allows parents to monitor how children spend their lunch money, healthy fundraisers where they sell nuts, oranges and apples instead of bake sales, and a fledgling garden at Top of the World overseen by retired TOW schoolteacher, Terry Hustwick.

The plan is to involve students in planting and growing food that they would eventually prepare and eat. There is also talk of after-school cooking classes and a garden at El Morro.

Another exciting program that Debra is trying to get through the curriculum council is called Harvest of the Month. ASR Produce Company will provide a taste for each participating student of a particular seasonal vegetable or fruit, its history, nutritional information and recipes for $14 per student. Funding at this point would have to come from parents.

If you are interested in becoming more involved with this crucial issue, High Levels of Awareness holds a meeting on the first Tuesday of the month in room 72 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the high school. Call Debra for more information at (949) 497-7700 ext. 216.