Lunch line limbo

While teachers and students lounge around, enjoying their summer off, folks at Orange County Public Schools Food and Nutrition Services are still working, feeding about 1 million kids per week.

Right now they are implementing new food items into their menus, such as spicy Asian chicken, corn-on-the-cob from a local farmer and for breakfast, sweet potato pancakes.

Last month, OCPS became the only school district in Florida in 2010 to be awarded the District of Excellence for its focus on nutrition and health education. This comes as two bills are moving through Congress that could not only demand that school meals become healthier but also will funnel more money into purchasing healthy food and teaching health-conscious life lessons in schools.

Demonized foods such as macaroni and cheese only had 90 calories per half cup and 3 grams of fat on Orange County's elementary menu and the chicken Alfredo is 325 calories and 8 grams of fat (elementary), which is much less than typically seen at a restaurant.

"We don't fry anything," said Lora Gilbert, registered dietitian and director of OCPS FNS. "We find alternatives to make otherwise unhealthy items healthy, like coating potato wedges in olive oil and spices and baking them instead of serving fried French fries."

Gilbert said their mission is to look at the whole meal, not singular items, and to feed the kids nutritious foods, not put them on a diet.

However, some fat-filled foods such as mozzarella sticks, which are served routinely in OCPS cafeterias, weigh in at 540 calories a serving and 31 grams of fat (secondary). Their chicken tender snack wrap is 550 calories and 25 grams of fat (elementary). Even the peanut butter and jelly sandwich is 570 calories and 32 grams of fat (elementary).

Granted, foods like those hearty cheese sticks are only one option in the a-la-carte lunch line. To counter the 14-peice chicken nuggets at 275 calories and 16 grams of fat (elementary), a healthy option such as the turkey burger, which has 100 calories and five grams of fat (secondary), is served.

But local dietitians say kids are not equipped with the tools necessary to make healthy decisions in the lunch line.

"It's hard enough for adults to know what's healthy and what's not healthy. Kids aren't getting a lot of nutrition education anymore," said Tara Gidus, RD, nutrition consultant in Orlando.

Anna Lonergan, a seventh grader at Corner Lakes Middle School, said she usually eats chicken tenders or pizza for lunch with chips or a cookie on the side.

"They don't really offer anything better than that. I don't usually think about whether it's healthy, just whether I like it," said the 12-year-old. "The healthy stuff is kinda nasty. They have salads every day but most kids don't take 'em."

But healthy foods are overwhelmingly approved every year at the OCPS Food Show. This year, 60 new items, all of which had to earn a 70 percent approval rating or higher, will be added to the lunch and breakfast menus next year.

Healthy, go! Unhealthy, stop!

Gidus recommended that each school come up with a simple way to make healthy eating important to kids of any age.

She suggested a red light-green light system for elementary kids, where green tells them a food is healthy and red indicates an unhealthy item. For older kids, she said linking healthy foods to a reward system that involves something important to them, such as sports, academics or a hobby might work.

"Eating is a life skill just like managing money. It's one of those things we all do and will do for a lifetime, so to invest a few weeks in a class on nutrition is not much to ask," Gidus said.

Winter Park Health Foundation's Debbie Watson said she works with Orange County Schools, helping them integrate health lessons into every classroom, from chemistry to history. She said more teachers and administrators are realizing that being hydrated, eating right and being active all play a role in academics.

Who's making our kids fat?

About one-third of American children are overweight or obese. Considering that many children eat two of their three meals a day in school, it begs the question, are the schools making kids fat?

Gilbert says no. Nearly 60 percent of OCPS students qualify for free or reduced lunch. To qualify, a family of four must earn a household weekly income of $552 or less. This percentage increased last year by 6,000 students. Seven years ago, it was 43 percent.

"Some of the kids go home and they don't get supper so they snack all evening on cheap, unhealthy foods. The economy is an indicator of how people eat," she said.

A seemingly simple remedy to this issue is to only offer healthy choices in the cafeterias. Not only is this not allowed by USDA standards, it wouldn't work, Gidus said.

"It's not that simple. You cannot just dictate what they eat," she said, adding that French fries are not the problem — the frequency they are served and portion size are to blame.

"I eat French fries; I eat cake. You need to prepare them for the world where they will have to make health choices," Gidus said. "The nutrition motto is all foods can fit."