Healthy Lunch Options A Challenge For Providers And Students

By Nancy K. Crevier

Since Newtown’s school system contracted with Chartwells School Dining four years ago to provide meal service to Newtown children, Chartwells, under the direction of the school district, has implemented the “offer vs serve” system, said Margie Saidel, director of nutrition with Chartwells.

All of the schools, except Hawley Elementary, which does not have a cafeteria, follow the offer vs serve directive, she said, in which lunch servers ask diners directly which of the lunch options they prefer with their meals. In this way, children do not find themselves burdened by a plateful of items they do not plan to eat, or turned off from an entire lunch because one undesirable selection is bumped up against foods that the child does want to eat.

For adults who grew up being pushed to join the “Clean Plate Club” or to eat everything on the plate because of the “starving children in China, India, South America, etc,” a policy that opens up food choices to children can seem a bit foreign. Parents who buy lunches for their children are concerned that children are not making the best choices when left to their own devices.

Sarah Beier, a parent of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School where the offer vs serve directive was implemented just this fall due to an oversight, is irate that her children are not being served the vegetables indicated on the school lunch menu. “Balanced choices are not being given to my child,” she said, adding that school menus should indicate to parents that all of the lunch components are at the child’s discretion. She feels strongly that the majority of children will not request the healthier side dishes when offered. With a new or uncommon food placed automatically included on a child’s lunch plate, are they not more likely to try it? questioned Ms Beier.

Research at Chartwells says No, said Ms Saidel. “Children are not apt to eat vegetables they don’t like just because they are in front of them. As a matter of fact, [having unrequested food items on the plate] can be upsetting to younger kids. A lot of them don’t like foods touching, even. This is a developmental issue with young kids.”

Offer vs serve is by and large the most popular way of serving school lunches across the nation, added Ms Saidel. “Getting children to try new and unfamiliar foods is a process. If it is offered frequently, when they are ready they will accept the invitation to take the food. They might not even try the food the first few times they request it, but then one day, they might. It is an ongoing education,” she said.

The Power Of Choice

Jill Patterson, the Newtown schools dietician for Chartwells, agreed on several points with Ms Saidel. “Children feel empowered by having a choice. When foods, not just the vegetables or fruits, but all of the lunch components, are offered and not forced upon a child, they feel better about the meal. It is their choice then, not ours.”

“A child development rule of thumb that we try to follow is that at home, the parent is responsible for what the child is offered to eat, and the child is responsible for how much they eat and which foods. This is called a division of responsibility. In the same way the rule at school is that we let the children choose. We try to provide healthy foods in a pleasant atmosphere,” Ms Patterson said.

In planning the menus for schools, Ms Patterson also tries to keep in mind the peculiarities of young children’s food preferences. “I have found that kids don’t like the stir fry options, with lots of different foods mixed together, or casseroles, where three or four of the food groups are all together. Kids really don’t like food touching or mixed up.” This does not mean that she precludes all meals that combine ingredients. “Periodic reexposure can get kids to try something new,” she said.

What she has observed is that many of the children in Newtown prefer to choose the cold side dish options to those that are cooked. “The carrot and vegetable sticks, the salads, and the fresh fruit are more popular, from what I can see,” Ms Patterson said.

When requested, Ms Patterson visits classrooms to introduce kids to balancing foods and understanding how the cafeteria tries to link balanced foods together in a meal. “When planning the week’s menu, I try to offer as much variety as we can. That means offering foods of different textures, colors, and shape,” said Ms Patterson. The weekly selection is also based on recommended dietary guidelines set by the USDA and must also meet some of the stricter state requirements.

“I try to run programs that promote foods that may be new or different to the students, too. This year, we have the New Food Exploration of the month. In September it was the different apples from around the region; in October we are going to feature plantains.” The Young Adult Councils from Reed Intermediate, Newtown Middle School, and Newtown High School are periodically surveyed for input into the school lunches, said Ms Patterson. Based on feedback last December, for instance, the dining service tried a baked potato bar, some Chinese and Mexican foods, and provided more vegetarian options.

In addition to allowing students to select which of the hot lunch components they prefer, Chartwells has strived to provide healthy options as part of its mission of providing nutritional meals to school children. Realizing that some children disdain cooked vegetables, raw carrot and vegetable sticks and salads are always offered as an option. Children are also allowed unlimited servings of the fruit and vegetable choices, so if a child enjoys a side dish of cooked corn but would love a salad as well, they are not discouraged from having both. Adding an apple for dessert is fine, as well.

“From what I’ve noticed,” said Ms Patterson, “kids seem to like the school lunches. At this point, I think we’ve gotten to know the kids in this town and what they like.”

Learning The Lunchroom

The reality of what kids in town are downing in the school cafeterias and how well parents and children understand the ins and outs of the lunchrooms may be a bit different, however, than what the dining service believes.

Laura and Tim Helmig’s children, Elizabeth, a student at Reed Intermediate, and Quinn, a Head O’ Meadow student, have had mixed experiences when they have purchased lunch at school. Her daughter prefers the salad bar to hot offerings, and Quinn has felt pressured by lunchroom workers on occasion to make additional selections beyond what he has chosen. “He told me he took a box of raisins, which he hates, and then just gave it to a friend.”

“They would rather have homemade lunch,” Ms Helmig said, and that is the case of many of her children’s friends. “Maybe it’s because we know a lot of stay-at-home moms who have time in the morning to pack lunch.”

An informal focus group of four Newtown High School freshmen and two Reed Intermediate students shared with The Bee their observations and opinions about the school lunch options. Alina Schwartz, Anastasia DeMarche, Morgan D’Avola, and Annamarie Lewis of Newtown High School and Shay DeMarche and Jonathan Schwartz of Reed Intermediate all said that, for the most part, lunch servers are good about offering food selections. On occasion, Annamarie said that she has felt overly encouraged by a lunch worker to take one of the side dishes, but after doing so, has not eaten it. That said, the high school students agreed that most of their peers do not opt for the hot lunch or the side dishes for a variety of reasons.

“The high school cafeteria is really crowded, and the lines are so long that I don’t usually even eat lunch at school,” said Alina —a statement with which the other high schoolers readily agreed.

“If you have lunch fourth wave, sometimes there’s not even a lot of food left, and there isn’t enough time to eat if you do wait in line,” said Morgan.

Another reason high school students ignore the vegetable side dishes, they said, is that they appear unpalatable. Overcooked or undercooked and unappealing choices such as “spinach that looked like old lady hair,” according to Alina, and limp broccoli and green beans that do nothing to tempt students to select them are a big problem, said Anastasia.

There is an inconvenience factor and a lack of education so far as the cold vegetable and fruit selections go, said the girls. “I think there are fruit cups and a few pieces of fruit, but they are at a place way on the other side of the cafeteria and it’s really crowded in that area, so I’ve never gone over there,” Anastasia said. Annamarie confessed that she was not aware that cold vegetables and fruits were available.

So far as unlimited servings of the vegetables and fruits go, the high schoolers felt that even if time allowed them to wait in line again for a second serving, the chances of being allowed back in line by security were slim.

“A lot of food is thrown out,” Annamarie said. “I don’t think many kids eat the side dishes at all.”

Favorites

Is there anything good about lunch at the high school? Unanimously, they said that of all the cooked vegetables they have eaten at school, the corn is top-notch. “And the french fries are awesome,” sighed Morgan. “You can get the french fries and burgers pretty quickly at the snack station, too,” she said.

At Reed Intermediate, Shay and Jonathan painted a somewhat brighter picture. The applesauce and apples rated high with both boys, and Jonathan, who buys lunch almost every day, said that the corn is very good, as are the carrot sticks. “I never take the beans, though,” said Jonathan. “I don’t like how they look, but I don’t like beans anyway.”

When Shay buys lunch, he normally chooses the cheeseburger or chicken patty and some chips over the hot lunch. “I didn’t know until this year that you could take the fruit, too,” he said.

Jonathan and Shay said that there is not so much waste in the lunchroom at Reed Intermediate as there appears to be at the high school. “I think that at Reed the kids take the vegetables when they are asked. If they don’t like them, like a friend of mine took raisins, they just give them to someone else,” said Shay.

“I don’t think that you can take salad, though,” Jonathan said. “I think that’s like buying a whole lunch.”

Tammy DeMarche, mother of Shay and Anastasia, and Caroline Bell, Alina and Jonathan’s mother, were unaware of the offer vs serve policy, and while they expressed that some parents might be bothered that the whole lunch paid for was not served to children, neither was overly concerned about their own children’s choices.

“I don’t worry about the lunches at school too much,” said Ms DeMarche. “I can control the rest of their meals.”

Ms Bell felt that it was better, especially at the high school level, that students take what they are actually going to eat. “In high school, they eat whatever they want. I try to make up [any nutritional gaps] at home.”

Both Ms Patterson and Ms Saidel said that it is important for parents to reinforce healthy choices at home.

“It is not a correct assumption that a child is actually eating the whole lunch that they purchase, or even one that is sent from home. Parents should discuss the lunch choices with their children. It can be a teaching moment,” stressed Ms Saidel.