Lunch ladies dishing up healthful meals
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Once infamous on television as being ground zero for mystery meat, school lunches are more regulated than ever - and for the most part, that means they're healthier.
A recent lunchtime at Oakdale Elementary in Brandon brought kindergartners clamoring through the lunch line, taking their pick of pizza, whole apples, citrus and other choices. A few moments later, Caleb Lars, Sean Parks and Katherine Ausborn munched happily.
"They have good food," Ausborn said as she ate her pizza and Parks ate an apple. But the three students agreed they still like it when the school treats them to ice cream.
All states follow U.S. Department of Agriculture school lunch guidelines, but Mississippi is, in some cases such as a la carte food sales, more strict than the national guidelines. The regulations have come up more in recent years, partially because of Mississippi's designation as the fattest state in the country.
According to Trust for America's Health, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health advocacy organization, 30.6 percent of Mississippi's adult population is considered obese. Colorado had the lowest obesity rate at 17.6 percent.
Regulations approved earlier this year through the Mississippi Healthy Students Act tighten limits on sugary drinks and a la carte food sales at schools, mandate fitness testing for fifth-graders and strengthen physical education classes for high schoolers.
Lynda Callendar, director of child nutrition in the Rankin County School District, said her district and others are limited to what they can buy because they have to use a state list.
"There are over 300 items, maybe 350 or so on our state bid to choose from," Callendar said. "We use those items, and we use the standardized recipes that have been tested."
Although she's glad students are eating more healthfully at school because of the regulations, she said the school lessons need to carry through the rest of their lives.
"I feel like a lot of it goes back to home," Callendar said. "We're required to serve more vegetables and fruits because that's better for the children," Callendar said, but they won't be as healthy if they go home from school and eat junk. "Everything can't be made perfect from school."
A sample lunch might include chicken fajitas, a roll, a couple of vegetables, beans, peas, three kinds of fruit or a salad, Callendar said. Chicken nugget day is still the most popular with students, but she said they still have fruits and vegetables to choose from.
"My choice when I was in school was take it or leave it," Callendar said.
And districts can't sell a la carte items to students unless they buy a full meal first. Even though those extra food sales are part of what sustains Callendar's budget, she agrees with that rule.
"I think that's one way that Mississippi helps the health of the children, making sure they have that full meal," Callendar said. "It's good that they are trained younger. We feel like they learn to eat more of a variety of fruits and vegetables."
Mary Hill, executive director of food services in Jackson Public Schools, said the district uses a basic grid from the USDA to figure out what it will serve and what portion sizes should be. But Hill, who is also president of the national School Nutrition Association, said the district has the flexibility to adjust what it serves to meet students' likes as well as what's healthy.
"It is not totally our responsibility," Hill said of student obesity. "Certainly those efforts are being made, and we're hoping that some of those efforts that we're making are transcending into the family setting."
She said the obesity conversation should also include lessons on portion sizes.
"It's the amount that they're eating ... that's really causing these issues," Hill said. "We should teach them that moderation and choice so that they don't miss the total picture."
