Aug. 23--Among the items debuting on Houston-area school lunch menus this academic year: yams, Brussels sprouts, acorn squash, edamame and bok choy.
Sushi, Cuban pork tacos and spinach salads also will be served up as some area school districts try to meet increasing pressure to offer more nutritious school lunches.
Old favorites, such as chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese, remain on most menus but have been overhauled to be healthier. Houston ISD, the state's largest school system, lowered sodium in elementary lunches by an average of 70 milligrams this year. They've added almost a gram of fiber to the average school lunch and decreased fat by more than 70 percent in some entrees by switching from beef to ground turkey.
"The focus for the entire summer has really been on the menu and the improvement of the menu," said Brian Giles, who oversees food services for HISD.
Among other notable changes: Chicken nuggets will be served about half as frequently. In their place, new entrees, such as chicken and brown rice soup, barbecue baked chicken and chicken Parmesan, will be offered.
Pressure to improve school lunches has picked up national momentum in recent years, fueled by increased attention to the childhood obesity epidemic and the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, which sets nutritional standards for school lunches.
The National School Lunch Program -- developed in 1946 to meet children's basic nutrition needs -- limits the amount of fat students can be served and requires school lunches to provide one-third of the recommended dietary allowances of protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, calcium and calories. The Texas Public School Nutrition Policy further restricts which items schools can serve.
Trying new foods
But with tougher national standards expected to be introduced soon, school districts are pre-emptively overhauling their meals. The challenge: persuading youngsters to try new foods without increasing costs.
Schools receive up to $2.72 federal reimbursement for a lunch served to a child from a low-income family.
They hope funding will be increased to cover the cost of more fresh, locally grown items.
"Whole grains cost more. Fresh vegetables cost more -- both the product itself and the labor to prepare it," said Melanie Konarik, director of child nutrition for Spring ISD.
Spring is offering Brussels sprouts, apricots, plums and peaches, among other healthy fare, this year. A cheese sauce will be added to the Brussels sprouts to help students warm to the option, a strategy that worked well when broccoli was introduced a few years ago, she said.
While costs are a challenge, it also takes a concentrated marketing effort to get youngsters to try foods that aren't already part of their diet. Fish tacos, for instance, weren't a hit in Spring, and Houston ISD officials saw hundreds of whole wheat rolls tossed in the trash because students thought something was wrong with their "brown bread."
With time, students often warm to the new foods, but many districts can't afford to watch food go uneaten.
"You still want to provide a meal that they're going to eat. We have to trick them, if you will," said Jamal Hazzan, director of food service in the Klein ISD.
So what looks like traditional pizza, in many districts, actually features whole wheat crust, turkey pepperoni and low-sodium, reduced-fat cheese. While it's healthier, parents are worried about the mixed message sent to students, who are aren't aware of the upgraded ingredients.
"Even if the pizza is slightly healthier, they don't know that. They go to Pizza Hut and they think that's OK," said Bettina Siegel, a member of the Houston ISD's Parent Advisory Committee and author of the a child nutrition blog, thelunchtray.com.
School districts are missing an opportunity to serve considerably healthier meals by being overly tied to "kid foods," such as chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese, she said.
They're also setting themselves up to fail when they debut new, healthier options, such as chicken and brown rice soup, alongside pizza and other traditional entrees.
"You're training children's palettes with every meal," said Siegel, who packs lunches every day for her two children. "We're shortchanging children if we assume they will only eat from a limited menu of six entrees."
Public education
While she's glad to see progress, Siegel said more families would participate in school lunch programs if they included healthier options, such as salad bars, and eliminated the chips and desserts sold a la carte.
Dani Sheffield, head of child nutrition in the Aldine school district, said cafeteria food has improved dramatically in the past decade. Part of the challenge schools face is that the public doesn't realize the huge strides.
"One of our biggest responsibilities now is to market our programs," she said. "Unfortunately, a lot of things that are heard are not based on fact, they're perception. Unless we tell people what we're doing, perception becomes reality."
jennifer.radcliffe@chron.com
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