The salad bar at Kenilworth Junior High School.
By E.A. BARRERA, FOR THE ARGUS-COURIER
As parents, we try to prepare decent meals, limit how much junk food our kids eat, and ensure they have a reasonably balanced diet. And when we're putting in all that effort, the last thing we want is for our hard work to be undone each day in the school cafeteria.
Michelle Obama, January 26, 2012.
Last month, when President Obama signed into law an update of the Federal School Lunch program, changing dietary standards to include more fresh foods and healthier choices for school kids, local Petaluma School officials could only smile. They had been working on the problem and changing the menu at local schools for five years.
We started replacing the junk food with fresh fruits and vegetables years ago, said Kenilworth Junior High School kitchen manager Jackie Watt. Changes take time, but we have been successful in educating kids and their parents about healthy diets. Things are definitely better today than they were when I came here.
Watt has been with Kenilworth for eight years and credited Ray DiGiamo, the Petaluma Schools' Food Services Supervisor, with creating the change taking place in the kitchens and food centers of the schools.
It can take kids a while to change bad habits and get used to eating healthier, but since Ray came in, the atmosphere has improved dramatically. A big part of that, of course, is the parents are eating healthier now as well. Good eating habits start in the home, said Watt.
The new rules for school lunches will go into effect on July 1, 2012, noted DiGiamo. Among the new standards, schools must provide fruits and vegetables as two separate meal components and offer fruit daily at breakfast and lunch. The schools must provide vegetables daily at lunch, and specifically include vegetable subgroups such as dark greens, orange, and legumes, while limiting the number of starchy vegetables in a given week. Whole grain breads, foods with zero trans-fats, lean meats, and meat substitutes such as soy, are also required under the new guidelines.
We have been working on the approach coming from the administration for some time, said DiGiamo, who spent time working with Dr. Marilyn Briggs, Co-Director of the University of California, Davis Center for Nutrition in School and former Assistant Superintendent of Public Instruction in the California Department of Education. We devised a menu that eliminated processed foods and reduced the amount of sodium and sugar available in the schools. There are no packaged burritos or sodas at the schools anymore.
Read the original here:
School lunches ahead of the game
