Locals push for organic school lunch
A lunch food pilot program in Ashland Elementary Schools has potential to bring local, organic food to kids, but there are still a number of hurdles to pass.
A food service committee has met for eight months to develop a pilot program for Ashland schools that they hope to begin in the fall of 2007 in conjunction with Sodexho, the district's current food service provider.
The goals of the pilot program are to offer healthier foods in school cafeterias, include nutrition education in the classrooms, maximize waste reduction, and have students participate in planting, harvesting and cooking field trips to Eagle Mill Farm. The long-term goals are to include organic foods as much as possible, using locally-grown food whenever available.
The program has strong support from elementary school kitchen managers, but Sodexho wants to stay in control of buying the food, which would have an impact on the quality of food in the program.
Pilot program developers initially wanted to start the program at all elementary schools, but will be happy to get it going at one.
"We want to do it at elementary schools because that's where children's habits are formed," said Jenny Slawta, Southern Oregon University professor and program developer.
Members of the food service committee along with Sodexho representatives made presentations to the school board this week and discussed the logistics of a collaborative pilot program.
Sodexho Senior General Manager Jeff Ashmun included school lunch participation results, educational efforts, school lunch improvements in his board presentation.
Lunch sales have steadily decreased from 2004 to 2007 at both Bellview Elementary School and Ashland Middle School. Helman and Walker elementary schools have had fluctuating levels on both a monthly and yearly basis. Participation at the high school level was low in the '04/'05 year, rose significantly in '05/'06 and dropped in '06/'07, according to graphs presented to the school board. Ashmun also pointed out his company's involvement with the Farm to Market Nutrition Fair at the elementary schools. He noted that Sodexho's 2006/'07 food improvements included exclusive use of brown rice at Ashland schools, more pastas composed of whole wheat or spinach and exclusive use of whole wheat tortillas at elementary schools.
Sodexho's presentation included a report from Peggy Case, Bellview's kitchen manager, who endorses Sodexho. Reports were not included from Helman and Walker elementary schools, whose kitchen managers, Amy Korth and Launa Miller, support the pilot program. Korth and Miller prepared food for the board to sample. The food consisted of vegetarian chili, salad made with greens gathered that morning and tossed with freshly made dressing, corn bread and a cookie made with whole grains and minimal sugar.
Sodexho is agreeable to the pilot program, but has included stipulations such as procuring all ingredients from its current suppliers: Sysco and Umpqua.
Although Helman was first in line to be the sole school as the pilot, its principal, Susan Hollandsworth, came up with a of objections.
Among the objections are that teachers do not want to add to their curriculum duties, succinctly formulated into "If it tastes good, you don't need education;" "If it tastes bad, education won't help."
Other concerns included being sensitive to families whose eating values and lifestyles might not be in sync with the nutritional values of the pilot program; that adults hovering over the students' food choices might create negative food issues for them; and taking away choices.
"Kids expect choices," Susan said. "We don't want to take that away."
The elementary school menu offers five entree choices each day. Reducing the amount of choices is a sticking point for some who wonder if, without those choices, kids would simply not eat.
Reasons for the two-choice option of pilot program are that its proponents don't want (pre)prepared and processed foods offered as choices.
"With a third or fourth choice that's unhealthy (but familiar), kids will not try the healthy choice," Korth said.
Like most other local districts, Ashland's food service program does not break even, said Pam Lucas, district business manager. The only way a district breaks even is to fully contract out its food service program, including labor. Ashland cafeteria workers are employed by the district, which pays higher wages and provides better benefits — not the contractor.
There's also the matter of where food comes from. Choosing to use less USDA commodity food and incorporating healthier fresh foods means — with or without a pilot program — school lunches will probably have to increase by 50 cents. The district has $762,266 allocated for its 2007/08 food service program, but will need another $75,000 transferred out of the general fund to keep going.
While the USDA sets minimum dietary guidelines and makes subsidized foods available to school districts, it's also notorious for the lesser health values of its commodity foods.
Ashmun also noted that some of the fresh foods the USDA does offer such as oranges, carrots, spinach and onions, are harder to procure and utilize in its food service. That's because many of those items are now going to Iraq, and because transportation costs are rising.
"Some of that produce is not available any more," he said. "It may be that way to stay."
While there were plenty of issues debated, board members came to no fast and hard decision.
"People have an initial fear because they don't know how (something) will work — that's what a pilot is for — to learn the answers to those questions," said board member Ruth Alexander. "I would hate to see a pilot not go through because of fear."
