BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Lunches at Kentucky school cafeterias feed more customers than many fast food franchises, although they are a little high on calories and fat.
Packed with vitamins, calcium and other nutrients growing children need, meals cooked up in today's school kitchens are much healthier than those served 50 years ago.
And some taste good.
"I like to eat the pizza," said Kenny Van Damme, an Ockerman Elementary fifth grader. "I like school food. I'll pack my lunch sometimes, like once every three months."
The Enquirer visited a handful of school cafeterias during National School Lunch week to find out what's cooking.
To help students celebrate the week, schools served up the favorites, determined by student demand. Pizza reigns supreme, no matter what the age.
So much of it is served in Boone County Schools in one day that if you laid all 9,696 of the 6-inch personal pizzas end-to-end, they would equal the length of 16 football fields.
What students don't know is that the slices they're eating are made with low-fat cheese.
Federal guidelines require schools to offer meals where no more than 30 percent of calories come from fat and less than 10 percent of calories come from saturated fat.
Those same meals must also provide one-third of the daily intake of protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium and calories.
In Kentucky, most schools don't meet that standard. They serve 32 percent of their calories from fat and 12 percent of calories from saturated fat, state officials say.
"I continue to be more concerned about the food quality and how many students are participating," said Paul McElwain, director of Kentucky's Division of School and Community Nutrition. "Kids need full stomachs to learn."
Much of what the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires for school lunches is based on the assumption that the school meal is part of a child's diet.
Local educators find, however, that school lunch, and in many cases school breakfast, are the only hot meals students eat.
Statewide, more than 70 percent of students buy school lunch; 28 percent buy breakfast.
Part of the reason those numbers are so high is more than 50 percent of Kentucky students qualify for the free and reduced lunch program. On average students pay $1.20 for lunch or 40 cents for a reduced price meal. Breakfast generally costs 75 cents or 30 cents for a reduced price meal.
Seventy-one percent of Covington students receive free or reduced price lunch. In Boone County Schools, 21.5 percent of students qualify.
School chefs are seeking ways to make the meals healthy and tasty. At Covington's First District School, cook Pauline Cappel, known affectionately as "Sarge," uses traditional USDA recipes. Prune spice cake is an old standby, but the kids prefer it without the spice. They don't like prunes but calling them Texas raisins sometimes adds more appeal, said Phyllis Martin, Covington's food service director.
"What we're doing here is education as well," Ms. Martin said. "We're teaching them to eat right."
The district serves 3,800 lunches and 1,200 breakfasts a day. That costs about $600,000 a year for food.
"We're allowed to eat anything on our plate whenever we want to eat it," fourth-grader Brandon Robertson said.
He and friends Brandon McGuffey, Harry Smith, Kenneth Strong and Justin Dodson were eating their pudding first.
That's OK with food service workers as long as students get the nourishment they need.
Federal studies show that hunger hurts children's ability to learn. Research on low-income children indicates that those who eat breakfast at school do better on standardized test scores and are tardy or absent less.
"If you've got students that will only eat pizza and fries, you try to get good pizza so they'll at least eat something and be in a position to learn," Mr. McElwain said.
That's essentially why the National School Lunch Program was started.
Congress created the program in 1946 "as a measure of national security to safeguard the health and well-being of the nation's children." It was a direct response to the finding that many men responding to the World War II draft were rejected because of malnutrition. The school lunch comprises five food items -- meat, bread, vegetables, fruit and milk. Students must take three of those items.
The federal government reimburses participating schools for every lunch served, on a sliding scale according to a child's family income. That's usually about 18 cents a meal.
The program underwent a reform in 1996 when the USDA instituted the reduction requirements for calories from fat.
Goodies still served
In Boone County Schools, Food Service Director Lucy Ferguson said she tries to find ways of "lightening" favorite foods:
Goodies such as chicken nuggets -- 60,000 in one day -- are served frequently. Students might not realize the chicken and french fries are oven baked rather than deep-fried.
Spice cake is made with sweet potatoes.
Hot dogs, ham and bologna are turkey-based.
Ground beef is drained and rinsed with hot water to minimize fat.
In a district that serves more than 1.2 million meals a year, those preparations avoid millions of calories.
In general, the nation's schools are doing a good job when it comes to school lunch even if a 1996 General Accounting Office (GAO) report said most schools exceeded the limits for calories from fat.
Still, GAO said, schools provided more than the minimum of iron, vitamin A, protein and calcium.
That report found that 13 percent of schools are serving branded fast food items from such chains as Taco Bell and Dominos Pizza. On the other hand, students still made their silent protest when meals failed to meet their standards, GAO found: 42 percent of cooked vegetables, 30 percent of raw vegetables and 22 percent of fresh fruit ended up in the trash.
School menu
This is the menu served at Holmes High School the week the nutritional analysis was completed. Students must take at least three items from those offered.
Monday
Coney on a bun with American cheese, lettuce and tomato, potato puffs, broccoli, cheese sauce, cherry cobbler, chicken patty, pears, apples, oranges, bananas, orange juice, gelatin, crackers, salad bar and dressing, milk and ketchup.
Tuesday
Chili spaghetti, hot ham with cheese sauce, hamburger on a bun, California blend vegetables, corn on the cob, lettuce, peaches, apples, oranges, bananas, orange juice, crackers, spice bar, salad bar and dressing and milk.
Wednesday
Pizza hoagy, hot ham with cheese sauce, bologna and cheese sandwich, french fries, baked beans, lettuce, pickles, apple sauce, brussels sprouts, apples, oranges, bananas, crackers, ketchup, spice bar, milk, salad bar and dressing.
Thursday
Taco salad, pork rib sandwich, grilled chicken patty, pinto beans, corn bread, Italian blend vegetables, corn, fruit salad, apples, oranges, bananas, orange juice, salad bar and dressing, milk and crackers.
Friday
Fish, grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, tomato soup, peas, coleslaw, pineapple chunks, apples, oranges, orange juice, apple juice, pickles, crackers, salad bar and dressing, milk, crackers.
