Children and Our School Meal System

When you think of the following words, what comes to mind: chicken, tomatoes, breakfast, healthy? I bet it isn't nuggets, unripe, pizza, or fried. Those are just a sampling of the words and descriptions of some of the foods that the children of the North Wasco County School District 21 eat on a daily weekday basis.

Now, I understand it is up to the parents whether or not we choose to make our children their lunch, or to trust the schools with their mealtime health and well-being.

While briefly glancing over the lunch menu for the past week, it amazed me at the number of meals that I would categorize along the lines of a "fast food-esque" style. I asked her about the amount of the food they get and the quality of the meals. Not only did she say that there were usually flavorless, they also left her hungry not long after lunch.

You see, after the classes eat lunch, they go outside to play at recess for about 20-30 minutes. Kind of backwards, don't you think? If they played and THEN when to eat lunch, they would have worked up an appetite (more likely to eat all their lunch, reducing food waste and hunger cravings later), not had to worry about hurrying up and eating so that they could go play, and they would be quieter and calmer for when they go back to class (increasing their attention spans and productivity).

But I digress, back to the issue at hand, the school lunch menu. When I went to the same school 20 years ago, we had much of the same menu as what they serve today. Hold on, let me do the math here.

You mean to tell me, that after 20 years and all the so-called advancements our school district has made, not much has changed with the menu? What about all these claims about healthier foods for our kids? Taking a good hard look you see chicken nuggets, pizza, burritos, tacos, cheeseburgers and hamburgers without any vegetables. The youngest children at the school and the oldest children at the school all get the same serving sizes for the meals. And sometimes, what is printed on the menu IS NOT what they get in the real world.

I love the breakfast in the morning program, a wonderful addition to the school scene. But to have pizza or burritos or churros for breakfast seems a bit absurd to me. Now, I am like many others, I like pizza, burritos, churros, and many others. But to be serving them at our schools claiming they are healthy and nutritious is lunacy. Sure, they may fry the foods in healthier oils, but it is still fried. Have you ever seen some of the hamburgers they serve? They are greasy and soggy; doesn't look like there is any substance or health there. There are no vegetables, all it is is meat on a bun, you get the choice of cheese or not.

Doing some research, I found something from the Oregon Department of Education's Child Nutrition Services, a survey done in 2007 called the "Survey of School Food Service Providers in Oregon". To me it was an interesting report, talking about something called "farm-to-school" programs. This is where the food service providers would purchase DIRECTLY from the producer the commodities needed and offered for food programs; things like breads, fruit and vegetable produce, meats and dairy. There were a myriad number of benefits to the children from this type of program, from healthier eating to decrease in obesity to learning about where foods come from and how they grow.

In this report, it cited several issues, amongst them the barriers of seasonal availability, budget, lack of staff to prepare the fresh produce, and lack of local producers. It listed as major motivations supporting the local community and economy, and better health for the children.

What I found the most interesting, and at the same time disappointing, is the list of the 31 school districts/schools that were interested in being listed in the Guide to Local and Seasonal Products for Oregon and Washington. Among the 31 listed were school districts that surround ours. Dufur School District 29 and Hood River County School District.....even Sherman County School District. But NO WHERE on that list is NWCSD 21 even listed.

Now, to me, if Dufur is interested and so is Hood River School District, then why isn't NWCSD 21? There are farmers and ranchers surrounding the area, so I doubt it is from lack of availability. Is it budget, is that why NWCSD 21 isn't interested? If you try to find out information on the school district's website, you don't get much but contact information. How would someone go about getting this information? I attend school PTA meetings, and have attended a couple school district meetings. I have never heard anything mentioned, and nothing is ever sent home with the kids.

Where does our school district's food supply come from? Why is our school district so far behind the other schools in the area when it comes to menus and food programs? Looking at the Dufur School District's menu, it is better in many areas than others. One thing I noticed was that they gave the students two options to what they could eat for lunch and a fresh salad bar; the breakfasts consisted of a lot more food than ours do.

So, it is my assumption that both school districts get the same amount of money budgeted for their food program; would I be right in this assumption? I have a feeling I would be way off base actually, since most school budgets are calculated by the number of students that attend each school district.

Dufur SD has approximately 280 students, NWCSD has approximately 3,000 students under their jurisdiction. To me, the more students, the more budget allowed and money allotted. How much is our school district allotted for the food program? If they were to start doing the farm-to-school program, what would be the cost difference between that and buying from a company like Sysco or Umpqua? If it had to come right down to it, would the community support the program and any costs that could be forced onto the taxpayers?

I know if it cost me a few bucks extra in local taxes per year, it would be worth it to know that my children are eating healthier than if they were to go down to the local fast food joint and order a lunch from there.

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