Teaching Nutrition
Menu revisions and promotions turn commodities into hits, foods into fun
By Margaret Sheridan, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 8/1/2004
Foodservice directors have an arsenal of successful strategies to serve children healthful meals and keep costs at bay. The New York City Board of Education’s approach included hiring an executive director from commercial foodservice to run its schools more like a retail business.
“If you’ve got 20 to 30 minutes for lunch, you’ve got to be fast,” says David Berkowitz, executive director for school food. “Mimic retail and quick-service restaurants. That’s where kids go.”
Last May, the district hired Jorge Collazo, an executive chef and culinary school graduate, to oversee operations, innovate and reformulate recipes for 1,558 schools and 1,055,000 students.
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“The first thing I did was order more spices,” says Collazo. He encourages flexibility for cooks to customize recipes to fit the demographics and culture of the community. “We all use the same commodity chicken, but who said it has to taste identical in every borough?”
With New York City schools’ annual food and beverage purchases of $107 million, vendors jump at the opportunity to provide new or reformulated products to meet the district’s nutrition standards. A new Jamaican beef patty being served contains less sodium and fat. So do deep-dish pizza, chicken nuggets and snacks.
Berkowitz markets school foodservice much the way burger chains capture their audiences. Think environment and make food cool, he says. Many cafeterias received face-lifts in bold colors. Foodservice employees now wear burgundy golf shirts and khaki pants instead of institutional whites. Posters, lighting and graphics announce events and define areas in dining rooms and serving lines.
Foods will be packaged in the types of wrappers and containers found at quick-service restaurants. Milkshake bars will be tested this fall in some schools as will cooking stations where guest chefs will conduct demonstrations complete with samples.
“Teens are a big challenge because they have money and freedom to go off- campus,” says Berkowitz. “In New York City, they can get anything to eat within five or 10 minutes of the school.”
To increase awareness of free or reduced-price meal programs—a boon to increasing funds to school districts—schools need parents to complete necessary forms. Berkowitz implemented several initiatives, including a Lunch Form Sweepstakes where health-related gifts are raffled at parties in each school. Once eligibility status was documented, participating students and families were eligible for random drawings for entertainment passes, autographed baseballs, bicycles and gym memberships. Every school reached 100% form retrieval, he says.
Promote Taste
Meal periods at the 178 Fairfax County (Va.) Public Schools
are opportunities to learn. But teachers, dietitian teams
and supervisors do it through cooking classes and game playing.
One version of bingo uses food and nutrition facts, according
to Penny McConnell, director of food and nutrition services.
To increase fruit and vegetable consumption, she expanded
salad bar options, while staff dreamed up a cast of characters
to match each fruit and vegetable. A character, spotlighted
monthly, is repeated in menu designs and posters. Food items
using the ingredient are earmarked with the character in
signage in the cafeteria line.
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Stacy Meyer uses culinary school training and restaurant experience to revamp tastes and looks of student favorites such as sloppy Joes and chicken nuggets at San Bernardino (Calif.) Unified School District. The executive chef oversees production of 50,000 meals a day and uses negotiation skills to work with vendors to find new products and sources.
“Finding a tomato sauce you like can be a challenge, but getting it to taste just right is also a sense of accomplishment,” says Meyer. One vendor agreed to reshape chicken nuggets into logs, happy faces, even triangles. “Some teachers, if they know nuggets in triangular shapes are on the menu, use it as a source of discussion in geometry.”
When Fairborn (Ohio) City Schools closed two elementary schools last June, staff morale dipped temporarily before an opportunity surfaced. The 2,500 students affected were reorganized into three grade-specific schools: kindergarten through grade 3; grades 4 and 5; and grade 6.
A single marketing plan doesn’t work for these three age groups, says Paula Montgomery, child nutrition supervisor. Her staff created new ways to market to each age group. For first graders, colorful photos of foods are positioned at tray- line height. They catch the kids’ attention as they approach serving areas. “This age group is shy and less likely to ask questions about an unfamiliar fruit or food. Seeing pictures helps,” says Montgomery.
Colorful posters with nutrition facts in eye-catching graphics jog minds of 4th and 5th graders while sixth graders get more choices in entrées. Decision-making empowers this age group, she says, and readies them for junior high school when choices further expand.
Seek Consensus
Creating a healthful school culture
took months of meetings at Miami-Dade Public Schools. But the
new policy, announced in April 2004, is testimony
to team effort.
“We got everyone, including teachers, athletic departments, coaches and foodservice, to agree on training classes for teachers in behavior and fitness in exchange for extra credit,” says Penny Parham. Teachers and coaches monitor lunch periods, ensuring each student has 60 minutes to eat and exercise. To reduce waiting in lines, cafeterias stagger meal periods into 30-minute blocks and allow more time between breakfast and lunch so kids can digest more easily. “Instead of starting lunch at 10 a.m., on the heels of breakfast, we start at 11 a.m. and serve until 1:30 p.m., if necessary.”
Even issues of vending and fund-raising can be handled to appease students and faculty. “You can’t threaten kids or coaches about taking away athletic programs or never selling junk food. You talk about food choices and other ways to raise money,” she says.
Such an approach proved effective. Athletic directors found new sponsorships. Instead of using food or candy in fund-raising, they looked to nonfood items such as athletic shoes, T-shirts, and even no-homework passes. Parham’s approach to vending was equally successful. She worked with purchasing directors and vendors to maximize choices. “We didn’t eliminate anything, we just cut some choices in half and added more fat-reduced and baked items.”
Soft Sell
Selling teens on proper nutrition requires tact. “The minute
students see the word ‘baked’ on a potato chips bag,
they don’t want it,” says Johnson of Gary Community
School Corp. “Why can’t manufacturers use the terms ‘new
and improved’ instead of baked?”
In a taste panel held in 13 Gary schools last March, a local snack vendor organized a blind tasting of chips. The staff knew which ones were baked, the students didn’t. “Tasters didn’t complain or talk about a difference,” says Johnson.
This year, she removed sugary snacks, fried products and many salty snacks from à la carte choices. Baked chips, pretzels and juices replaced high-fat snacks.
The boldest move—substituting frozen fruit treats for ice cream—was based on experience. Last spring, an electrical failure caused freezers at one school to shut off, meaning there was no ice cream. “No one missed it,” says Johnson. “Kids get plenty of ice cream on weekends. Why have it at school?”
Hot Bites
School cafeteria meals are getting hipper
as administrators entice students to eat and enjoy—not just be served—nutritious
meals. Some of the items that will be on school menus this fall:
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