Last week I toured a Houston middle school for the first time with my husband and daughter.
Now, ever since I started blogging about school food, I’ve been hearing from middle school parents, “If you think elementary is bad — just wait!” As I fretted over the availability of “a la carte” ice cream sandwiches for kindergarteners, they were telling horror stories of entire a la carte snack bars from which kids could make a lunch out of bright red slushies, Papa John’s pizza, fried, breaded chicken sandwiches, Rice Krispies Treats and more.
Sure enough, as we toured the school, one of the amenities touted by the tour leader was the snack bar. She laughingly told us something along the lines of “This is where your kids can get all that junk food they love,” to which I could only think, “And why is that in any way funny?”
One thing that really struck me was seeing for the first time a cafeteria layout that required two separate lines, one for the subsidized school lunch and one for the a la carte food. I’ve already written about the way such a system creates a real sense of “haves” and “have nots,” such that hungry kids on free/reduced lunch sometimes forgo a meal entirely rather than be seen in the “uncool” subsidized lunch line. (See my post, “A La Carte: A World Apart?“) But seeing the layout in person really brought the problem home.
Furthermore, as discussed often here, Janet Poppendieck’s Free for All lays out how the snack bar is there to keep the federal program afloat. But then the federal program is in direct competition with the cool junk food, so the subsidized meals start to look as much like the snack bar as possible to keep those kids in the program. And then guess what? Everyone’s eating a whole lot of pizza and breaded chicken sandwiches, every single day. It’s a deeply rooted problem that, in my opinion, can only be fixed via a major overhaul of the lunch program. But that overhaul would have to go a lot further (and provide far more funding) than the child nutrition legislation currently stalled in Congress. Sigh.
And by the way, guess what was one of the first things my daughter said when she got in the car after the tour?
“If I go there, can I buy the Papa Johns for lunch?”
[Ed. Note: Unlike the subsidized school lunch items, nutritional information for the a la carte foods is not posted on my district’s website. When I inquired about this I was told that this information is coming soon. I’ve also asked for an ingredient list for the slushies and was told that it will be sent to me. I’ll report back on both when the information is available.
Also, my school district would want me to tell you that the Papa Johns pizza is made to HISD specifications, which means it’s lower fat and (I believe) has more whole grain than regular Papa Johns. You all know by now my feelings about this sort of junk food doctoring, so I’ll spare you that particular rant today.]
mara says
While I try and stay so far away from our middle school cafeteria and feel so lucky that my kids have no desire to buy anything from any line there – a few points that makes this all worse.
Middle school girls are right at that age where they want to start eating better for themselves. They are wanting to eat more salads and fruits and less fried foods – so right at the age where they are most open to making healthy choices, school isn’t offering it to them.
Also, some middle schoolers become less active. Recess goes away in the majority of middle schools. So unless your child is playing some sort of sport or active in a way outside of school hours, when are they getting the exercise. I think it is Texas State Law that prohibits 6th graders from participating in many competitive UIL sports (I think so they adjust to new school and workload). So while PE of some sort is required, that may be some kid’s only form of exercise – pile on the fried foods and slushies and no wonder our kids keep getting heavier and heavier!
bettina elias siegel says
Mara – So true! I’ve often thought that the girls, at least, would happily take advantage of a salad bar or even pre-made salads. And your point about exercise is so important. I don’t really talk about that side of the equation enough. – Bettina
NotCinderell says
Re: Middle School Girls: Yes, they might be eating better, but it’s usually out of a sense of self-loathing about their changing bodies, thinking they’re fat and ugly, and not over wanting to be healthy. In fact, many will eat unhealthily in the other direction (anorexic/orthorexic) in order to be thin, blatantly not caring about their health despite eating “healthy” foods.
The link between nutrition and health (not just beauty) needs to be brought home to these kids.
Dana Woldow says
We faced the same problems with a la carte here in San Francisco, but this year we have been able to eliminate a la carte from all of our middle and high schools (it never existed at elementary.) The Super Choice Menu, described here, is now available in pretty much all MS and HS.
http://tinyurl.com/yjrwzpy
Apart from the parcel tax which paid for the Point of Sale equipment, this has been done without any extra funding for the food or the labor. Lunch participation is way up at nearly every school since we introduced Super Choice. Just being able to pick from 8 or 9 choices, rather than the previous 3 or 4, has made a huge difference for the HS students. The food, while good, is nothing special; one of the most popular choices is a freshly made mozzarella, pesto and tomato sandwich on whole grain bread – easy, and healthy too! All food is served as a full meal, with fresh veggies and fruit and milk; you can’t get just the sandwich, or whatever.
But getting to this point took years! I spent almost 4 years of my life trying to get the funding for that Point of Sale system – we applied for grants, we looked for a private funder, we approached the city – until finally we were able to get it funded through a parcel tax which was sold to the voters as a pay increase for our hard working and underpaid teachers, but which also contained a small portion vaguely dexcribed as “technology.” The P:oint of Sale was part of the “technology.” Then working out the menu for the Super Choice, so that it would fit within our price point, took another year of piloting, refining, and promoting. But at last we have eliminated the two separate lines which do, exactly as you have described, create a stigma for the kids on free lunch, causing some of them to forego eating at school altogether. And since it is well known that hungry students can’t learn, this is a very bad outcome. Now we are seeing many more students eating lunch, and less of the “school food sucks” complaints too, which reinforces my belief that half the time, “school food sucks” really means “the whole experience of getting a free lunch at school, where everyone then knows that you are poor, sucks.” Now that anyone can get lunch from any line just by swiping their card, school lunch seems to ‘suck” a whole lot less.
bettina elias siegel says
Dana: I’m blown away but what you’ve achieved in SF and am going to call you about this, if that’s OK. – Bettina
Mary Lawton says
Some hard working moms are introducing mini hummus tubs with carrots at the school store at Reagan HS, where junk reigns. The kids are trying it here and there. I just heard from Earl Finley in purchasing that the a la carte sales are going to be “cracked down on” because as you said they do not meet nutrition/fat/etc. requirements. Let’s get more info about that. Because all these years I’ve been wondering why they are allowed in the schools, while parents cannot sell sandwiches for fund raisers…
Thank you for going to the middle school, Bettina! Next, try a high school.
bettina elias siegel says
Mary – I confess I still don’t totally understand the a la carte landscape. I was under the impression that HISD had imposed voluntary restrictions on itself for the a la carte items (hence baked chips vs. fried) but I’m not sure that’s the case with all the foods. I also want to get a better sense of the financial impact of a la carte and what would happen if you removed it entirely. Glad to hear about the hummus and carrots! – Bettina (PS: I don’t think I can handle high school just yet!) 🙂
corrie says
Papa John’s special “school” ingredients: Thin Crust Cheese Pizza…
DESCRIPTION:
Frozen 14″ Fully Topped Cheese Pizza: Mozzarella cheese, pizza sauce, par-baked thin crust. Provides 2oz. Meat/Meat Alternate, 1.25 Grain/Bread. Each case contains 8 – 14″ pizzas, cut into 8 slices to provide 64 servings per case. Serving size: 4.19oz. Case Pack: 8
INGREDIENTS:
PAPA JOHN’S BLEND OF MOZZARELLA CHEESE, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE AND SODIUM CITRATE: Part-skim mozzarella cheese (pasteurized milk, cultures, salt, enzymes), modified food starch, powdered cellulose (added to prevent caking), whey protein concentrate, sodium citrate, sodium propionate (added as a preservative)
PAPA JOHN’S THIN CRUST: Unbleached flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour), water, soybean oil, yeast, salt, natural and artificial flavors (milk), dextrose, calcioum propionate (preservative), soy lecithin PAPA JOHN’S FULLY SEASONED PIZZA SAUCE: Vine-ripened fresh tomatoes, sunflower seed oil, sugar, salt, dehydrated
PS…that blend of mozzarella comes from donated commodities.
What’s the brand of that slushie???
bettina elias siegel says
Thanks for posting this. Just got the slushie ingredients from the district. Not good. Will post. – Bettina
Maggie says
Even though I work in school food service, even I was surprised to read about some of the meal programs mentioned in “Free for All.” I honestly didn’t realize that there might be so many that had commercial chains in the schools. And, how that leads to such an obvious indication of students who might be receiving free or reduced price meals.