At the last Houston ISD Food Services Parent Advisory Committee meeting of the school year, we were given a lot of information about some promising changes ahead in school food for the 2011-12 school year. So much information, in fact, that I kept putting off writing it all up for TLT because I knew it would take considerable time to give you the details and get them right (but that’s a good problem to have, no?). I envisioned a post toward the end of the summer when school food would be back on the minds of interested Houston (and other) readers.
But yesterday HISD announced some of the upcoming changes in its e-newsletter and a lot of people have asked me for more information. Because I’m out of town right now I don’t have access to my complete notes from the meeting, but here’s a sneak preview, with a full post to follow as soon as possible:
Reduced Sugar in Flavored Milk
As I’ve mentioned on TLT several times, some school districts around the country have successfully worked with local dairies to obtain flavored milk with a lower sugar content. I advocated just this strategy as a way of striking a middle ground between parents and health professionals who want to see flavored milk in schools and parents who are concerned about the sugar content (“My Problem with Jamie Oliver’s War on Flavored Milk.”).
At the last PAC meeting, HISD told us that it is eliminating strawberry milk in the coming school year (always a less popular flavor) and will be offering chocolate milk, now fat-free and with reduced sugar. My best recollection from the meeting is that the reduction is an improvement — but not a huge drop in the number of grams of added sugar. I’ll give further details in Part Two of this post, including information about high fructose corn syrup and artificial additives in the reformulated milk.
Salad Bars in Twenty Schools
HISD has obtained a grant from the Houston Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association to place salad bars in twenty HISD schools. I’ll provide the list of schools when I have it.
I’m sure one goal in instituting the salad bars is to determine how enthusiastically they’re received by students. On this blog and elsewhere we have heard from schools where salad bars are a hit with children and increase their intake of fruits and vegetables, but we’ve also heard reports of salad bars sitting unused, perhaps because the offerings are unappealing (too many canned or limp items, for example) or because students weren’t given advance education about the salad bars to work up some interest. I’ll be very interested to see how salad bars are received here in HISD and will share any data from HISD as it becomes available.
“Cool*Cafs” Coming to Select HISD Schools
Aramark, HISD’s food service management company, has now instituted its “Cool*Caf” dining concept in several HISD high schools and has or soon will be bringing elements of the Cool*Caf concept to designated elementary schools as well. The Cool*Caf includes new signage, better lunch room design (including some elements that are aligned with Dr. Wansink’s research about encouraging students to make healthier choices –“Interview with Dr. Brian Wansink, Master of Lunchroom Trickery“) and most importantly, at least at the high school level, changes to the food.
I’ll provide all the details in Part Two of this post, but my overall impression from the meeting is that the new high school menu additions represent a meaningful improvement over past offerings. The Food Services PAC saw photos at the meeting of taco bars where students could fill a taco shell or whole grain tortilla with numerous healthful offerings – beans, cheese, tomatoes, scratch-made salsas, meats, sour cream, etc. — and as long as certain elements were taken by the student, the taco or burrito would qualify as a federally reimbursable meal. On the a la carte (i.e., “paying”) side of the Cool*Caf, students could obtain made-to-order sandwiches and pressed paninis, as well as items like fresh cut-up fruits and vegetables and grab-and-go lunches. The PAC members at the meeting were impressed with the appearance and apparent quality of the food – something we’d all happily eat for lunch ourselves.
Much more about Cool*Cafs in the follow-up to this post, and when school resumes here in Houston I hope to give a direct report from one of the new Cool*Cafs, including a review of the food.
More Local Produce in Schools
HISD also reports that it’s working with Texas famers to bring more local produce to school lunch trays and that in the fall it will feature a “Harvest of the Month” selection to give students an opportunity to try fruits and vegetables prepared in different ways.
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There were other changes discussed at the meeting and more details to share about the changes listed above. Part Two of this post, with greater detail and analysis, will be up as soon as I return to Houston.
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