Anderson schools' lunch profit is down nearly 10 percent; officials blame new federal nutrition standards; students object to food

Anderson County school officials say new federal nutrition standards are costing them money and hurting poor students because the students don't like how the food tastes are opting out of school meals, Editor Ben Carlson reports for The Anderson News in Lawrenceburg.

The school-lunch program's profits dropped nearly 10 percent. From August through December, the schools saw a year-to-year decline of 8 percent in the number of meals served, and 54 percent of that reduction came from students who receive free or reduced lunches, Carlson writes.

Schools in Clark County reported only a 1 percent decrease in participation in their school lunch and breakfast programs since the 2013-14 school year, despite similar complaints about the new federal nutrition standards.

Schools that take money from the federal government for their meal programs are required to follow the nutrition guidelines of the 2010 Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act, which requires schools to reduce salt and fat; use more fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains; and limit calories by age. The law targets child obesity, in which Kentucky ranks high.

Kentucky is first in the nation for high-school obesity, eighth in obesity of children 10-17, and sixth among 2- to 4-year-olds from low-income families, according to the "States of Obesity" report.

Anderson County Supt. Sheila Mitchell and Ronnie Fields, the district's director of operations, told Carlson that with 48 percent of their students participating in the free and reduced-price lunch plans, they could not afford to drop out of the program like the wealthy Fort Thomas Independent School District did. Nationally, about 150 school districts had withdrawn as of August, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported.

Students and parents told Carlson that students aren't buying school meals because "the food simply doesn't taste good" and school officials told him that they too are frustrated and recognize that many students are "coming to school hungry and going home hungry."

Students told Carlson "The food is gross," and "The food is getting progressively worse." One said, "You only get three things on your plate" and if it doesn't taste good, they don't eat it and go home hungry. One parent who had eaten a school lunch said, "I would not feed that to my dogs."

The district says it is working to improve food quality by surveying students, trying to serve foods they like, experimenting with new recipes, offering samples of new menu items and seeking temporary waivers that will allow them to continue using only 50 percent whole grains.

Another challenge faced by school cafeterias is that they are designed to be "self-sufficient," Fields told Carlson. They must "generate enough revenue to cover all expenses, including labor," And in years past, he said, they functioned with a "healthy surplus," even using this surplus to replace older equipment if the amount of surplus became more than they were allowed to have on hand. But now, because profits are down 9.5 percent since the start of the year, he said, “We’re basically trying to break even."

Some parents complain about healthier school lunches, but USDA says it's on course to improve public health

A few school districts in other states are opting out of a federal-funded school lunch program that was touted by first lady Michelle Obama to provide healthier options to students, and some parents in Harlan County are complaining about the new menus. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the National School Lunch Program, says the naysayers are in a small minority and the healthier fare will become more popular and improve public health.

That is backed up in a study forUSDA's Economic Research Service of 2005, showing that "Students in schools that offered greater quantities of fruits and vegetables consumed more of these foods by most measures." During the 2012-13 school year the lunch program increased servings of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fat-free or low-fat milk, while setting standards for calorie content and reducing intakes of sodium and trans fat. Students are allowed to eat as much fruit and vegetables as they want. The full report can be read here. (USDA graphic)

Districts from Kentucky to Illinois to New York have complained that students aren't interested in the healthier foods, leading students to buy fewer school meals, which costs the school districts who rely on federal reimbursements. But the number of districts opting out could be minimal. The School Nutrition Association "found that 1 percent of 521 district nutrition directors surveyed over the summer planned to drop out of the program in the 2013-14 school year and about 3 percent were considering the move," Carolyn Thompson reports for The Associated Press. There were 31 million students in the program in 2011.

So many students and parents have complained in Harlan County that the school board held a special meeting to address the issues, Mark Bell reports for the Harlan Daily Enterprise. "Complaints ranged from not being fed enough to food received not being good enough. While fruits and vegetables are offered freely and students can take their fill of those, meats and carbohydrates will continue to be served in limited portions only, so students complain of not getting enough food."

In Spencer County, there were no complaints about the food, just a price increase of 10 cents for lunches, to $2.30 ($2.45 at the high school) that school officials attributed to the 2010 federal law. District Director of Operations and Transportation Brett Beaverson wrote in a school-board agenda item, "The logic behind the mandated increase is to eventually equal the difference between the reimbursement rate ($2.86) and the full-pay lunch price." Malloy Bilger reports for the Magnet, "Beaverson said failing to pass the increase would make it appear that the federal government was subsidizing full-pay lunches." (Read more)

Overall, schools are getting healthier, according to a report released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 2006, "the percentage of districts that required schools to prohibit offering junk food in vending machines increased from 29.8 percent to 43.4 percent . . . and the percentage of districts with food procurement contracts that addressed nutritional standards for foods that can be purchased separately from the school breakfast or lunch increased from 55.1 percent to 73.5 percent." states the CDC. "Between 2000 and 2012, the percentage of districts that made information available to families on the nutrition and caloric content of foods available to students increased from 35.3 percent to 52.7 percent." (Read more)

Russell Co. school board plans to make all campuses tobacco-free, renews free-lunch-for-all plan after breaking even

School districts in Kentucky often deal with health issues. The Russell County Board of Education dealt with two important ones, tobacco use and school lunch, in its meeting last week.

State officials are pushing to get schools to make their campuses tobacco-free as a way of discouraging smoking, since Kentucky has the highest percentage of smokers in the nation and ranks near the top in youth smoking.

The Russell County school board heard first reading of a policy that would ban use of tobacco products on all school campuses at any time, including events such as outdoor athletic contests. "Board Member Gerald Murray indicated that those who attended the meeting were for the complete ban, and wanted the public informed that if they had concerns, either for or against the ban, they need to attend the next board meeting to be heard," The Times Journal of Russell Springs reports. "The next reading and vote will be at a special called meeting on June 30."

June 30 was the original deadline for school districts to decide whether to participate in the federal program that makes free meals available to every student in school districts with certain levels of poverty and public assistance.

The board voted to stay in the program after Nutrition Director Susan Melton reported "the program has resulted in a 73 percent breakfast participation rate, an increase of 28 percent compared to 2012-2013 school year, and nearly double the state breakfast participation rate of 39 percent," the Times Journal reports. "The lunch participation rate was 90 percent over the last school year, up eight percent from 2012-2013."

The newspaper notes that the district has to pay only 6 percent of the cost, compared to 20 percent in the normal program, which charges some students regular or reduced prices for meals based on their family income. Some school districts have not joined the program, saying they might lose money on it, and Russell County feared likewise, but Melton said it "has been essentially 'break even' for the county" and has benefits; research has shown that hungry children are less able to learn.

“We went into this last year understanding we may lose $12,000 to $15,000,” Board Member Steve Kerr said. “But we all agreed that if we did lose that it was still well worth it. And with it being a break even situation you couldn't ask for anything better than that. And with the way it looks for the coming school year, I'm extremely pleased with it. Our students are the ones who benefit so that makes everything worth it.”

The state Department of Education expects about 100 of Kentucky's 173 public school districts to participate during the coming school year in a federal program that makes free meals available to all children in a school if at least 40 percent of its students already qualify for free meals through federal programs, Valarie Honeycutt Spears reports of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.

Clark County schools engage students as taste-testers in search for newly required, healthy foods the kids will eat

New federal nutrition standards "are not universally popular with students" in Clark County — some throw away recently required fresh fruits and vegetables — but "participation in school lunch programs has not been greatly affected," Whitney Leggett reports for The Winchester Sun after reading School Nutrition Director Becky Lowery's annual Wellness Report Card.

“This is a way for us to just sort of look at where we are and evaluate what we can do better,” Lowery told Leggett. The report highlights the requirements of the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, such as a switch to whole-grain products, restrictions on fat and salt, and age-based calorie limits.

The greatest resistance has been to fruits, vegetables and whole-grain bread and pasta, Lowert told Leggett. Despite the complaints, participation in the school lunch and breakfast programs has only decreased by 1 percent since the 2013-14 school year, Leggett reports, along with a localized illustration.

To improve student satisfaction, Lowery implemented a student panel to taste possible new menu items. “It is much more difficult and more expensive to find good quality products that students will accept,” she told Leggett. “We’re just always trying to find good products that will still meet regulations.”

As part of the Farm to School initiative, Clark County strives to use more Kentucky Proud products, such as corn grown in Clark County, green beans from Louisville, and Western Kentucky blueberries, Lowery told Leggett. “As I hear about more things available to us that we can use, I will look into them,” she said. “We try to use as much as we can.”

Slicing your way to an apple a day: Americans' apple consumption is on the rise because we're eating them in small pieces

Photo from livestrong.com

By Danielle Ray
Kentucky Health News

Presentation is everything. Apple consumption is on the rise, and researchers at Cornell University think pre-sliced apples are the cause.

The 2013 Cornell study explored why so many whole apples served in school lunches ended up uneaten in the trash. Researchers found that eating whole apples can be difficult for young children with small mouths and for kids with missing teeth or braces. The study also noted that older girls find whole fruits messy and unattractive to eat.

The study found that consumption jumped by more than 60 percent when apples were served sliced. These findings back up U.S. Department of Agriculture statistical data about overall apple consumption. Data show that Americans ate more than 510 million pre-sliced apples in 2014, up from fewer than 150 a decade before.

Likewise, overall apple consumption has grown by 13 percent percent since 2010, according to USDA data. Americans ate about 17.5 pounds per capita in 2013, the most in nearly a decade.

Why does simply slicing an apple matter? The difference between a whole apple and apple slices may seem silly or superficial, especially to an adult, but the inconvenience is a barrier nonetheless, David Just, a professor of behavioral economics at Cornell and one of the researchers behind the study, told Roberto Ferdman of The Washington Post.

"It sounds simplistic, but even the simplest forms of inconvenience affect consumption," Just said. "Sliced apples just make a lot more sense for kids."

The rise of mass-produced pre-sliced apples probably has a lot to do with the fast food industry. McDonald's added apple slices to its menu in 2004 in an effort to give parents healthier options. The company began automatically serving apple slices with Happy Meals in 2012, causing apple sales to skyrocket.

McDonald's has served more than 2 billion packages since first offering apple slices as a side, a representative for the company told the Post. In 2015 alone, the company served nearly 250 million packages of sliced apples, which amounts to more than 60 million apples, or about 10 percent of all fresh sliced apples sold in the United States, the Post noted.

The USDA, which oversees school lunch programs, can't be sure of how many schools offer pre-sliced apples versus whole apples, as local school districts make that decision. However, the agency does make recommendations and encourages schools make fruit appealing in presentation.

The problem with the pre-sliced apple trend? It may lessen food waste, but it increases plastic waste, which puts a strain on the environment. McDonald's apple slices, for example, are served in plastic wrappers. These wrappers are recyclable, yes, but two important differentials exist. First, "recyclable" does not mean it was made of recycled materials, only that it has the potential to be recycled. Second, just because consumers can recycle the wrappers does not mean they will.

Pilot salad bar will determine whether other Jefferson Co. schools follow suit in bid to increase students' veggie and fruit intake

The Jefferson County Public School system is pilot-testing a salad bar at Atherton High School to entice students to eat more vegetables and fruits, a goal of the new federal nutrition standards, Allison Ross reports for The Courier-Journal.

Photo from TheProduceMom.com

"We're always looking for new ideas to increase participation or attract students to come through the serving line," Terina Edington, assistant director for nutrition services, told Ross.

Many of Kentucky's children are falling far short of the daily recommended four and a half cups or more of fruits and vegetables, a shortcoming that one study says will contribute to early heart disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2013 State Indicator Report on Fruits and Vegetables found that only 50 percent of Kentucky adolescents reported eating fruit and 43 percent reported eating vegetables with a median intake of one time per day for both.

Salad bars were once common in Jefferson County schools, but concerns about portion control and contamination concerns caused them to "slowly disappear," Edington told Ross. Many schools across the country continue to "remain leery" of adding salad bars because of such health concerns, Ross writes.

This trial will help the district determine whether it will put salad bars in other schools. Cafeteria modifications for the salad bar at Atherton cost $400, Ross reports.

A push for schools to add more salad bars has been led by First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" initiative, which co-sponsors a "Salad Bars 2 Schools" program that has donated more than 4,000 salad bars to schools, Ross reports. "A 2014 evaluation of that program found that 57 percent of participating schools saw an increase in student participation in school lunch, and 78 percent reported buying more fruits and vegetables."

The school's Facebook page said that the salad bar would have diced ham, turkey breast, fajita chicken strips, cucumbers, baby spinach, radishes and four types of dressings, with the lettuce and meat portions pre-measured, while the other ingredients will be self-serve.

Atherton High parent Lynn Greene told Ross that she is "thrilled my child has a healthy option," saying she hopes other schools will also get salad bars.

Cut back on sugar-sweetened beverages, eat natural foods and read labels to decrease the added sugar in your kids' diet

A greater awareness about added sugars in food products has led many parents to make healthy food swaps for their children, granola bars for cookies, yogurt for ice cream, but what they probably don't realize is that they have likely swapped one source of added sugar for another, Liza Lucas reports for CNN.

Image: foodnutritionscience.com

Lucas offers some suggestions on choosing foods with no or little added sugar and recommends that for a short time, until you easily recognize these foods, you will have to become a "sugar detective." Added sugar is syrup or sugar that is added to foods during processing; the sugar in fruits, vegetables and other whole foods are natural sugars.

The American Heart Association's guidelines for the daily amount of added sugar a child should consume depends on the child's age and caloric intake. BJC HealthCare in St. Louis breaks it down on its website:

• Preschoolers averaging 1,200 to 1,400 calories per day should limit added sugar to about 4 teaspoons (16 grams) per day.
• Children ages 4 to 8 who average 1,600 calories per day should limit added sugar to about 3 teaspoons (12 grams) a day. To fit in all the nutritional requirements for this age group, there are fewer calories available for added sugar.
• Pre-teen and teens averaging 1,800 to 2,000 calories per day should not have more than 5 to 8 teaspoons (20 to 32 grams) of added sugar per day.

Why does it matter?

Added sugar has been linked to obesity, which is then linked to so many other chronic diseases: type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer.

Kentucky is the 7th most obese state for children, with 36 percent of its children overweight or obese, according to Child Health Data. And studies have shown that children who are obese are likely to become obese adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The United States Department of Agriculture found that kids eat 18 teaspoons of added sugar a day and most of that comes from what they eat at home.

One 12-ounce regular soda has 8 teaspoons of sugar, which is more sugar than children of any age should have in a given day.

In Kentucky, 15 percent of high school students reported that they had three or more sodas a day during the past seven days, 25 percent said they had two or more per day, 33 percent said they had one or more a day, and 22 percent said they did not drink any soda, according to the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

How do you help your kids cut back on added sugar?

Multiple sources recommend limiting sugar-sweetened beverages, which includes soda, fruit drinks and sports drinks, as the most important thing we can do to decrease most of the added sugars in our kids diets. They recommend replacing it with water.

"The preponderance of research shows that sugar sweetened beverage consumption leads to excess caloric intake and weight gain, as well as increased obesity rates among children and adolescents," says a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Serve treats occasionally and only at special events. The added sugar from daily cookies in the lunch box and ice-cream every night adds up quickly.

The easiest way to decreases added sugars is to eat whole, natural, unprocessed foods. They have no added sugars.

It is also important to learn how to read labels, especially snack foods, breakfast foods, any foods marketed toward children and beverages. Four grams of sugar is equal to one teaspoon, so a food that has 16 grams of sugar has 4 teaspoons of sugar in it.

In addition to desserts and processed treats, granola bars, cereals, barbecue sauce, ketchup, salad dressings, tomato sauces, soups, fruit juice, lemonade, bottled teas, and flavored yogurts are common foods that kids eat that are loaded with added sugars, Madeline Vann reports for Everyday Health.

Nutrition labels don't list the amount of added sugars separate from naturally occurring sugars in a product so you will have to read the ingredient list to see if the product contains added sugars. First look for any word that ends in "ose," and then look for any of these following added sugars: agave syrup, brown sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, honey, invert sugar, malt sugar, molasses, raw sugar, sugar, and syrup, says the American Heart Association.

"Even 4 grams of sugar makes a difference. It may be only 7 grams versus 11," in terms of product comparison "But if you're making five choices a day, that's 20 grams of sugar you're saving," Dr. Melina Jampolis, a physician specializing in nutrition, told Lucas.