School officials urged to offer healthier grade of foods

Fairfield Board of Education members oversee the education of the town's children, but last week they were the ones who got a lesson -- on the district's school lunches.

Michelle McCabe, chairwoman of the Fuel for Learning Partnership, a PTA Council standing committee, gave a presentation last Tuesday on what's being served in the cafeterias, which clearly shocked many in the audience of about 100 or so.

The school board let McCabe speak uninterrupted and when she was done, board members a few minutes later agreed, in a sense of the body vote, to at least look into healthier options and do a cost analysis.

Fuel for Learning Partnership's mission is to encourage parents, students, teachers, food service staff and Board of Education members to jointly pursue the common goal of serving safe, high quality, nutritionally dense meals to the students of Fairfield.

McCabe said it's time to do away with processed and previously prepared foods.

"Part of our concern is no matter the amount of vegetables or fruits, it doesn't erase the negative consequences of the meal," she said.

McCabe outlined a laundry list of concerns about various foods often served at school, including:

• high salt content in processed foods contributes to high blood pressure, hypertension and heart disease.

• certain artificial colors have been proven to cause hyperactivity in children who did not previously exhibit hyperactive behavior.

• chocolate milk has a little more than eight teaspoons of sugar, or just over 80 percent of the amount of sugar the USDA recommends in a day, she said, from that one menu item.

• popcorn chicken served in Fairfield's public schools has just as many ingredients as McDonald's chicken nuggets

• a comparison between a McDonald's Happy Meal and a sample of Fairfield offerings showed the fast-food meal has 520 calories, 25 grams of fat, and 690 milligrams of sodium compared to 650 calories, 21 grams of fat and 940 milligrams of sodium for the school meal, according to a power-point presentation, "Ingredient List Comparison".

McCabe said children are not being served the kind of food that can support them through the second half of the school day and after-school activities.

She added that processed food equals empty calories; the sugar might give students an energy spike but ultimately they crash, becoming hungry and craving more sugar, fat and salt. They also can suffer headaches as a result of caffeine withdrawal.

And that's not all.

One-third of American children are overweight or obese, she said. In most school districts, lunches aren't helping address that problem. Also, doctors across the country are seeing a dramatic increase in Type 2 Diabetes in children. There has also been an increase in high blood pressure and high cholesterol, said McCabe, citing a 2007 study in the Journal of American Medical Association and a 2010 study in The New England Journal of Medicine.

McCabe said there is a disconnect between what's being taught in health classes and what's coming out of school cafeteria kitchens. Students are being taught, she said, to make healthy choices; avoid fast food; eat whole foods, whole grains, fruits and vegetables; and watch their calories, fat and sugar.

However, when they get to the cafeteria, there are few healthy choices for entrees. Much of the fare is on par with what is popular at fast-food places. There are few entrees with whole food ingredients; foods are being served with known negative impact on learning and overall health; and information to monitor nutrition and ingredients is incomplete, unclear and difficult to access.

"The good news," said McCabe, "is that we can do better."

She suggested the district can phase out foods with unhealthy ingredients; cease serving foods with no nutritional value; phase in on-site preparation of fresh, whole foods, and consistently promote that message from the classroom to the cafeteria.

She added that Fairfield can follow the lead of others districts in various ways. For instance, the New Haven school system is serving locally grown, fresh foods and incorporating prepared, versus processed foods, into its meal program. New Canaan public schools, she said, are keeping costs down by making much of their menus rather than ordering pre-made food. Baltimore public schools, she noted, get some of its food from a school farm. School officials in Appleton, Wisc., found that their Better Food, Better Behavior program improved conduct and truancy issues, she said.

While the Fairfield school district may need to spend some money on training food staff to prepare healthier meals, less will be spent on actual food. As McCabe noted, the money a person spends on food at a supermarket -- on real food to make meals -- goes farther and creates more meals than buying pre-prepared food.

Later, during the public comment portion of the meeting, Analiese Paik, founder of Fairfield Green Food Guide, LLC -- the county's online resource for finding fresh, local, sustainable food and connecting with the green food community -- said after six years of advocating, it was refreshing to see McCabe's presentation come before the school board.

"This is going to be very meaningful for our kids," she said.