Decatur School Lunches Compare Well

Editor's note: This story on public school lunches recently appeared in the Athens Patch. The reporter interviewed people involved in the lunch program for the City Schools of Decatur.

By Leight Hewett

When students in Douglas County Schools eat lunch in the cafeteria this year, they will be feasting on corndogs baked in whole grain batter with turkey franks -- not the standard beef franks encased in cornmeal and fried to a golden crisp.

Students in Decatur City Schools may eat fresh produce grown in their school garden. Parent volunteers in Decatur have been known to chop and dice vegetables in the school kitchen before the nutrition staff cooks them in a bit of olive oil with fresh garlic and salt.

These opportunities are made possible by Georgia Organics’ Farm to School Program, which strives to connect schools and local farms in order to provide healthy meals in school cafeterias.

Students in have a different cafeteria experience. Here, menu items routinely include a frozen fruit cup and flavored milk. Friday breakfast features a fortified doughnut. For a multitude of reasons, the students in our district don’t leave the lunch line carrying trays heaped with fresh food as do many kids in Metro Atlanta.

Georgia is ranked second in the country for childhood obesity, according to officials with the Northeast Georgia Health District. Of the 12,221 students enrolled in the Clarke County School District, 74 percent qualify for free or reduced lunches. Many of those children consume as many as half their daily calories while at school.

This raises an important question: Are the school lunches in our district nutritious and healthy? A doughnut does not seem the best choice to serve children if the district is concerned about reducing childhood obesity.

Paula Farmer, nutrition director for the Clarke County School District, believes a fortified doughnut is, indeed, a healthy choice.

"People are quick to judge foods that appear to be healthy or unhealthy," she said. "It’s all about perception. Compare the nutritional value of a bagel, muffin and a fortified doughnut. The childhood obesity epidemic is multifactoral and not a result of one individual food."

*Fortified Reduced Fat Super Donut: Calories 210, Dietary Fiber 1 gram, Iron 8mg, Calcium 200mg, Vitamin A 1500 IU, Vitamin C 24mg, Fat 6 g, Protein 5 g, Carbohydrates 31

A 2 and 1/2 inch diameter plain bagel: Calories 72, Dietary Fiber 0.6 grams, Calcium 4.7 mg, Potassium 26.3 mg, Protein 2.7 grams, Fat 0.4 grams, Sodium 139 mg, Carbohydrates 13.9 grams.

But offering even a fortified doughnut may have unforeseen consequences. Amy Thompson, WIC Nutritionist and Clinic Manager of the East Athens WIC Clinic, believes kids should say “no” to doughnuts.

"Telling kids that it's okay to eat a doughnut -- fortified or not -- is not setting them up to be able to make healthy food choices later in life," she said.

When asked if the menu for Clarke County students had room for improvement, Thompson said, "It looks okay on paper, but what is the quality of the food? Offering more fresh fruits and vegetables, plus cooking more of the meals in-house rather than reheating frozen entrees, would be a good start."

Small steps forward

One positive step towards school lunch reform is that the Clarke County School nutrition program will participate in Athens Farm to School Program by offering a different locally grown fruit or vegetable each month. For example, August was National Peach Month and featured Georgia peaches. September, cabbage will be featured.

Erin Croom, the Farm to School Coordinator for Georgia Organics, applauds Paula Farmer for making this change.

"This is the first step in a long process, " Croom said. "We believe that it's important to think big but start small. Now it's time to figure out how to build on this."

A shining example of how well the program can work is the Decatur Farm to School program, which was started by a group of parents who wanted healthier food served in the cafeteria.

Jennifer Weissman, a Decatur parent who serves on the Decatur Farm to School Committee, believes their district succeeded by looking for readily available resources.

"We found an amazing collaboration within the community," she said, "by joining forces with people that were already interested in projects that were similar to Farm to School."

The Decatur parents worked very closely with Georgia Organics and leaned on other people who had used the program. Since May 2009 they have planted gardens at all nine schools in the district.

School officials have also linked education to the cafeteria and made significant changes in the quality of food being served to their students. The districts's schools  offer fresh and local produce once a week, work closely with the produce distributor to use local produce whenever possible, and provide scratch cooking within the school kitchens.

Originally, the school kitchens in Decatur were not set up for hands-on, scratch cooking. When faced with this challenge, the parents partnered with Cook's Warehouse, which donated equipment and training so the staff could give the children fresh food.

The time is ripe for school lunch reform. The USDA, which oversees the National School Lunch Program, now permits schools to specify locally grown produce when seeking bids for the lunch program.

"Our produce vendor works hard to support farm to school endeavors," Paula Farmer said.

In Athens, several barriers still stand in the way of serving just locally grown fruits and vegetables in school lunches. According to Farmer, the specific obstacles with Farm to School include:

• The procurement and cost of produce purchased for the National School Lunch Program must be competitively bid

• The challenge of delivering food to 23 sites weekly.

• Menus are planned in advance so there must adequate supply and availability of produce.

• Food safety and hazard analysis and critical control points compliance.

Despite these obstacles, the first step to a successful Farm to School Program is holding a community meeting to address barriers such as the ones that Athens is facing. With the support of Georgia Organics, changes in the quality of food are happening in other districts.

Is the food offered to our children the best quality that Athens can give? Athens Patch plans to learn more about what is hampering our district from making sweeping changes in school lunches.

Joan Stroer White also contributed to this story.

Related Topics: Athens public schools, Clarke County School Distrct, Farm-to-School, Georgia Organics, and School Lunches