USDA Gets Creative With School Lunches

Wed Oct 13, 3:45 PM ET

By JAMIE STENGLE, Associated Press Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas - As she devours a sweet potato pancake at a taste test at her school, fourth-grader Paige Murset gives her seal of approval: "I like it. It's really, really sweet."

Next up was a "peanut butter and jelly sandwich" made with sunflower seeds instead of peanut butter.

Shante Brown sizes it up beautifully: "It was good, but it tastes like sunflower seeds."

With their OK, such foods could make it into school cafeterias across the country.

They were among 40 fourth- and fifth-graders at Meadowbrook Elementary school Wednesday testing food like blueberry burgers, dried plum barbecue sauce and asparagus salsa for a U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) event celebrating National School Food Lunch week.

The USDA runs the National School Lunch Program and has often been under fire for not requiring healthier standards, particularly as the number of overweight children continues to grow.

"This is an opportunity to try out some brand new food products and see if kids like them," said John Perkins of the Texas Department of Agriculture.

Eric Foreman, a fruit and vegetable program administrator for the USDA, said the agency hopes the results of the taste test inspire those who prepare meals for the kids to get creative in putting more fruits and vegetables in school lunches.

"We want to help introduce products that are higher in nutrition, lower in fat, to the kids," said John Lund, head of USDA's food quality assurance program.

The smoky-tasting blueberry burgers — a combination of ground beef and blueberry puree — for instance, have the advantage of being lower in fat and packed with blueberries' antioxidants.

"It'll be up to the students and the schools whether they'll see these on their menus," he said.

Lund said the kids' opinions were vital. "They're our ultimate customer. If they're not going to eat it, it's plate waste."

Foreman said events like the taste-testing help schools get creative with the supplies. He said that items that the kids approve of will eventually make it into forums like newsletters and presentations to help get the word out.

"The School Nutrition Association applauds USDA for creativity in bringing out agriculture community and our school nutrition community together," said the group's Barry Sackin. The nutrition association is a membership organization for those involved in preparing school lunches. "A lot of schools are looking for these innovative approaches."

Phyllis Propes, director of Child Nutrition Services for the Fort Worth Independent School District, said that manufacturers seem to be getting the message that school districts are looking for healthy food.

Before the taste test, school and health officials held an assembly in which they talked to the kids about the importance of staying healthy and in shape. They also watched a play put on by their peers in which boxer Paulie Ayala stressed the importance of staying healthy for athletes.

Meanwhile, as she finishes off the last items of the taste test, Paige seems to be getting the message that eating well is important. She says it helps you to "be strong."

"You can't be overweight that much," she continues, and "you eat stuff that's good for your heart and stuff.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...eau_school_food

The pancakes will still have flour, the PB & J will still be made with bread, the burgers will still have buns, the barbecue sauce will have sugar/high fructose corn syrup. This is more of a 'look at us, we are doing things differently' plan then real improvements. Heck, the blueberry burgers are likely made with blueberry jam.

I am so sick of the USDA. When are they going to get it? Did you notice in this article that low-fat is their choice of attack at our children's obesity? For years, they have claimed to feed our children healthy foods and I can attest this is a completely false claim. My daughter's school food is atrocious. They feed her foods such as french fries, fried chicken, steak biscuits, baked beans, etc, etc. I rarely see any green vegetables show up on the school lunch menu. In addition, the USDA considers things such as baked beans a "healthy" vegetable. Oh yes, molasses, so healthy. The problem isn't fat!!! It's sugar. They are stuffing our children with sugars and carbs and they still don't get it that they are giving them exactly the wrong foods and apparently, will continue to do so.

The school food here is not too bad. They have one or two meat-based entrees, then give the kids several options as far as fresh veggies, fruits and such. The problem is, the kids don't pick up these items for the most part. And I suspect if you put a sprig of broccoli on every plate, most of it would go in the trash.

And of course, they are still teaching the kids the importance of the food pyramid. I argued diet with my 8-yr-old the other day. She told me the fat on my steak was bad, but her mac and cheese was good because it was a grain. I attempted to set her straight, but its tough to fight waht the teacher says because they are seen as an ultimate authority. Now my step-kids, they are another story. They eat mostly what their mother and I eat, including a lot of fresh veggies.

Not only will there be flour in the pancake, but if it's 'really, really sweet,' it's full of sugar too. And the peanut butter is not the problem with a PB&J sandwich -- all of the other ingredients are.

This is a joke.

My eighth grader came home the other day and informed that she learned in her science class that cholesterol was a fat that clogged arteries when we ate it. She then told me I ate too much fat while she downed a can of HFCS soda. I try to give my kids some real information, but it's swimming upstream.

We asked our son what he ate for lunch today, and he said chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes and gravy. We asked him if he ate any vegetables or fresh fruit, because we know they are offered. He said no, so we told him he has to eat at least one serving of them every day. I think he'll do it, he just didn't now we wanted him to.

That was exactly my tought!



hey! It's AP, not CBS! LOL

I've read these articles and thought about all the LCers trying to deal with what the kids are being taught.

Mine are older....20 & 22 and they see how I'm doing. I always pushed fresh veggies....but did go way overboard on starches! I limited sodas, fast food, candy, etc.

My daughter is living on her own and doing well with her choices. She's very thin, has to fight to keep her weight up, but I still worry about her high carb intake. Luckily it's "good" carbs for the most part.

My son is still at home, and went from borderline obese to low-normal (by today's standards, I say he went from overweight to too thin) when he was 18. He didn't really change his eating habits, but suddenly became much more active. He eats a lot of processed meals....frozen foods, like hungry man meals, hot pockets, etc and a lot of cereal, pop-tarts, etc. Again, even tho he's thin, I'm concerned about his high carb intake and I'm gently push.....ummm encouraging him towards healthier foods.

My son is drinking less high sugar soda and lower caffeine drinks. He was a Mt Dew addict....between the caffeine and the HFCS, he was terribly addicted! Now he only has it as a treat, and the rest of the time he drinks sugar free. Now that he's working day shift more he's also eating better....I cook for both of us, so he eats "free" LOL

It's gotta be tough with the young ones! I cringe sometimes when I see the articles saying we have to educate them to eat "heart healthy"!!!!!

Well . . . not really. Commercial peanut butters are full of trans fats.

And most of them have tons of sugar as well....

Commercial peanut butter has 3g of sugar in a 2TBL serving. Hardly qualifies as tons of sugar.

And I'm not so sure that trans fats are all that bad. Yes I know, the nutrition establishment has identified them as bad actors, which is exactly why I'm skeptical that they are a poor choice. Are they any more prone to free radical formation than polyunsats? Personally, I'm eating as much satfats as possible. At least until I use up my 5 gallon pail of coconut oil.

"tons" as i described it is all relative. The problem is that is a lot of sugar when kids have normal commercial peanut butter almost daily, and often in much larger amounts than 2 tablespoons which is most often the case.

Read what the Eades have to say in PPLP about trans fats. They screw up the lipid bilayer and cause all sorts of trouble at the cellular level.

Your average kid eats horribly bad. If they bring their own lunches they are ususally sugary sandwiches on white bread, a Snickers bar (YUCK!,) or pudding (yick,) and cola. There just needs to be more stuff that's healthy that you can eat at school. Child-accessible microwaves would help, plenty of butter would too. So would a better cafeteria. I love broccoli if it has lots of butter (I'm 11.) It's best steamed with peppers.