Portland schools junk the junk food

Nutrition on menu in lunches and vending machines

By Jennifer Anderson

The Portland Tribune, Aug 25, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

JIM CLARK / THE PORTLAND TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO

A push for more nutrition in schools aims to counter rising obesity and diabetes. Abernethy Elementary was an early adopter with its scratch kitchen, where James Fowler prepared lunch earlier this year.

Students returning to Portland Public Schools this fall will get a taste of the district’s new and improved nutrition standards — whether they like it or not.

Starting Sept. 6, the first day of school, the district will eliminate soda in vending machines at all grade levels and put salad bars with fresh fruits and vegetables in all school cafeterias.

Servings of cookies and french fries (at the high schools) will be limited — both in frequency and portion size — and the lunch menu will offer healthier items like pita and hummus platters, veggie burgers, salads, tofu and even produce that has been harvested from school gardens.

The move away from junk food comes after the Portland school board adopted the district’s first wellness policy last summer, part of a national mandate for all school districts that receive federal subsidies for school lunches.

The changes also reflect many of the recommendations made by the district’s 22-person Wellness Advisory Committee, an appointed group of teachers, parents, nutrition experts and other education advocates. Citing the need to reduce childhood obesity and diabetes, the group called for improved nutrition standards in the cafeterias and vending machines last summer.

Now they’re glad to see things get under way. “We’re ecstatic,” said committee Chairwoman Sara Leverette, program director at the environmental nonprofit Northwest Earth Institute. “It’s really taking bold steps across the board; (it’s) different from anything I know is going on in Oregon.”

That may be the case, but school districts nationwide are jumping on the healthier school lunch bandwagon. The New York Times Magazine on Sunday featured the issue in a cover story that took on the question of whether the trend actually produces measurable results in students’ health.

Scientific findings have shown mixed results, the article noted. Yet school districts — from Harlem to rural Arkansas to Berkeley’s famous Edible Schoolyard program, now led by noted chef and author Ann Cooper — continue experimenting with new ways to serve healthier foods to kids.

Mary Lou Hennrich, executive director of the Community Health Partnership, a Portland-based public health advocacy group, said that skepticism shouldn’t undermine Portland’s efforts.

When she helped start the school-based health center at Roosevelt High School 20 years ago, she said, she was asked by a reporter five months later if the teen pregnancy rate had gone down.

“Besides the fact that it takes nine months to be pregnant, these things take time,” she said. “To get enough data, to be able to see changes in the health industry, it’s not going to happen overnight.”

Even if the studies on healthy school lunches have not been overwhelming so far, Hennrich said, the nutrition standards make logical sense and are a step in the right direction.

There go the ads, too

The changes in Portland schools this year include:

• Beverage vending machines no longer will sell soda or sports drinks (which had been only in high schools), replaced by water, 100 percent juice and milk. As a result, all machines with soda advertising on the side panels will be removed.

Machines with Dasani and Minute Maid advertisements will be replaced throughout the school year with machines depicting activities, sports, fruits and other healthy messages, according to Kristy Obbink, nutrition services director for the district.

The district’s contract with Coca-Cola, which prohibits the purchase of non-Coke beverages, runs through 2009. Since the district distributes $100,000 of its Coke commissions to the high schools, based on enrollment, the ban on Coke will decrease the funds. They won’t be eliminated because the district will still have Coke machines in faculty break rooms. The funds won’t be reduced for this school year but in the 2007 school year.

• Snack vending machines must meet a new set of nutritional guidelines, which means baked potato chips, nuts, granola bars and pretzels are in while traditional potato chips and candy of all types are out. Treats sold at the school store will follow the same guidelines.

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