the
LITTLEHAWK
City High School 1900 morningside drive, iowa city, iowa 52240
issue six volume sixty-seven - www.thelittlehawk.com
A closer look at school lunch
I
by renatastewart
t is a fantastical place where groups of people work diligently around contraptions of monstrous proportions. Treats of every sort appear in seemingly magical quantities, and mysterious devices perform their duties. Very few know what is really behind the scenes of the City High lunchroom, yet the judgments regarding it abound. ”When it comes to reporting about school kitchens, there is a lot of negative press” said Erin Randall, the City High food manager. With all the recent hype surrounding school lunches nationwide, one might think adjustments had only just gotten underway. “In reality, we’ve been implementing changes for the last twenty years, doing things like lowering the sugar and butter content of our foods,” said Cindy Smith, who works for Food Services. “We were doing all of this way before the whole school lunch craze came on T.V.,” said Randall. One such T.V. show is “Jamie Oliver’s Food+ Revolution”, which has garnered a whopping half million signatures for a petition that states: ”I support the Food Revolution. America’s kids need better food at school and better health prospects. We need to keep cooking skills alive.” And in fact, the Iowa legislation has tried to achieve just that goal. There has been continual pressure from the Iowa Healthy Kids Act, which establishes guidelines for all foods sold on school grounds during the school day which are not provided by the federal school lunch program (this includes the “a la carte” line, for instance). Changes are never easy to make, especially when
kids’ food is being altered. “People always protest at first, but eventually the complaining winds down,” said Randall. “We’re continually trying new stuff, and looking for things that we can make homemade or healthier,” said Randall. One such change made recently was to switch the breading on the chicken patty sandwich to a whole-wheat supplement. Some of the fiercest advocates for change in school food are vegetarians, and the staff has been trying hard to accommodate them. “We’re always striving to incorporate more vegetarian options, and we try to Herculean tasks are performed in the school kitchen every day. In addition to cooking for over one thousand students at City High, the staff also prepare the day’s lunch for six local elementaries. This may leave you wondering what happens to all the leftovers. “Whenever possible, we use it for the next day’s lunch. If this won’t work, the spare food gets sent to the local Salvation Army,” said Randall. Further changes are coming next year, namely removing foods whose fat, sugar, or sodium content is above the norm--so be prepared to say goodbye to your favorite bag of chips or your Whitey’s shake. One factor has to remain the same, however. school lunch must provide one-third of the daily nutrition needed for the student. The lunch program is attempting to maintain the flavor of its food while sneaking in extra wholesome variations. As Randall slyly puts it, “There is a lot of hidden healthiness in your school lunch.”