A Whole New Bag : School Lunch Programs Adjust to Reductions in Funding and Stricter Nutritional Standards

For Mark Stevens, principal at Santa Paula’s Mupu Elementary School, lunch duty begins before 7 a.m.

That’s when Stevens, who is also a teacher and a crossing guard at the 100-student school, leaves his house in Ojai for nearby Nordhoff High School, picks up 15 to 20 brown-bag lunches and delivers them at Mupu before classes begin.

Stevens’ duty as lunch deliveryman began this year, after Mupu’s kitchen was closed last year due to budget cuts. Now the school has a contract with the Ojai Unified School District, which provides the sack lunches.

At first, students and parents were unhappy because hot lunches were no longer provided, Stevens said.

However, they gradually warmed to the idea of cold lunches, Stevens said, particularly after he met with parents at the beginning of the year and showed them a typical lunch, which costs $1.35 and usually consists of a sandwich, a small salad, fruit, milk and an occasional treat, like honey-roasted nuts. Prices for elementary hot lunches range from $1.25 to $1.60.

At school districts around Ventura County, administrators must find ways to provide more nourishing school meals although faced with dwindling budgets.

At the one-school Mupu district, the school board voted to eliminate the $18,000 hot-lunch program last spring, said board member Norma M. Geis. The contracts of the cafeteria’s two employees were not renewed, she said.

“It’s a loss,” Geis said. “We all just loved the hot-lunch program. If the state had given us the money we need, we probably would have been able to keep it going.”

Aaron Benner, president of the Mupu Community Club, a parent group, said some parents wanted the program back and suggested that the club raise money to reinstate it. “But I think to be able to raise enough money for that would be taking away from other things.”

Food service directors said they face a number of limitations, including budget constraints and choosing foods from dwindling federal government commodity supplies, a primary source of cafeteria food nationwide. Food managers said they must choose what they can afford, yet try to keep meals nutritionally sound.

“It’s hard,” said Denise Hawkins, food service supervisor in the Ojai Unified School District. “The government wants you to start modifying your diet, but in this last offering I was only offered a few sacks of whole wheat flour. We’re offered massive amounts of butter but limited amounts of oil. . . . We try to work around that to make our menu as nutritionally sound as possible.”

Most food service divisions at schools operate as separate business entities and directors try to make a profit, or at least break even. Many said they seek to minimize waste while satisfying the tastes of students who devour certain foods and throw others away untouched.

In the face of such demands, the school cafeteria has gradually taken on a new form.

Salad bars, for example, have become a common sight in school cafeterias. The Conejo Valley Unified School District sets up salad bars daily at 10 of its 18 elementary schools and at Newbury Park High School as well as several times a week at its four middle schools, said food service administrator Connie Noggle.

“They’re just wonderful,” Noggle said. “The children . . . just go out and help themselves.”

Salad bars, however, aren’t always a big hit.

“We’ve tried a plain salad bar a few times and it goes over like a lead balloon,” said Virginia Bowens, food service director at the Santa Paula Elementary School District. “Students want what they want. . . . When you’re running a business, you have to please your clientele.”

Instead of salad bars, Santa Paula offers salad ingredients in other guises that have proven more popular, like taco bars, Bowens said.

Roberta Peck, a nutrition education specialist with the state Department of Education, said school districts must work within strict federal and state guidelines when planning menus.

For example, U.S. Department of Agriculture lunch guidelines for students in grades four through 12 include two ounces of meat or a meat alternative such as peanut butter, a half-pint of milk, a fruit, a vegetable and enriched or whole-wheat bread.

State officials are drafting new nutrition guidelines that increase fiber and limit sodium, fat and sugar content, Peck said.

Statewide, schools are attempting to minimize fat and salt, and to substitute ground turkey for beef and low-fat milk for whole milk, Peck said. Schools are also changing the way they prepare foods, including baking some foods such as doughnuts that once were deep-fried.

“Our goal is to offer healthier food across the board on campus,” said Peck, adding that appearance also plays a big role. “If the food doesn’t look good, it doesn’t matter if it’s healthy. It’s going to end up in the garbage.”

Apparently, students at Ventura’s Buena High School agree.

Gathered around a half-empty box of doughnuts, under a tree on Buena High’s campus during lunch last week, a group of ninth-grade girls offered their assessment of cafeteria food. The doughnuts, they explained, were leftovers, purchased off campus earlier for students who decorated the grounds in honor of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.

Emily Hawkins, 14, said that although salads and fruits are popular, many students opt for more tempting treats, such as potato chips, popcorn and soft drinks that are sold on campus.

“That’s because we’re human,” Emily said. “I just don’t like food made in bulk. It’s disgusting.”

Samantha Markham, 14, praised the wide range of choices presented.”I don’t think it’s that bad,” she said. But Samantha acknowledged that she usually sticks with a burrito, milk and ice cream. “I got a salad once,” she said. “The lettuce was dead.”

Finishing his lunch of a burrito and chocolate milk, 10th-grade student Terrell Hammac, 15, described the fare as greasy. Buena juniors and seniors are allowed to leave campus for lunch if they have their parents’ written permission, and Terrell said he plans to take up that option next year.

On campuses where high school students may leave school grounds during lunch, cafeteria managers face formidable competitors: local fast-food outlets.

“Kids are well aware of what is offered at various fast-food restaurants,” said Noggle of the Conejo Valley district. “We try to pick up the latest menu items and copy them as best we can.”

Many schools serve grilled chicken sandwiches, chicken nuggets and quarter-pound hamburgers, food directors said.

Nordhoff High School also offers a potato bar with chili, cheese and vegetable toppings, and a pasta bar with a choice of meat or meatless sauce, Hawkins said.

Michael Wetherbee, food service director for the Oxnard Union High School District, listed additions to the menu including French bread pizza, baked french fries, nachos, burritos made with turkey or chicken instead of beef and a “rib-b-que” sandwich of shredded pork on a hamburger bun.

Salad bars were added at two more schools this year, so the option is now available at all the district’s comprehensive high schools, Wetherbee said.

The Oxnard district also presented bottled water this year. To his surprise, Wetherbee said, “students really jumped on it.”

That students increasingly choose fruits, salads and bottled water is a good sign, Wetherbee said.

“That leads me to believe students are a lot more nutritionally aware,” he said.