Cream-of-the-Crop Cafeterias : U.S. Honors Garden Grove Schools’ Lunchrooms for Healthy Menus

Cafeteria food.

For many, the words conjure up images of gray-colored globs of meatlike substance smothered in lukewarm brown gravy, with cold mashed potatoes and bread stale enough to shingle a roof.

But to most students throughout the Garden Grove Unified School District, the worst part about eating at the cafeteria is having to choose among the salad bar, steaming baked chicken and wheat rolls, an individual pizza, or egg rolls with rice.

The district’s cafeterias may not be four-star restaurants, but they still shine as some of the best in the state. Last month they received an award of recognition from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, based on the cafeterias’ innovative and healthy menus and the high percentages of students who dine there. The district was the only recipient in the county and one of 10 to win the award statewide.

“I’m allowed to go (off campus), but three of the five days, I eat here,” because the food is so good, said Robert Henry, 17, a senior at Los Amigos High School. “Basically when (students) walk out of the cafeteria, their stomachs are full and they’re feeling pretty good. They’ve got a smile on their face. Friends share their food and say: ‘Hey, that’s pretty good. I think I’ll get that tomorrow.’ ”

It wasn’t always that way. In Henry’s freshman year, the food “got a few of my friends sick. The burritos were so oily it wasn’t funny. You had to use a napkin to eat them. Everyone was looking forward to getting their senior off-campus passes, but the food’s been getting better. Right now, it’s pretty good. I don’t eat breakfast at home. I eat it here. There’s no reason not to.”

As part of a push for healthier, lower-fat foods, Garden Grove school cafeterias now tend to bake it, broil it or forget it. Food services director Sue McCann, who is also a registered dietitian, said that fried foods are out and that baked versions of such popular items as French fries and chicken are in. The cafeterias also offer a wide range of meal choices, which many of the students say they appreciate.

A good cafeteria pays off in the classroom because a well-fed student is a better student, explained Nancy Parker, child nutrition consultant for the California Department of Education, who reviewed the school food programs on behalf of the USDA. “Food service is a part of education, but it’s a part that’s not always recognized. Hungry children aren’t going to learn.”

Parker said she was impressed by the large percentage of students who eat in the cafeterias, which exceeds 90% at 14 elementary schools, and the district’s ability and willingness to accommodate a culturally diverse student body with specialized menus. She also praised McCann’s “leadership and professionalism” and the way she has sought to “involve students, parents and the community” in providing palatable and healthy choices.

McCann said the district serves 30,000 meals a day at 65 sites at its schools in Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Westminster, Cypress, Stanton and Fountain Valley. Overall, more than 80% of the district’s 38,000 students buy breakfast or lunch at school. In high schools, where many students have the option of leaving campus, 77% buy lunch at school--more than triple the statewide average. Prices for meals range from 80 cents for elementary school students to a maximum of $1.25 for high school students, she added.

On one recent day, as the final seconds ticked away before the lunch bell rang, Sandy Emmons and her Los Amigos High kitchen staff in Fountain Valley braced for the impending swarm of students, quickly stacking hot plastic-wrapped pizzas, burritos and hamburgers at the cafeteria counter.

“We have a very fast pace,” said Emmons, who manages the school’s lunch program. “You hardly even have time to breathe.”

Moments later, a torrent of students poured through the cafeteria doors. By the dozen, students crowded around five serving areas where a staff and student servers hastily handed over sandwiches, cheeseburgers and the hot entree of the day, turkey breast marinated in applesauce. Students described the food as “healthy” and good-tasting, rather than offering wisecracks about “clotted cheese” or “mystery meat,” terms familiar to many school lunchrooms.

Between bites of her salad, junior Lucy Uriarte, 16, praised the Los Amigos cafeteria’s variety. “You can get anything you want. It’s not like they give us the salad that they want to give us. They have all kinds of things you can put in it.”

Not everyone is a fan. During one recent lunch period at Bell Intermediate School in Garden Grove, some students criticized the program. Several complained of “greasy” pizzas and “overpriced” salads that use “2-day-old lettuce.” Eighth-grader Curt Miller, 14, said of the lunch fare: “I can do better at my house.”

Still, few students left scraps on their paper pizza trays and Styrofoam salad containers at the end of lunch. Seventh-grader Brenda Dempsey, 12, defended the program, saying that compared to the “sick” lunches that friends in other districts must eat, the food is pretty good.

Over at Los Amigos High, some students complained about individual food items, such as “dry” chocolate chip cookies. But other regular lunch buyers described the food as fresh.

After a meal including a barbecue rib sandwich, an orange and a wheat biscuit, senior Adriana Gonzales, 18, said: “No one can get tired of eating here.”

Tay Lu, 15, a member of La Quinta High School’s student government, said the food at her school “seems pretty average, I suppose. Even if we do have a school lunch program that good, I wouldn’t know how good it is because I don’t know how bad the other schools’ are. We might be lucky.”

Still, she added that the program is responsive to students’ concerns. Students used to complain about slow service. By the time they got through the long line, “they only had five minutes to gulp down their lunch,” she said. So, in September, the cafeteria instituted an additional “express” lunch line that serves cold lunches. “It makes us feel good because they’re responding to our suggestion,” she said. “It’s a pleasant surprise sometimes that they listen to us.”

Nouvelle School Lunch

OUT: IN Fried chicken: Oven-baked chicken Taco dog with cheese: Snack burritos Toasted cheese sandwich: Whole grain tortilla nachos French fries: Oven-baked fries Stew: Barbecue rib sandwich Mayonnaise: Lower-fat mayonnaise Hot, buttered vegetables: Plain vegetables, fruits and salads Cupcakes, cakes: Oatmeal-raisin cookies Whole milk*: Low-fat milk Flour-based white breads*: Whole wheat flour-based breads

NUTRITIONAL DATA, 1988**

Garden Grove School District: USDA Goal 560 calories per meal: 800 37% fat: 30% to 40% maximum 28 mg. fiber: 20 mg. dietary fiber minimum 75 mg. cholesterol: 100 mg. cholesterol maximum 2 oz. protein: 2 oz. protein minimum 1,500 mg. sodium: 750 to 1,000 mg. sodium maximum *Items are occasionally available, but alternatives are encouraged

**Latest data available; district officials say since 1988 they have lowered fat and sodium levels.

Source: Garden Grove Unified School District