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By Lydia O'Connor and Rachel Hwang
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Feb. 22, 2008 |
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The Student Nutrition Committee, a group composed of students, the school nurse and a district representative, is aiming to improve the school’s food and the cafeteria’s ambiance.
Committee co-leader and nurse Maryann Rainey took photos of the cafeteria staff to be posted around the cafeteria and asked workers to wear nametags while working to add a personal touch.
Rainey explained that many students find the lunch line impersonal and
hopes the photos will counter this perception. “A number of students
said if they knew (the cafeteria server) it would make the food more
appealing … and make it a bit more interactive,” she said.
Committee members are also keeping tabs on the daily menu in the
cafeteria and examining label contents on vending machine items to
ensure that they correlate with the district’s nutrition standards.
Some of their ideas for the future include displaying nutritional
information about food served in the beanery and cafeteria, passing out
brochures containing such information about cafeteria and beanery food
to registries and hanging decorative posters around the beanery and
cafeteria.
While the committee has been making progress, members worry that
schools may no longer be able to fund healthier options in the face of
potential budget cuts. The district “is thinking of going to a menu of
the 10 cheapest things, which means the possibility of eliminating all
the beaneries,” said Dana Woldow, committee co-leader and co-chair of
the district Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee,
explaining that food choice would thus be limited to “an endless
rotation” throughout the week of unhealthy foods within the district’s
budget.
The committee was partly responsible for two new healthy option: the
beanery salads that arrived in January and the salad bar that debuted
on Feb. 6. “Hopefully we have provided another healthy choice,”
committee member junior Dyne Suh said of the beanery salads, which have
replaced the all-lettuce salad shaker cups. “We want to introduce
healthier alternatives that students can enjoy.”
Featuring organic romaine lettuce and locally grown vegetables, the new
salad bar may tempt students to make healthier diet choices, which is
important, as American children are eating fewer and fewer vegetables,
according to Rainey. “If you make something accessible, it is more
likely to be used,” she said. “I’m quite pleased the director of
student nutrition was able to pull this off.”
Many students do seem to be enjoying the new salad bar, the 21st of 25 in the district. “I like it because it’s organic and only costs me
two dollars,” freshman Alvin Ho said.
The district-funded salad bar is already “pretty popular,” freshman
Cynthia Gao said. “The students here, a lot of the time, (are getting)
no vegetables. It’s definitely a step in the right direction.”
Nutrition committee members are aiming to continue improving these
new offerings. According to Woldow, some of the initial problems with
the beanery salads included cafeteria workers not following
instructions and putting meat and cheese on top of the salad instead of
on the side. In addition, some students have been complaining that the
salads were overfilled and spilled out of the container. The committee
notified cafeteria workers in order to address these issues.
Lowell earned the privilege of having a salad bar because of its
“tradition of improving the food on campus,” Rainey said. The beanery
introduced other new food items in early January, such as low-fat snack
foods and Caesar salad wraps. The salad bar arrived after the Student
Nutrition Committee’s student survey results clearly indicated that it
was a popular idea.
The new items are in accordance with the district’s Student
Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee’s mission “to address the
issues of childhood obesity…increase participation in the school’s
National School Lunch Program…and increase the amount of nutrition
education offered to students and families,” according to the
district’s Web site (http://sfusd.org).
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