by Chris Frenier
- “There's no flavor.”
- “Kinda gooey tasting and squishy.”
- “Soaked in grease and tasteless.”
- “It reminds me of plastic.”
Surly these disgusted high school students must be commenting on the food from one of Anchorage's fast food eateries. Perhaps the highly regarded McDonalds, or maybe the traditional Mexican experience of Taco Bell, or possibly even the culinary delight of a Carl's Junior cheeseburger. But the target of these somewhat less then perfect reviews is not a commercial restaurant, but rather…school lunch.
In the Anchorage School District, all meals are essentially prepared by the Student Nutrition center, located in the Huffman business park. This facility prepares, packs, and ships school breakfasts and lunches to the 85 schools in the ASD. Karen Richardson, the Food Center Manager at the Student Nutrition building explains that while all the food is prepared centrally, it is served in slightly different ways.
“The elementary lunches are prepacked here at the facility, for the middle and high schools we send out food in bulk and they cook them at the sites there and serve them up out at the sites.”
Basically, the ingredients in both the elementary and high school lunches are the same, but the elementary lunches are completely prepared at the Nutrition Center, while the High School lunches are cooked and packaged on site. Richardson is quick, however, to explain that all meats and other potentially dangerous materials are cooked at the Center.
“We don't send any raw materials out to the schools, it just sent in a different form. In the middle and high schools, it's sent out in bulk so there's big bags of taco meat that go out, but never any raw meat.”
Richardson and her coworkers try their best to provide local students with a variety of lunch options. In the high schools, students have access to a broad range of foods, from pizza, to hamburgers, to slushies. The options are somewhat more limited in elementary and middle schools, students in grades K-8 have a choice of three entrées, and the option of a “cold pack,” which is collection of fruits and vegetables. This discrepancy stems from the Center's desire to reflect the growing freedoms of high school students in the meal options they provide.
“It's different just because your older and your able to make your own choices and they want to portray that in the high schools and the middle schools."
Richardson points out that the centralized preparations system carries another advantage: continuity of nutrition and quality.
“When we have a centralized food preparation…all the nutritional, its all the same across the board.”
There is no doubt that the Nutrition Center creates a product that is uniform in nutrition, quality, and, for the most part, taste. This aspect of lunch, however, is not always a positive in the eyes of Anchorage students. It is not a stretch to say that the majority of high school students are not very fond of the food the school provides, and would much rather bring a meal from home or leave campus in search of lunch. South Anchorage High School junior Kristian Knutson explains.
“Well, you can get hamburgers and soda and things like that, but a lot of times that leaves you feeling quite sick, so I try to stay away from that.”
When asked to describe the taste of school lunch food, South sophomore Janelle Sharp had this to say.
“It tastes really greasy”
Jordan Elliot gave the food higher marks, but was still not enthused.
“It doesn't taste like cardboard, but still not that great.”
South students may not think much of the taste of the food the district provides, but if one thing can be said, it is that the Student Nutrition Center is dedicated to…well…nutrition. Student Nutrition Coordinator Sandy Hollis, who is tasked with preparing menus for all of the district schools, says that the government health guidelines for lunches are fairly strict.
“We are on USDA and we have a nutritional value that we have to meet each week. We're on a weekly nutritional value, so I figure out the menus and it has to meet so many calories per week depending on the grade level and also 30 percent less sugar, 30 percent or lower fat, and we have to just deal with all that.”
In addition to the values that Hollis listed, the high school meals must total no less than 4125 calories per week and cannot contain more than 140 grams of total fat and 81 grams of saturated fat in a given week. There are also guidelines that set minimums for the amount of protein, iron, calcium, and vitamin A and C that the lunches must provide.
To put those guidelines in easier to understand terms, here is a hypothetical week's menu of non-ASD food that follows the guidelines.
Monday: Cheeseburger, small fries, and a large Coke at McDonalds
Tuesday: Whopper Jr. no mayo, small fries, and king size Coke at Burger King
Wednesday- Tendergrill Chicken Sandwich, small fries, medium coke at Burger King
Thursday: 4 Piece Chicken Strips, Small Waffle Fries, Large Dr. Pepper from Chick-fil-A
Friday: Ham and Swiss Melt sandwich, Hot Ham and Cheese sandwich, and a cherry turnover at Arby's
That's' what you could eat at a few fast food restaurants and still be within the district guidelines for calories, fat, saturated fat, and protein. If you were eating at school, you could choose from items such as hamburgers, pizza, tater-tots, and a variety of other cafeteria staples. The above sampling makes one beg the question, how strict really are the guidelines if you could eat fast food meals for the whole week and still fall within the requirements? When Sandy Hollis was presented with nutritional facts such as the McDonalds Hamburger having less fat than a school district cheeseburger, in a small serving, she had this to say.
“Are you sure.”
Students are also not very impressed with the district's nutritional standards. Many high school students feel that the cafeteria food is high in fat and sodium, and that they can get a meal just as healthy by going off campus, or even better, bringing their own lunch. When asked how she found the nutrition of the cafeteria food, South senior Sabrina Konecky was skeptical.
“I don't think its that great, I think they should give more of a variety of different things because they have the same basic thing everyday and the same basic nutrition, if they call that nutrition, but they need to have more variety.”
Fellow South senior Hayden Ripple echoed this sentiment.
“I really doubt that its nutritious at all, I bet its less nutritious than a Big Mac or anything like that. The pizza's soaked with like 8 lbs of grease.”
And while it certainly is healthier than a Big Mac, school food is defiantly not perfect, the BBQ Meatballs served in elementary schools, for example, have a whopping 26 grams of fat. Perhaps junior Cody Florschinger sums it up best when he says.
“I think the nutrition aspect needs a little more work.”
Perhaps the school district should follow up its new snack food regulations with a review of the school lunch nutrition program. Or perhaps some blame can go to the USDA, for not creating demanding enough guidelines. But whatever the case it, until the nutritional value, and more importantly, the taste, of school lunch improves, students will continue to see it as.
- “Crusty, and gross, and soggy.”
- “greasier than anything I've ever seen.”
- “It really looks disgusting.”
- “dripping with orange grease.”
Nutrition in Anchorage schools
