Their mission: Nutrition

USA TODAY’s Nanci Hellmich talks to three women with
the same goal: to make sure kids are getting more
nutritious foods every day — at school, in restaurants
and at home.

Sylvia Dunn calls fruit “nature’s candy” and teaches
children to think of it as a tasty dessert.

As the school food services supervisor for St. Tammany
Parish Public School System in Covington, La., Dunn
has spent 26 years trying to teach students to eat and
enjoy nutritious foods. “We are the bedroom of New
Orleans, and food is very important in this part of
the country,” she says.

Her district is of one of more than 170 that has been
recognized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for
consistently serving healthful food and offering
nutrition education and regular physical activity.

The menus for the district’s 52 schools and 35,000
students include low-fat chicken gumbo, red beans and
rice, fresh spaghetti sauce, baked chicken tenderloin
and pizza with whole-wheat crust.

Also in cafeterias: Lots of fresh fruit, such as kiwi,
strawberries and melon; raw vegetables including
carrots and broccoli; and salads made with deep green
lettuce, raw spinach, shredded red cabbage, carrots
and low-fat ranch dressing. There are no chicken
nuggets, french fries or sugary drinks.

But the fare wasn’t always this nutritious. “When I
arrived 26 years ago, I found a pretty typical school
lunch pattern,” says Dunn, 62, who has two adult sons.
“There were desserts every day, canned fruit in heavy
syrups and cooked, canned vegetables with butter.”

Slowly, she began making improvements. First she
stopped serving rich desserts daily; now the students
have a rich dessert twice a month. Even those have a
nutritious flair: a whole-wheat oatmeal raisin cookie
and whole-wheat brownie.

The schools now use healthier government commodities,
such as whole-wheat flour, canned fruit in light syrup
and lean meats, she says.

The lunch program gets funding from federal, state and
local governments. Elementary kids pay $1 for lunch;
high schoolers, $1.25. The meal costs about $3 to
make. There are no competing a la carte lines in the
schools, and foods offered in vending machines must
meet state nutrition standards, she says.

Dunn believes it’s important to connect the lunchroom
with the classroom. Cafeteria managers teach a
nutrition program to elementary students called “Go,
Glow, Grow.” Kids learn to identify foods that help
them “go,” such as whole-wheat bread and rice; ones
that help them “glow,” including fruits and
vegetables; and those that help them “grow,” such as
lean meats and beans, she says. “It’s rewarding to see
the children making and enjoying the nutritious
choices.”

A battle cry to her fellow parents: Take a stand

Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the
Center for Science in the Public Interest, a
Washington, D.C.-based consumer advocacy group, has
been working for years to get soda, candy, snack cakes
and other processed foods out of schools.

She has been pushing for companies to stop marketing
unhealthful foods to children; encouraging restaurants
to offer more nutritious items on children’s menus;
and trying to get nutrition information on
chain-restaurant menus. She has a 9-year-old daughter.

Her concerns: “There’s junk food everywhere you take
your kids. There are parties with cupcakes and sugary
drinks virtually every week at school. Candy is given
out at school as a reward for good behavior or
academic performance. There is junk food in the
vending machines and a la carte lines in the
cafeteria.

“On top of that, there’s all the junk-food marketing
on TV and the Internet. There are mostly unhealthy
options on kids’ menus at restaurants. This whole
junk-food environment adds up to obesity, heart
disease, diabetes and other diseases that are going to
affect our children’s quality of life.”

What parents can do: “Not only do we need to act
personally, by setting a good example for our kids and
serving them healthy meals and snacks, but we need to
ensure that they grow up in a healthy food
environment. Parents need to insist there be no more
junk food in schools. Parents need to let food
companies, kids’ TV channels and schools know that we
don’t want them marketing junk food to our kids.”

Make our children Generation ‘H,’ as in Healthy

A few years ago, MeMe Roth of New York City was so
concerned about escalating obesity and the marketing
of “fake foods” to children that she founded the
advocacy group National Action Against Obesity. She’s
a former corporate public relations and marketing
executive and the mother of two children, ages 6 and
8.

Changes she is fighting for: “Reversing America’s
obesity trend is hinged on our kids from birth to 5
years, because their eating patterns haven’t been set
yet. They need to be free of the bombardments to
consume junk food. They’re our best hope for fostering
a new generation, Gen-H. ‘H’ as in Healthy. We need to
get junk food out of child care centers, preschools,
YMCAs.

“In 30 years, all of us will look back and think it
was unbelievable what we let ourselves feed children.

“Kids learn by example, and schools have to set a
better example. If you want them to grow up eating
healthful foods, schools have to serve those foods
exclusively, not Cheetos alongside carrot sticks.

“When we teach our children to abstain from sex, we
don’t bring in hookers. Nor do we offer a joint or
cigarette while asking kids not to light up.”

What parents can do: “If parents collectively decided
not to buy junk food, marketers would change what they
offer.”

Found at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-08-07-healthy-kids_N.htm