Hi Cindy,

I am sorry for the delay – I have been working with the team here on a review of the research that has been done on our containers and films.

An internet search will provide readers with background on the issues and concerns regarding bisphenol A (BPA) – an industrial chemical used in the production of certain plastics and resins which are often used in containers that store food and beverages.

We have worked with our supplier of plastic films and containers for our pre-pack programs to determine that the products we utilize do not contain BPA.

I would think that fresh produce is too expensive and requires too much work (i.e. careful prep, can't be stored for long periods, etc).

Personally, I think schools should put what little funds they have toward the teachers and leave nutrition up to the parents. I think its a good idea, in an ideal world, but in this world...parents should pack salad in their kids' lunchs.

This sounds like a great way to endoctrine your kids to the nanny state while they are still young. I mean, who would want them to be able to make their own decisions? That's for hippies and anarchists.

Luckily I was done with school before stupid policies like this were enacted, but my first thought was that I'd get my Dr Pepper fix from the gas station across the street. Really effective.

Maybe if you raised your kids better and taught them how to eat healthy and a little bit of self control, they would only have a few sodas a week and respect that some foods, while delicious, are generally bad for you and should be consumed in moderation. But no, that would require good parenting, let's just ban stuff instead.

It won't matter when they turn ~15-16 anyway. They will start to get their sugar from a different, fermented place, and it will be even worse for them.

Maybe you'd have some more money if you left the vending machines in because you could charge Coke a ridiculous yearly amount to put them there. They'd pay; like I said, they know this is a good time to endoctrine too.

Your teenagers emptying out those apple vending machines? Haha.

I personally don't think adding a salad bar to a school will change anything.

The first step that should be taken is education on nutrition. Eating healthy is always a self choice, but if it is encouraged and taught from a young age it would probably have more of an impact.

Second idea is altering what people already love. Instead of filling up with beef every meal maybe limit to once a day. Instead maybe use black bean burgers. Fruit is delicious, healthy, and sweet. You replace fruit with candy and junk food then snacking all the time isn't so bad.

We can't possibly keep up with the demand forever with our current system. Making deals with local farmers and changing the menu for food that's in season might help.

Not sure what is for sure, but it could honestly be anything. With the increase in population the quality and care of meat products has decreased.

If it is something that bothers you I would recommend laying of the meats a bit and finding altenatives for protein such as beans or soy products. Organic food should always be a priority. High protein yogurts for calcium. Fruits are a tasty snack for whenever and vegetables are the greatest thing ever.

Thank you, Brita Butler-Wall for leading the charge on this how many years ago now?

Snopes has a good answer about the myth of mystery meat:

A certain "tough guy" pride comes from being part of a group which has survived unpleasant or arduous events, with membership of such corps worn as a badge of honor and proof of that person's value.

http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/badmeat.asp

Hey, it's a tradition of students everywhere to disparage the food they are served in school cafeterias. Presumably meat put into sauce and noodle dishes (easy to serve in individual meal amounts) have made it easy for young consumers to stare at what is before them and say "Hey, just what is in this?" We all have been there joking about 'road-kill' and 'kangaroo meat', heck growing up in Florida we mused about 'armadillo'. Of course, ground meats like chicken, turkey, beef, and pork are the reality and likely no different than what we use in our own homes.

There are ups and downs in the efforts to give school children appropriate meals in public schools, but I believe we are in an age where the quality of this effort is ever increasing.

I have been impressed by the answers proffered here by Eric Boutin, Director, Nutrition Services of Seattle Public Schools and think that the questions posed by Qlanders represent the current concerns and typical fears that parents often have. Bravo for the open discussion!

Hi Syd,

I believe we have fresh fruit and vegetable bars in at least 70 schools. We have 12 - 15 schools where fruits and vegetables are individually portioned/packed fresh each morning by our Central Kitchen team - these schools typically have very low volume or simply do not have food preparation facilities. We are looking to see how we might introduce a salad bar into this last group of schools.

Rickler,

There is always more work to be done, but Seattle Public Schools is generally recognized as having a model vending/competitive foods policy - Seattle has not offered soda or candy or chips in the vending machines for several years.

Hello Mr. Teenage Ninja Dad,

I might need a little help for your children - is there a particular entree that has them curious? (I would be pleased to delve deeper...)

It's usually some sort of processed meat product, like Spam, sometimes covered in a sauce to disguise the nasty look and taste. In factories, the meat is shredded or ground then pressed into a patty.

It's called "mystery meat" because no one is certain whether it's beef, chicken, or pork (usually, it's a combination of all three).

Ruthless,

I know there has been quite a push the last several years to make this connection - we have protocols to follow, but I am not award that there are specific prohibitions.

Ms Lang,

My apologies! I sent a painfully long response last night but had a technical issue.

Here is the challenge – get 50 dietitians in a room and ask them whether to ban chocolate milk. I am pretty confident you will have 25 says YES – ban it – the extra sugar is detrimental and you will have 25 say NO, even with the extra sugar/calories, chocolate milk is the vehicle for providing critical vitamins and minerals to growing bodies. In addition a whole list of medical and pediatric groups recently signed on to the “keep chocolate milk” petition (citing numerous research). The other issues include – milk is better than “soda” (the alternate to milk that a child might consume). Mr. Sackett nicely addresses some of the actual nutritional considerations (our chocolate milk is indeed non-fat).

That being said, I do not believe chocolate milk is necessary at breakfast. It is not “bad,” but simply not helpful. I do know for a fact though that far fewer children take milk when only white is offered - we would have (do have) a real concern about removing it at lunch for exactly that reason.

Our informal protocol is that when a parent or teacher or group of parents or teachers ask if we can eliminate chocolate milk at breakfast, our first question is have you worked with the Principal and the school as a whole? This piece is critical – we really feel the whole school community (parents, teachers, etc) need to talk about and teach and model good choices around food. That’s it – with the school and parents behind it and modeling it, we are pleased to implement.

I know the Auburn School District stopped offering chocolate milk at breakfast in their 14 elementary schools more than 3 years ago and I believe overall, it has been well received.

Chocolate milk at lunch is another issue and absent a solution to the concern stated above (that so many students simply will not drink white milk) – I am not sure it would be in the best nutritional interest of the children.

Ms Wayne (and Ruthless),

My apologies for the delay – I must have had a technical issue as my response did not post yesterday.

Most certainly school garden produce can be used in the cafeteria!

As I bet you know, what better way to connect the educational and experiential learning of the classroom with the actual nutritional impact on our bodies. There are costs of having a cook there to specially prepare (or supervise the preparation of) fresh garden bounty – but once those are addressed, we are more than pleased to try to figure out how to incorporate into the lunch program.

Last week we met with a horticulture teacher in an elementary school with an organic garden – we will be implementing a special salad bar there as soon as the next crop of garden goodies are grown by the students.

As Mr. Campbell noted, precautions need to be taken. In general though, we follow the same HACCP (Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Point) protocols we have for produce from our main commercial vendor as well as purchases from local farmers (inspect on arrival, wash per protocol, handle with gloves if preparing “ready-to-eat” foods, store properly (keeping hot food hot and cold food cold), serve with a smile. Our website includes a checklist for schools to review: (http://district.seattleschools.org/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/1583136/File/Departmental%20Content/nutrition/School%20Garden%20Flyer.pdf?sessionid=b2fee034e61ccb06441a72dbd0ea5d1f

I am sure there are the typical liability and insurance issues about the safety of food that is being grown out in the open and probably unsupervised much of the time.

Can you imagine the lawsuits and blaming that would be flying about if someone became ill from eating tainted or spoiled food from such a source.

Commercial food producers are insured for such instances and have much better control over their sources of foods.

In our litigious society this precaution makes perfect sense.

For starters, you'll need to establish that getting rid of chocolate milk in the schools would actually improve nutrition. I think it comes down a question of how bad you think sugar is.

Milk provides substantial amounts of calcium, protein, and vitamin A. Kids might get less of these nutrients if they decrease their consumption of milk because chocolate milk is no longer available.

Also, the difference in sugar content between milk and chocolate milk is not like the difference between water and soda. Milk already has sugars in it.

Regular low-fat milk: 13 grams of sugars, 102 calories with protein and fat included
Chocolate low-fat milk: 25 grams of sugars, 157 calories with protein and fat included

I don't know if these numbers reflect that actual values of the milk in Seattle schools. The school district web site says that the regular milk is 1%, and the chocolate milk non-fat, so the calorie difference might be a lot less.

Remember that organic doesn't mean no preservatives and non organic doesn't mean preservatives are used, either. Organic foods can still have high salt content and utilize chemicals derived from other natural sources. Raw, organic, sustainable, standard, unhealthy and nutricious foods are labels that are not necessarily correlated with or exclusive from one another.

Hi MissMolly,

More local foods – we are working on it! On the produce side, we have worked very hard with our vendor to try to source local fresh fruits and vegetables (organic when possible). I see last year we spent more than $54,000 on local produce (a fair amount is apples this time of year but includes lettuce and melons and cucumbers and soft fruit etc at appropriate times of year).

About 10 minutes ago, a Dietetic Intern from Bastyr University came through the office with a sample of local red and Yukon gold potatoes fresh roasted in our central kitchen (she is working on a recipe with Randall our Central Kitchen Manager) – delicious by the way. I think we can make some inroads with fresh roasted potatoes. The other local produce we have access to right now (parsnips, beets etc) are a little harder sell with the students – but we are working on some partnerships and projects to perhaps move in that direction.

Our Dairy is local – our Breads/Buns (mostly all whole grains) are produced locally. We did have a meeting just before the holidays trying to source a local “nitrate –free” hot dog and we’ll are looking into local ground beef for some of our recipes.

We do have purchasing laws to follow (we cannot necessarily just purchase from a vendor outside of our bid processes), but we would welcome other suggestions or product ideas.

Hi Cheryl,

Yes – right now it is intermittent (15,000 organic Braeburn apples in January and another 13,000 organic Braeburn’s this week). Randall is our Central Kitchen Manager and oversees the production of more than 20,000 meals each day. He works with our vendors to source as much local and as much organic as possible. The reality is the pricing is often prohibitive, but there are other items he has been ordering (like organic packaged baby carrots). We also have five schools with Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Grants from the USDA to offer a healthy snack each day (in addition to the breakfast and lunch program). At these five schools we have utilized a good deal of organic produce and hope to do more.

We are also implementing a partnership with one of our elementary schools with an organic school garden – working with the students to harvest and then utilize their bounty in the cafeteria at lunch.

We are also developing entrees from scratch with fresh ingredients (no preservatives) – and are working on doing a better job of identifying them on the menu and on the website (you will notice on our elementary menu that we started to identify the “whole foods” as a point of discussion for families and hopefully to spur student interest.

So yes – there is a organic little out there, we are looking for more – and we are working on recipes utilizing fresh whole foods, but funding is really a fundamental issue – organic and fresh do simply cost more.

We hope your children find something that piques their interest on an upcoming menu!