hhstoday.com | September 2014
on lunch and vending
machine changes
For more information on the
HHFK Act and new lunch
standards, VISIT
fns.usda.gov/healthierschoolday
VS
Calories: 160 Total Fat: 10g
Original Doritos Cool Ranch
Chips
Calories: 260 Total Fat: 14g
NEW SNACK: Pop Corners
POP CORNERS
POPCORNERS
Oven-Baked Lay’s Chips
Calories: 140 Total Fat: 3.5g
Gluten Free
0 grams Trans Fat
Calories: 120 Total Fat: 2g
VS
Original Lay’s Chips
Lay’s
Lay’s
Lay’s
Cheetos FANTASTIX!
Calories: 130 Total Fat: 5g
VS
Original Cheetos
BONUS change:
Bags contain only
one Pop-Tart now,
instead of two.
The price still
increased 25 cents
Calories: 150 Total Fat: 10g
S
C
Low Fat Frosted
Strawberry Pop-Tarts
Calories: 180 Total Fat: 2.5g
VS
–Shqurria Walker, 12
–Sandra Montgomery, 10
“[The new vending
machines] are
good. It has all
the right stuff everyone needed.”
–Deandre Dunbar, 10
Calories: 180 Total Fat: 5g
Whole Grain Rice Krispies
Treats
VS
Original Rice Krispies Treats
Calories: 380 (for two)
Total Fat: 9g
“[Lunch] kind of tastes
funny. It’s good
that it’s supposed
to be healthy and
not bad for you
though.”
NEW SNACK: Buzzstrong’s
Whole Grain Chocolate Chip
Cookies
Calories: 160 Total Fat: 4g
Original Frosted
Strawberry Pop-Tarts
“I know [the new
snacks] are better for
us, but it’s going
to take time for us
to get used to it. I
just don’t like the
small Gatorades.”
Calories: 160 Total Fat: 10g
Lay’s
ISPIES
E KR S
RIC TREAT
Since healthier standards for lunch
items have been introduced steadily
within the past several years, the alterations were not met with heavy resistance
from students. But, a change that has
struck a chord with students is the reduced portion sizes.
Original Smartfood Popcorn
KIE
OO S
Portion problems?
Calories: 130 Total Fat: 5g
IES
RICE KIRSP
TREATS
According to HHS student nutrition manager Judy Harrison, changes on
campus are mostly focused on lowering
sodium and increasing offerings of whole
grain-rich foods. But, striving to improve
the health of students has its challenges,
for the high prices of these menu revisions have been troublesome to deal with.
“We started about 10 years ago, [transitioning] from white to whole wheat
bread,” Harrison said. “But the cost [of
wheat bread] is much more expensive.”
Bread isn’t the only item increasing
in price after undergoing changes; fruits
and vegetables are culprits as well. Students are encouraged to fill up on fresh
fruits and vegetables instead of high-so-
Sitting with a group of friends during C Lunch, junior Michael O’Rourke
exclaimed, “They’re underfeeding us! It’s
ridiculous.”
However, according to Harrison, students’ complaints of being underfed are
far more attributable to long-term habits
than the recent changes in meal sizes, citing a phenomenon called “portion distortion.”
“For so many years, people have been
eating much more than they need to,
leading to a large overweight population,
diabetes and other diseases linked to being overweight,” Harrison said. “It also
makes it seem like we’re underfeeding
them.”
Regardless, the school’s lunchroom
staff operates under guidelines provided
by the HHFK act, and cannot stray from
instructions given.
VS
COOKIE
A decade of progress
dium high-fat foods, but that comes with
significant economic issues.
“Anytime you serve something fresh,
the cost immediately goes up,” Harrison
said.
To compensate for price increases associated with healthier items, the lunchroom staff has employed several “cost
motives,” such as removing chocolate
and strawberry milk as menu options,
now only offering low-fat white milk.
Although it hasn’t been well-received by
students, in the face of rising costs, it had
to be done.
Alleviating some strains from higherpriced ingredients is the “6-cent rule,”
implemented alongside the HHFK Act.
The rule reimburses schools an additional 6 cents for each lunch served meeting
the new meal standards.
Doritos Cool Ranch Reduced
Fat Chips
Calories: 130 Total Fat: 5g
C
FOOD
students share thoughts
childhood hunger and reduce obesity.
New standards have been provided for
meals, putting emphasis on the need to
increase offerings of fruits, vegetables
and whole grain, while limiting fats, added sugars and sodium. Although the updated standards have been in effect since
2012, changes have been “phased in” over
the past three years to make it easier for
schools to comply.
Smartfood Popcorn Delights
K
OO EIS
you said it:
September 2014 | hhstoday.com
Along with changes to the school lunch menu, several vending machine
items have been replaced with healthier options. See below for the changes:
Serving up new standards
Kathy Xie
News Editor
It’s been stigmatized, branded, made
an American icon by books and movies
alike.
A pile of green mush upon a Styrofoam tray, surrounded by a crowd of
semi-horrified kids asking questions
and egging each other on— “What even
is that?” “I’m pretty sure it just moved.”
“Come on, I dare you to eat it.”
Oh, the glorious paragon of public
education: school lunches.
Thankfully, school meals outside the
pop culture realm are neither grotesquely
discolored nor capable of crawling off the
table on its own accord. However, in recent years, the problem of obesity among
this generation has prompted some significant changes to school lunch menus
across the country.
In response to the epidemic, First
Lady Michelle Obama created the
Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids (HHFK) Act
in 2010 to improve nutrition in school
breakfast and lunch programs nationwide.
The law is intended to transform
the school food environment to combat
focus9
Sensible snacking
PAGE
PAGE
8 focus
Calories: 165 Total Fat: 5g
PUSH
Graphic by John Veliz, Kathy Xie
and Maria Roberts