Schools often frontline in obesity war
Photo by FRANK JOHNSON
Elaine Bischoff, far left, squirts some ketchup on her tray while Samantha Bishop grabs a banana from the lunch line at Bardstown Middle School. Despite government guidelines strictly regulating what is served to students, childhood obesity continues to be a problem across Kentucky and the United States.
By FRANK JOHNSON fjohnson@kystandard.com
The era of soda-filled vending machines on school campuses may be coming to an end, but local districts are continuing to battle against student populations growing in width instead of volume.
Administrators at the Nelson County and Bardstown school districts said they have implemented a number of changes in recent years in an effort to trim down waistlines, concentrating on increasing nutritional values in school meals and creating more opportunities and options for students to be active.
“It used to be, in the old days, you used to have snack machines that had candy bars and you’ve seen that whole overhaul,” Nelson County Schools superintendent Jan Lantz said.
A large part of this change is because of federal regulations governing minimums for nutritional content and maximums for fats and sugars, along with setting requirements for physical activity and health education.
However, a recent report by Mission Readiness, a nonprofit organization of retired military leaders, is calling on the U.S. Department of Education to take further steps. According to the group, it’s a matter of national security.
In a report released April 20, the group says 9 million young adults, 20 percent of all Americans 17-24 years old, are too overweight to join the military. As a culprit, Mission Readiness has targeted school lunches and is pushing Congress to enact legislation that would get rid of junk food at schools, pour more money into lunch programs and develop new ways to combat childhood obesity.
However, while the legislative wrangling continues on the federal level, local school districts are making their own efforts to address this nationwide problem.
Changing trends in school lunches
A central front of school district’s efforts to combat obesity is the lunch line. Local school officials said they have made great strides in cutting out snacks and soda from vending machines and providing nutritional meals.
“The requirements are going to be even tighter soon. Childhood obesity is really a concern for everyone,” Nelson County food service director Charlotte Lewis said.
Lewis said she doesn’t think the contents of school lunches have really been a contributing factor, considering how closely regulated they are.
“We are required to limit sodium, fat and sugars. We don’t have any deep fat fryers,” she said.
Lewis added that although the district still serves pizza, it is working on incorporating more grains into its menus. She said they are trying to make changes gradually to accommodate for kids already sensitive to what foods they like and which ones they don’t.
“Some of the kids have never had the whole grain, and they may not like it (at first),” she said. “But I think it’s like anything, you’ll like it once you get used to it.”
Fresh fruit is another item districts are increasingly trying to provide. Lewis said Nelson County is also baking and steaming more of its vegetables, a process which helps hold in the nutritional value.
Of course, items can also be purchased a la carte, allowing students to effectively build their own, potentially unhealthy, meals. Schools have attempted to tackle this problem in two ways.
First, the snacks themselves must meet set nutritional standards. Lewis said the maximum fat is 30 percent from calories and 10 percent saturated fat with sugar limited to 32 percent by weight and no more than 14 grams per serving.
Second, districts are trying to increase parent involvement in supervising what their kids are consuming. Programs such as Meal Payplus at Nelson County allow parents to track exactly what items their child has purchased, including meals and a la carte items.
“If you want to be sure you know what it is your child is eating, you can know it,” Lantz said.
More than meals
The efforts of local schools will always face an inherent limitation, one that has proven difficult to overcome. While the experience in the classroom and the cafeteria can be regulated and structured, districts have no control over a student’s habits once he or she leaves for the day.
“A lot of things they do here are negated when they go home,” Bardstown City Schools associate superintendent J.W. Mattingly said. “Once they leave here, all things are back in play.”
Despite these efforts to provide nutritional meals and limit sugar, fat and salt intake, obesity rates remain stubbornly high. Putting the right food on the lunch line is one thing, but helping students develop the healthy habits that carry on past the cafeteria is a more difficult task.
Mattingly said that’s why districts are increasingly turning to raising awareness as a primary tool for reducing childhood obesity.
“We are hoping that if we keep it up and front in everybody’s mind — proper eating, exercise and adequate rest — we can have some influence that way,” he said.
For Bardstown, this means using school health councils to put on informational meetings and health fairs. It also continually works to develop a comprehensive health plan for the district, which includes healthier snacks in vending machines, an emphasis on the school breakfast program and body mass index screenings twice a year.
Mattingly said it also means trying to provide students with enough choices, in terms of nutrition and exercise, so that they can find healthy options they enjoy.
“We can certainly help. The real key is teaching them a lifetime love (of exercise),” Bardstown City Schools Superintendent Brent Holsclaw said.
Photo by FRANK JOHNSON
P.E. classes have long been a staple of school curricula, but local academic administrators say they are looking for more ways to incorporate activity into the classroom as well.
Another key component is introducing activity into the classroom. Holsclaw said at lower levels, teachers are encouraged to use structured playtime to combine physical actions with educational instruction.
To help give teachers ideas and coordinate their physical education program across grade levels, Mattingly said the district uses curriculum from SPARK, a company that creates research-based wellness programs for schools.
In the end, the growing epidemic of childhood obesity demands a combination of many individuals and organizations working together to successfully create a healthy future for the country’s children.