Douglas County schools serve 23,000 slices of pizza every Thursday “and our kids absolutely love it,” director of nutrition services Brent Craig told the school board this month. But there’s a problem. Each slice has 400 calories, whereas federal guidelines that kicked in this year for a la carte menu items in schools limit calories to 350.
And even though Dougco’s pizza has less sodium than commercial pizza, it exceeds federal rules there, too.
Craig’s crew can produce pizza with fewer calories and less sodium. Unfortunately, it doesn’t taste as good — as results of a taste test conducted with district officials before the meeting confirmed. For one thing, the artificial cheese (modified with food starch and containing no sodium) was a turn-off.
So long as he’s director, Craig insisted, his kitchens are not “going to serve fake cheese.”
Craig asked the board to support a resolution withdrawing Dougco’s nine high schools from the federal school lunch program so the district can chart its own course without reference to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. He knows some will suspect the district of indifference to nutrition and an embrace of junk food, but his master’s degree in nutrition and administrative record argue otherwise.
In his seven years in the district, Craig says, they’ve reduced the fat and sugar content of meals, boosted the amount of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, as well as the quality of the meats. “We also came out and said no to high-fructose corn syrup in chocolate milk,” he recalls. And yet many of the items they sell don’t cut it under the new guidelines.
“I do believe we need to fight obesity. I do believe we need to feed healthy meals,” he said. “But I believe in the balanced approach.”
Craig offered the example of a burrito the district sells that’s drastically lower in calories and sodium than any commercial, Chipotle-like product, but still exceeds the federal caps in both categories — in the case of calories, by 318. If they stick with the federal standards, Craig said, “You’d have a little teeny burrito you’d have to feed them.”
The district’s burger clocks in lower in calories and sodium than the federal mandate, but slightly higher in fat. So it’s out of the question, too.
Ninety-five percent of the food sold in the high school cafeterias is a la carte, and Craig fears sales will dive and the food services budget put under stress if the district complies with federal rules. Many students have cars and money, and can find options. At the very least, the nine Subway franchises the district operates would have to be shut down.
To be sure, some nutritionists and chefs would dispute Craig’s view of the standards and the tastiness of the resulting food. And a report this month by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation says elementary students nationally have largely gotten used to such food and complaints have fallen.
Moreover, districts with lots of students who qualify for subsidized meals couldn’t afford to spurn federal money even if they wanted to.
But Douglas County not only can afford to pick up the subsidy for its poor students — which is part of the plan — but also stands to lose more money staying in the program than leaving it. Why not chart its own course? The federal standards are hardly the last word on healthy food.
Board member Craig Richardson made the same point somewhat more bluntly — “We don’t typically like central planners here in Douglas County” — shortly before he and his colleagues approved the resolution.
E-mail Vincent Carroll at vcarroll@denverpost.com.
