Date:
11/25/2007 02:09 PM Think kids won't eat healthy school lunches? Researchers
say that's not true.
By STEVE KARNOWSKI
Associated Press Writer
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) _ Maybe getting schoolchildren
to eat healthy foods isn't a hopeless struggle.
Bucking some common notions, a University
of Minnesota study has found that school lunch sales don't
decline when healthier meals are served, and that more nutritious
lunches don't necessarily cost schools more to produce.
"The conventional wisdom that you can't
serve healthier meals because kids won't eat them is false,"
said Benjamin Senauer, one of three economists who wrote the
study.
Previous studies have concluded that students
prefer fatty foods and that healthier meals cost more to make,
the authors noted.
The study, which appears in the December issue
of the Review of Agricultural Economics, analyzed five years
of data for 330 Minnesota public school districts. It looked
at compliance with federal standards for calories, nutrients
and fats.
When the researchers crunched all the numbers
they found that schools serving the healthiest lunches did
not see a falloff in demand.
While serving better meals does entail higher
labor costs, the study found, that's offset by lower costs
for more nutritious foods such as fruits and vegetables compared
with processed foods. However, many districts need to upgrade
their kitchens and train their staff to prepare these foods,
the researchers said.
The study's conclusions rang true for Jean
Ronnei, director of nutrition services for St. Paul Public
Schools, which serves more than 46,000 meals daily. The district
was held up by the authors as a model for others.
Ronnei said the percentage of St. Paul kids
eating school lunches has increased in recent years at the
same time the district has been offering more fruits and vegetables.
"That doesn't mean we don't have a hot
dog on our menu. We do. ... In our case it's a turkey low-fat
hot dog," she said.
Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy
at the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest
in Washington, said she was pleased to see evidence that schools
can offer nutritious meals kids will eat without higher costs.
"I think people underestimate the willingness
of kids to eat healthier foods," she said.
The study also pointed out that school districts
are allowed to charge their lunch programs for indirect costs
such as electricity or janitorial services for their cafeterias.
The authors said that can be abused by cash-strapped districts
charging their lunch programs high overhead; they recommended
tighter limits on those charges.
Dr. Sandra Hassink of Wilmington, Del., a
member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Obesity Task
Force, said that was an important finding. She said money
allocated for nutritional programs should be spent on nutrition.
Alice Jo Rainville, a professor of nutrition
and dietetics at Eastern Michigan University, noted that school
nutrition programs have improved because of federal policy
changes enacted in 2004, the last year included in the study.
Rainville said results in other states might
not match those in Minnesota, but Senauer said he believes
the situation is similar across the country.
"Everything we've done here, there's
good reason to believe it's happening nationally," he
said.
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On the Net:
National School Lunch Program: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/lunch
School Nutrition Association: http://www.schoolnutrition.org/
