Other Options

Published as a sidebar to Ed. magazine feature, "Lunch Line."

Though the guidelines prescribed in the Healthy, Hunger- Free Kids Act don’t go into effect until fall 2012, some school systems around the country have already taken matters into their own hands — including in some unconventional ways.

In the Austin independent School District in Texas, all lunch menus in the city’s 124 K–12 schools have adopted the Weight Watchers Points System. Taco salads (6 points) stand alongside turkey and mozzarella cheese melts (7 points) and zucchini sticks (0 points). At the Perez Elementary School, Principal David Kauffman, Ed.M.’98, Ed.d.’05, says the change has mostly met with success.

“I think it is pretty consistent with how kids have always reacted to school lunch,” he says. “There are some things they really like and some things they don’t. They love the pizza and they’re not concerned that it has low-fat cheese. They’re responding to the choice of the day versus ‘This is healthy. I don’t want it.’”

KIPP SPARK Academy in Newark, N.J., gets their meals from organic-based Revolution Foods. According to principal Joanna Belcher, Ed.d.’08, her 200 elementary students are at the perfect age to embrace both new foods and new habits. The addition of a school vegetable garden also helps students make the farm-to-table connection. And parents — key to any long-term success — are regularly engaged in workshops on healthy cooking.

At Boston’s Codman Academy Charter Public School, started by Meg Campbell, C.A.S.’97, only one option is served to students and it’s healthy: low-fat, low-sodium, and whole grain. Lunch is free for everyone, regardless of income eligibility, thanks to external funding raised by administrators. On a recent visit, the high school, which is surrounded by convenience stores and with a McDonald’s across the street, offered vegetarian chili, steamed spinach, brown rice, salad, an apple, and low-fat milk.

Related:

• Lunch Line
• What About Breakfast?
• Ed Extra: Healthy Appetite