FAILING
KIDS WITH FAST FOODS IN THE CAFETERIA
BY
MICHAEL MASER
(the
Georgia Straight, Feb 2000)
While
leaving Coquitlam's Terry Fox Secondary School after a recent lunch-time visit
to check out its cafeteria's food, I remembered that one reason I left classroom
teaching eight years ago was that I grew tired of trying to quell a
sugar-induced rebellion after each lunch hour. I can't imagine what it would be
like now in a school promoting candy and soda consumption. Most prominent in the
Terry Fox cafeteria, where lunch bags and apple cores qualified as endangered
species, was an outbreak of lollipops and fast-food detritus*especially wrappers
and cups sporting logos from Subway, Pizza Hut, and Coke.
In
September, Terry Fox Secondary became the first school in B.C. to contract with
various fast-food purveyors to sell lunch products on-site each day to its
1,600-plus students and staff. The choices include menu items from Subway and
Pizza Hut, as well as generic burgers and fries, Great Canadian bagels, and
sushi rolled up by a nearby Coquitlam manufacturer.
Next to
the checkout, there's a rack of candy and chocolate, with more than 30 choices
for sale, including lollipops. According to principal Dave Matheson, the food
court is a success. Most importantly, he said, it's a vast improvement over
previous cafeteria food that was provided by a large food-services chain (as is
the case in most school cafeterias), and, as a form of behaviour control, it's
helping to keep students from wandering at lunch to other fast-food outlets
located a few blocks away. Matheson listed other virtues of the food court: it
employs union workers behind the counter; it's breaking even; and it's
affordable for the students (costing about one-third less than common retail
prices).
He said
he is also convinced the food is nutritionally appropriate for students, whom he
described as "discerning eaters". Coquitlam nutritionist Gerry Kasten, along for
the visit to the Terry Fox cafeteria, said kids today are more knowledgeable
about nutrition than previous generations. To test his theory, I asked a couple
of questions at a table of grades 11 and 12 girls. Maybe I'd chosen poorly, but
these girls didn't know how much fat might be in their meals. (A plain hamburger
contains approximately eight to 15 grams of fat, and cheese can push it up to 40
grams; a baked potato contains less than one gram). They also didn't know how
much sugar they were ingesting (20 teaspoons) with each 24-ounce container of
pop (the only size available), and not one of them was very concerned about
eating highly processed foods. "I'm sure it's safe," said one girl who also said
she orders a burger, Coke, and fries about every other
day.
Art
Forrester, manager of the food court, said he hasn't kept hard data but he has
noted that subs, burgers, and pizza are the most popular food choices among
students. Subway provides a glossy countertop brochure that gives students
discount coupons, as well as the only nutritional information that's dispensed
there. In October, the U.S.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, a
nonprofit nutritional advocacy organization, released "Diet, ADHD, and
Behavior", a report that charged federal agencies, professional organizations,
and the food industry with ignoring "the growing evidence that diet affects
behaviour". In a letter to Donna Shalala, secretary of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, CSPI asked the department to undertake new research
into the link between diet and behaviour, and "to consider banning synthetic
dyes in foods and other products (such as cupcakes, candies, and sugary
breakfast cereals) widely consumed by children".
Liquid
Candy, a 1998 CSPI report, identified soda pop as the main culprit behind
rapidly increasing sugar consumption rates worldwide that are "fueling soaring
obesity rates" among youth. Other health risks cited in relation to pop
consumption include tooth decay, osteoporosis, heart disease, headaches, and
behaviour swings attributed to additives such as caffeine.
The
report also charged that soft-drink companies "target children aggressively",
leading the centre to recommend that "school systems and other organizations
catering to children should stop selling soft drinks, candy, and similar foods
in hallways, shops, and cafeterias."
In
contrast to Terry Fox Secondary, consider Elphinstone Secondary School in
Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast. In recent years, "Elphie" students, like their
Terry Fox counterparts, increasingly rejected the standard
cafeteria
swill
and headed out during lunch hour in search of fast food.
Last
fall, the cafeteria shut down until two enterprising mothers answered a tender
to provide food at the school. With six children between them, and experience
that included large-scale organic gardening and logging-camp-cafeteria
management, Kathryn Graydon and Cindy Sutherland proposed that they could offer
nutritious, fresh food that students would enjoy and prefer to fast-food
options. They also proposed that the "Elphie Eatery" could provide training for
students looking for career-and-personal-planning credits, as well as
fundraising opportunities for school groups.
The
eatery, which opened in early December, offers fresh, organic foods, most of
which are grown in southwestern B.C. or Washington. Weighted in favour of
vegetarian items, the varied menu includes freshly prepared soups, salads, and
whole-grained baked goods for students and staff. Most meals are priced between
$2.50 and $4. To reduce waste, meals are served with plates and cutlery that are
washed, not thrown away.
By its
sixth week, the restaurant boasted a lengthy lunch-time lineup and enthusiastic
customers. "I love it," said Grade 12 student Allie Kidd while waiting for an
organic baked potato topped with vegetarian chili. "It's affordable and I would
way rather eat this food. I really appreciate the work and thought that's gone
into this, and I know my friends feel the same."
Appleton
Alternate School in Appleton, Wisconsin, began an experiment in 1998 in which
they removed pop and candy machines and offered the 107 teenage students a free
flax and pineapple drink and free whole-grain breads and bagels at breakfast and
lunch. They also started preparing fresh salads and vegetarian offerings for the
cafeteria. Appleton principal Lu-Ann Coenen told the Georgia Straight in a phone
interview that she believes the experiment is making a huge difference. "I would
rather quit my job than put another pop or candy machine back in the school,"
Coenen said. "The students regularly tell me they love the food and they feel
more motivated and alert because of it.
"Last
year, or the first time in 20 years as a principal, I reported no incidents of
violence among students, no expulsions, no cases of drug abuse, and no suicides.
I attribute this directly to the improved diet."
Ramona
Josephson, a Vancouver-based nutrition consultant with the Heart and Stroke
Foundation of B.C. and Yukon and author of The Heartsmart Shopper (Orca Books,
$12.95), said she believes most B.C. school food is higher in fat than is
healthy.
"The
dietary choices we are making available to teens now are potentially the
starting point of long-term health risks," said Josephson, the mother of two
teenage boys for whom she packs a daily lunch. "What they are eating now has an
impact on the whole health-care system. I find it disconcerting that we don't
put enough into teaching teens how to lead healthy lives. We pay lip service to
nutrition education in schools."
Food in
B.C. school cafeterias is evaluated every two years by a district coordinators,
community nutritionists, and school principals. Cafeteria inspections focus on
hygiene and safety during food preparation and cooking; the community
nutritionists review the menu and compare the food offered with guidelines
published by Health Canada.
Coquitlam
nutritionist Kasten said he thinks the food available in the Terry Fox food
court is acceptably nutritious. He also said he believes that diet and nutrition
issues for teens are complex, given the various messages teens receive about
food and image. "Young people need to learn to trust and respect their own
bodies, which is a message that is often contrary to what they see or hear from
the media," he said. "We should give them tools about making appropriate food
choices, including filtering advertisements".
The
Ministry of Education has said that nutrition and diet education must be
available from kindergarten to Grade 12, but it has left the procurement of
teaching materials and lesson delivery up to individual districts,
schools,
and
teachers. In some districts, regional nutritionists lead workshops, but teachers
also rely on materials created by food producers. The B.C. Dairy Foundation, for
example, has created numerous documents and workshops that teachers may order
for classroom use.
From the
foundation's Web site, teachers can download a free, animated "Calcium
Calculator" created for adolescents and described as an "Innovation in Nutrition
Education" on its opening screen. While working through the activity, which
involves tallying their daily intake of calcium, students are rewarded with
audible cheers and a hearty "Congratulations!", even though they may exceed a
daily recommended intake level of calcium. The recipes suggested to help growing
bodies meet their calcium needs include drinking milk, making soup with milk
instead of water, and melting cheese on snack foods.
Omitted
from the lesson, however, is any mention of the fat content of various dairy
products or of potential health problems attributed to dairy consumption. Also
left out is any information about a lawsuit launched in the U.S. in December by
the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit
preventative-medicine advocacy organization that is suing the U.S. Department of
Agriculture and the federal Department of Health and Human Services for
promoting dietary guidelines that PCRM claims undermine the health of certain
minority groups.
In its
claim, the PCRM is asking the U.S. government to acknowledge that the majority
of African-, Hispanic-, Asian-, and Native-Americans are lactose-intolerant and
that minorities suffer from higher rates of prostate cancer, diabetes, and other
chronic diseases than Caucasians. The group is also seeking to force the
government to promote diets low enough in fat and rich enough in plant products
to reduce the risk of these conditions, and it is asking the government to make
dairy foods optional in its dietary guidelines.
In the
United States, McDonalds, Pizza, Hut, Subway, and other fast-food purveyors are
now providing daily food services in hundreds of schools. Coke and Pepsi are
likewise negotiating to sign up school districts to exclusive agreements and
hold districts accountable for increasing sales of pop among students in return
for a cut of profits.
In B.C.,
Maple Ridge school district announced in December that it was signing an
exclusive agreement with Coke, the details of which remain a board secret. The
Maple Ridge contract is the first of its kind among B.C. public schools; UBC and
Capilano College have signed similar deals.
Nutritionist
Josephson said she thinks that it is prudent for the B.C. government to become
more involved in promoting sounder nutrition policies in BC
schools.
"As a
nutrition consultant, most of the heart-attack patients I see tell me they
became habituated to eating fast foods in their teens. Is this what we want to
foster in our schools?
"As a
mother and nutritionist," she said, "I think it is irresponsible for government
to allow corporations like Coke or Pepsi or Pizza Hut to control what is going
into children's bodies. This is a horrific sellout."
Michael
Maser is a freelance, education-focused journalist in Vancouver, BC, Canada. He
is also a former secondary school teacher and university instructor and he is an
education consultant with Wondertree Foundation for Natural Learning
(Vancouver). He writes frequently about education for the Georgia Straight
newspaper in Vancouver and his other education articles have been published by
several daily newspapers and ADBUSTERS magazine. He can be reached by email at
mmaser@uniserve.com