The smell of the Hidden Valley Elementary School lunchroom in Reno, Nevada evokes the past memories of childhood school days. But one look at the food now served shows that things have certainly changed since then.
Nevada’s children are finally being given the chance to choose healthier options in their school cafeterias through the new menu plan that was implemented in the 2010 school year.
The improved breakfast and lunch menus for K-12 are now required of all schools in the Washoe County School District in the hopes that Nevada’s youth will be able to be more healthy because of the opportunity.
“We’re happy to be able to offer better options,” said Kelli Seals, a Health Educator at the Washoe County District Health Department.
Proposed guidelines for the more nutritious menu in Washoe County schools include providing low and non-fat dairy options, lean meat choices, access to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, 100% juice and water instead of soda, reduced-sodium foods, and grains with more than 50% whole grain ingredients.
The district made the biggest change simply by switching the nutrition service provider of the schools in Washoe County. Previously, the provider was Sodexo and has been changed to ARAMARK.
According to Seals, the previous provider did claim to offer “nutritious” suggestions, the change was made because of an overall opinion that ARAMARK seems to offer better solutions towards a healthier lifestyle in general.
Also part of the lunchroom improvements are three different design concepts for the school cafeterias themselves. On the elementary level, the cafeterias are very vibrant in color, equipped with colorful graphics and even a nutritional mascot named ACE. It has been dubbed the theme “Cool Caf.”
For middle school, “12 Spot” is the name given. The atmosphere here is meant to create a relaxing environment that has themes that change with the seasons.
And in high schools it is the “U.B.U. Lounge.” This is a comfortable place for students to hang out and enjoy a nutritious meal. They even incorporated an actual lounge area with chairs and sofas in the lunchroom.
The changes in the menus have been in effect for almost a year now, and the Health Department has high hopes for the future of the ongoing fight to providing a healthier lifestyle for kids in Northern Nevada.
According to the Health Department, students have been able to adjust to the changes very well and they have actually seen an increase in the amount of students getting their lunch at school.
“We can assume they like it,” said Seals, “because more kids have been buying the new ‘hot lunch.’”
Nevertheless, it cannot necessarily be determined for sure that this is the only factor contributing to the increase in students getting school lunch.
Making nutritious foods more accessible in public schools should not, however, be the only step taken towards combating the fight against childhood obesity, and eventually adult obesity. Embarking on an overall healthier lifestyle is diminished by the fact that the Washoe County School District has not taken daily physical activity into proper consideration in teaching kids healthier values.
“The P.E. activity in Washoe County Schools isn’t really enforced,” said Seals, “it is left up to interpretation.”
The school district no longer requires daily or even weekly physical activity for children in Elementary schools. This was a result of budget cuts within the school system.
“Some even count walking to and from different rooms in the school to be their ‘P.E. activity’ for the day,” said Seals.
A system known as the body-mass index is used to determine whether or not a person is at a healthy weight, depending on the ratio of their height and body weight. If someone is at or above the 95th percentile of all people of the same age and gender, they are considered to be obese.
Children who are obese or overweight from a young age run a higher risk of becoming an obese adult, having high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, and type-2 diabetes.
“These kids are at risk,” said Seals, “and I really think it’s our responsibility as adults to at least help provide them with better nutrition at school.”
A graph of Washoe County school-age BMI in 2008-2010 compared to the U.S. (Statistics provided by the Washoe County District Health Department)
SIDEBAR
The key to a healthier lifestyle: Eat more nutritious foods and be active
Most kids naturally have energy to spare, but sometimes that may not be enough to satisfy how much physical activity they should really be getting to lead a healthy lifestyle.
It has long been said that 30 minutes of exercise per day is perfectly sufficient. However, the National Association for Sports and Physical Education now recommends that school-age kids get even more than that. They suggest at least an hour or more of daily physical activity. Also avoiding long periods of inactivity is an important factor in staying fit for people of all ages.
This energy is derived directly from the foods our children eat, so that’s certainly a huge contributing factor to an overall healthier lifestyle as well.
“One of the biggest issues with today’s kids is portion control,” said Enid Jennings, a nutritionist at the University of Nevada, Reno Student Health Center.
The daily recommended calorie intake is roughly 2,000. But for most people this number is hard to put into perspective. One way to view this is by the fact that 3,500 calories is the equivalent of one whole pound of fat. So if your kids are eating more than their daily calories, this can eventually lead to weight gain over a few weeks, and vice versa.
“It’s really important to make sure that kids understand it’s not good for them to overeat,” said Jennings.
Teaching kids these two simply factors to be able to start off with good habits is something that can stick with them the rest of their lives and prevent them from becoming another obesity statistic.