Private firms add healthy eating to school cafeteria options.

When students enter their school cafeterias this year, chances are they won't notice some of the most important changes that took place over the summer. In many places, they still will see the ice cream treats, pizza and hamburgers they crave, but they aren't likely to notice their ice cream is fat free, the pizza crust is whole wheat and the hamburgers are garden burgers.

"The nutrition part of this is kind of happening behind the scenes without them knowing it," says Jorge Collazo, who serves as executive chef for the New York City Public Schools.

School food service providers nationwide are making these changes in response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's latest nutritional guidelines released earlier this year calling for Americans to eat less and exercise more to prevent chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

Lori Loughner, corporate dietician for Nutrition Inc., says her firm used the new guidelines to reformulate its recipes and meet the high school food nutrition standards in Pennsylvania, where most of the schools they serve are located.

Creative Offerings

While food service operators agree on what needs to be done--students need more fruits and vegetables, less fatty foods, no trans-fats and more fiber--the trick is getting students to choose these options in the cafeteria line. For this reason, some private companies are turning to grab-and-go single-serving, sliced and prepackaged fruits and vegetables and lots of clever marketing.

"We are trying to get more creative and innovative," says Richard Hill, vice president of product development and brand marketing for Sodexho. His favorite example is a new "portable" salad, essentially a salad in a wrap.

Another change Sodexho has introduced in many of the 470 school districts where it runs the cafeteria operations is to infuse foods with extra vitamins by adding natural flavors to create such offerings as green and red potatoes. Hill says Sodexho is taking standard baked potatoes and adding beets one day and wasabi the next, turning the potatoes from white to red and green.

It's about "looking at standard items and finding ways to make them fun either with color or heat," Hill says. Children don't realize they're getting more iron and less sodium. They just think they're eating something cool.

Looks Matter

Collazo, who is responsible for creating breakfast and lunch menus for more than one million students in the New York City system, is of like mind, going for more natural flavors while keeping a keen eye on presentation. Just offering students healthier meals isn't enough.

Collazo expects to attract more business by turning school cafeterias into mini-restaurants where the vegetarian meals, roasted and grilled chicken and fish and soy-based breakfast patties are just as appealing as the atmosphere.

The setting can make the difference between students eating something healthy in the cafeteria or skipping lunch entirely, adds Carolina Lobo, vice president of marketing for Aramark School Support Services. For its part, Aramark is creating unusual dining spaces, such as the "U.BU. Lounge" because lunch "has one predominant purpose," Lobo says. "For kids it's not about food, it's about hanging out with friends. ... The idea is to give them a reason to come in and try something healthy."

The lounge, which will be created at every high school Aramark serves, is set up like a living room for "chilling out," Lobo says. The room includes modern music and new menu items--such as "Chicken Grande", "Santa Fe Turkey," and "Veggie Nice Rice"--with new packaging.

High school students who buy their meals at school cafeterias operated by Aramark will find Java City, a coffee bar that pushes decaffeinated and milk-based drinks and sugar-free smoothies, pasta bars where athletes can load up on carbohydrates, lower-fat home-style comfort foods and fun yet hearty salads such as mandarin chicken.

"We're definitely trying to decrease the fat intake.... and also sodium (intake), and we're trying to get more whole grains in children's breakfast and lunch," Lobo says.

Desserts Banished

Another healthy twist this year is the move to start using organic foods. This means buying organic products from community merchants and area farms. Sodexho's Hill said this is "important to us because we want to make sure that we're supporting the local economy"

In the Seattle Public Schools, as elsewhere, going organic is going to cost a bit more. "When it's economically feasible," says Anita Finch, the district's director of nutrition services, Seattle will go with organic products.

She wants to see students consume seven different fruits or vegetables daily. She's traded white rice for brown, removed soda vending machines and eliminated most of the sugar from the menu. If an item has more than 15 grams of sugar, she's not serving it. Seattle's children will only get plain or chocolate-flavored lowfat and skim milk because they're the only two that meet the sugar guideline.

In addition, desserts will be almost entirely eliminated this year.

"We want to emphasize fresh fruit as the dessert of choice," Finch says, adding that she hopes new offerings, like jicama (which is a type of sweet root vegetable), yams and sugar snap peas, Romaine lettuce and spinach, will also get youngsters' attention. As much as possible, the fruits and vegetables will be sliced and prepackaged so kids will be motivated to grab them and go.

Educating Consumers

Loughner says the single-serving items are the way to go. Her firm, Nutrition Inc., which runs food services in 81 public school districts, is making a priority of offering 200 calorie or less grab-and-go items, like fruit juices, cookies made with whole wheat flour and sliced fruits.

In the high schools where it operates, cafeteria staff teach students about portion control by giving them accurate serving sizes and not super-sized items. Students learn that all kinds of foods, whether a cheeseburger or a tossed salad, can be part of a healthy diet.

Her firm, like most others, has traded in the typical sugary-sweet children's cereals for those that contain whole grains. She has switched to whole wheat and whole grain breads, wraps, pastas and rice with the goal of giving students at least two grams of fiber in each serving.

Margie Saidel, director of nutrition for Chartwells School Dining Services, is taking a similar route in the 519 school districts where it runs meal operations. Everything from the burger buns to the pizza crust will contain wheat this year, Saidel says. In the coming years youngsters may even see that their pancakes and waffles have gone whole-wheat.

"This has got to be done and we are committed to the cause," Saidel says. "We're not just nourishing kids anymore."

Chartwells also has revamped its recipes, doing things like swapping high fat for low-fat and non-fat cheeses in their lasagna, to make foods healthier.

"We are aware of the trans-fats and we're working to try to incorporate lower fat and no trans-fat products," Saidel says, adding her company has partnered with Frito Lay to offer baked snack chips with no trans-fats.

As part of its campaign for nutrition education, the company has labeled certain foods, snacks and drinks as "balanced choices" to let those in the cafeteria lines know which items meet or exceed the USDA requirements. She calls the labels, stickers and posters a kind of meal guidance system that teaches youngsters how to put together a healthy meal.

"It's really the way that you present and market it," Saidel says. "There is a way to make an apple look more attractive to kids."

Food Firm Contacts

How to contact the proprietary firms mentioned in the article.

* Aramark School Support Services, Philadelphia, Pa., 800-926-9700, www.aramark.com

* Chartwells School Dining Services, Rye Brook, N.Y., 877-586-9631, www.chartwellsusa.com

* Nutrition Inc., West Newton, Pa., 800-442-2138, www.nutritionent.com

* Sodexho School Services, Irving, Texas, 800-354-7000, www.sodexhoUSA.com

Amy Coutee is an education reporter for the News & Advance in Lynchburg, Va.

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