How the USDA Helped Bring Processed Food to School Lunch
Most adults don't have glorious memories of school lunch. It was sloppy Joes, shepherd's pie, spaghetti with meat sauce, and it was usually on the bland side. But the food wasn't bad, and it was almost always cooked from scratch by an army of school lunch ladies. How things have changed. A few ...
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July 30, 2009
Corn Refiners to Ann Cooper: Keep HFCS in Lunch
The Corn Refiners Association really has its eye on school lunch these days. For one thing, the association was one of the sponsors of the School Nutrition Association's 2009 national conference (posters throughout the hall read, "High Fructose Corn Syrup: Making Healthy Foods Affordable for America's Schoolchildren"). The association is ...
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July 27, 2009
Fast Food in Schools, and Some Other Cafeteria Numbers From 2008
After sampling my way through the School Nutrition Association's food expo earlier this month, I picked up a copy of the organization's annual survey of school cafeterias. I just got around to leafing through it, and some of the numbers jumped out at me. The most shocking piece of the report ...
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July 26, 2009
Tray Trends: As Restaurants Lean Healthier, Might Cafeterias Follow?
In February, Erik Peterson, the public awareness director for the School Nutrition Association, told me that school meals have always been a reflection of the broader American diet. Foodservice directors often visit restaurants and mall food courts on the weekends and observe what kids these days like to eat, he ...
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June 16, 2009
Counting Calories in the Cafeteria
When it comes to the bottom line, selling junk food is good for school cafeterias. Fries and chips not only have a high profit margin, but they also sell by the thousands. So how do you encourage healthy eating habits without giving up your best sources of revenue? North Carolina's ...
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May 30, 2009
New Legislation Would Bring Calorie Counts to Cafeteria Menus
By Deborah Lehmann — School food service directors openly admit that they keep their eyes on fast-food restaurants, monitoring what's popular with kids and offering similar items in their cafeterias. Turns out legislators are also using fast-food as an example in thinking about how to improve school meals. The trend they're trying ...
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May 14, 2009
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