Federal school lunch nutrition guidelines say what students should be eating. What they will actually eat is another matter, Ignacio food services director Kim Cotta told the school board on Jan. 15.
She described program challenges as board members ate baked chicken breast, mashed potatoes and gravy, whole wheat roll, canned peaches, and low fat milk provided by her staff. It was what students got for lunch that day, she said.
Federal guidelines limit starchy vegetables like the potatoes to once a week, she advised. They promote larger portions of fruits and vegetables, which cost the district more than less healthy offerings, and there's more waste when kids don't eat them, she said.
The guidelines have smaller portions for proteins, which leaves kids feeling not satisfied, Cotta said. Students are sort of getting used to whole grain foods, she said. But reducing salt in foods also reduces student acceptance.
Districts can opt out of the National School Lunch Program and its guidelines, but they lose all the federal reimbursements that go with participation, Cotta said. So districts that opt out tend to have very few kids qualified for free or reduced price lunches.
Once you subtract food costs from reimbursement revenue and meal fees paid by students, there's not much left over for staff wages and other operating costs, Cotta said.
Seniors who can go off campus for lunch aren't coming back with healthy items. It's more like gummy worms and Red Bull, she said.
"Students want starchy vegetables. Pizza is their favorite. They're eating just what they like of the meal," Cotta said. "There's grumbling about the changes in the meal patterns. They'd rather have French fries than a spinach salad, and two pieces of pizza and skip the fruit."
The district serves local beef and hopes to have more local products, she said. They participate in the local Farm to School program, and they work with Live Well Colorado, which promotes healthy lifestyles.
Cotta did have some good news. They have held steady on numbers of lunches served, and the homemade breakfast granola bars are a big hit. Cotta would like to get more students involved in the food service program, such as letting those interested in culinary arts to help in the kitchen. She also invites parents to come eat lunch at school.
Then there's the difficult issue of meal charges. Do students go hungry because their parents haven't paid?
"We have over $10,000 of unpaid charges," Cotta said, but that's down from $35,000 when she started working for the district. "I collected $10,000 fairly quickly. The auditors said write it off and implement a charge policy. The charge policy hasn't worked."
Letters to delinquent parents are ignored, and phone calls aren't answered, she said.
She wants a change in the lunch policy that kids who have zero balances in their lunch accounts won't get a meal. Cotta said she has spent a lot of time on this issue.
Superintendent Rocco Fuschetto said, "I can see that in mid and high school, but I'm concerned about doing that to an elementary kid when the parents aren't doing their job."
Board member Agnes Sanchez commented, "They don't get to eat at a restaurant if they don't have money."
Parents can sign up for free or reduced price meals (if they meet income guidelines), Fuschetto said.
"We can't require parents to fill that out," Cotta said.
