LESSON 2:
Healthy school meals are critical for student health and learning.

Healthy school meals are critical for student health and learning.

Salad bar at McAuliffe School, November 2006

Research continues to document the connection between healthy lifestyles and students’ success at school, underscoring the need to provide fresh, healthy meals that model healthy eating habits and give students the nutrition and energy they need to learn.

Healthy city-wide changes to breakfast and lunch. In Chicago, changes to the school meal program are underway for students at all of the 650 schools in the district. HSC supports the CPS Office of Nutrition Services and Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality, one of the companies that provides food service to CPS, in making health-promoting changes in breakfast and lunch menus throughout the city. The CPS Office of Nutrition Services has made significant changes to improve the healthfulness of school meals, adding more fresh fruits and fresh vegetables (locally sourced when possible) while removing trans fats, deep fryers and whole milk.

Fresh, healthy meals appeal to students—and school leaders. In addition, Healthy Schools Campaign works with charter schools throughout Chicago to develop healthy school meal programs that contribute to students’ ability to learn and succeed at school. More than 4,100 students at 11 Chicago public charter school campuses are eating healthy, freshly prepared school food as part of new school meal programs—and even their teachers are lining up to get a great tasting lunch from the school cafeteria.

Healthy culinary class at Richards High School, January 2009

Namaste Charter School, Noble Street Charter School and Perspectives Charter Schools launched new school food programs after working together with HSC to develop goals and strategies for implementation. (As charter schools, each of these organizations has flexibility in aspects of operation – including food service – that allows them to make such changes.)

“As we’re learning more and more about the connection between student wellness and success at school, the importance of providing schools with adequate resources to provide healthy, fresh school meals is becoming more clear than ever,” said Jean Saunders, HSC’s director of school wellness.

Saunders worked with Noble Street leaders to change the meal program from a pre-portioned operation to a service in which meals are freshly prepared, include fresh fruits and vegetables, meet USDA nutrition guidelines and, importantly, appeal to students. Student participation in the lunch program has increased dramatically, with students voicing their approval of the tasty new food choices. Even teachers—who previously had almost zero participation in the lunch program—are regularly lining up to get their lunch in the cafeteria.

Policy implications to support healthy school meals

Lunch at Perspectives Charter School, February 2008

While the need for fresh, healthy school food is simple, the system that provides resources for school meals is often filled with a range of complicating factors. With the experience of working in Chicago, HSC has developed policy recommendations for improving the healthfulness of the school meals available to all American schoolchildren.

Ensure that the upcoming reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act provides resources for healthy school meals, local wellness policies and nutrition education. The Child Nutrition Act—a major piece of federal legislation that essentially determines school food policy and resources—will begin reauthorization in 2009.

This reauthorization offers a tremendous opportunity to create a future for school food in which fresh, healthy meals are the norm and all children have access to the type of comprehensive nutrition education that creates healthy habits for a lifetime. Healthy Schools Campaign supports a Child Nutrition Act that addresses several key components of healthy eating at school:

School Meals

Increase funding for school meals, taking into account rising food costs.

Provide incentives for schools to offer healthier foods and increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Bring nutritional standards into alignment with the latest nutrition science and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Establish consistent health-promoting nutritional standards for food sold in schools outside of the school meals programs, such as foods sold at snack bars and à la carte lines.

Promote local procurement and support for farm-to-school programs that bring the freshest, healthiest produce to schools.

Provide grants to schools for kitchen facilities that allow the preparation of healthy meals and training of school food workers.

Local Wellness Policies

Raise awareness and engagement among school leaders, parents and the community on the implementation of wellness policies at a school level.

Provide technical assistance in implementing the policies.

Nutrition Education

Provide resources to facilitate the delivery of nutrition education programs, including those focused on school gardens and farm-to-school initiatives.