Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
NOT JUST FOR KIDS
Parents invited to taste school cafeteria food. And they liked it.
School cafeterias are dishing out food today’s parents couldn’t have imagined back when they slogged through the lunch line.
Gone are the days of meatloaf, chicken and gravy, and sloppy Joes in Broward.
We’ve entered the era of farm-totable green beans, Asian chicken and kale salad and fresh sweet peppers. Entrees include rainbow trout sandwiches, beef teriyaki dippers over brown rice and vegan salad with beans.
In Palm Beach County, vegetarian chili and chicken teriyaki make regular menu appearances.
Broward said goodbye to Jell-O and whipped sugar desserts; hello to pineapple cut to look like Popsicles and vegetables disguised as a fruit drink.
The regulars are still around — hamburgers, cheese pizza and chicken nuggets. But they’re made with 100
percent whole grains, said Darlene Moppert, the Broward school district’s program manager of nutrition educating and training.
Now the challenge is to convince parents — especially wealthier ones — that school lunch is good enough for their kids.
“It’s a perception that we all have of school cafeterias. You’re thinking of the old lady with the bonnet on her head serving slop,” said Rudy Poindexter, Broward’s chef consultant. “But we’re really trying to change that in the sense of giving kids fresh and vibrant vegetables.”
To prove the point, parents from four affluent schools in Parkland on Thursday were invited to taste the fare at Riverglades Elementary. About 25 showed up.
They grazed on beef nachos, fish nuggets and hot Italian subs in addition to kale, green beans and peppers.
The food surprised Marina Manetti, who recently moved here from Brazil. She regularly packs her daughter’s lunch.
“Everybody says the school lunch in the USA is terrible, just hamburger and pizza,” she said. “And it’s not true.”
William Freedman, a self-identified “snobby Southern Californian,” was already sold on the meals, which his kindergartner eats daily.
“I did not expect at public school she would eat the lunch here,” Freedman said.
Maria Kennedy, who has two kids in Park Trails Elementary, was unimpressed with the hamburgers.
“Looking at it would make me sick,” Kennedy said. “I don’t believe in that kind of food.”
She packs her kids’ lunches because she doesn’t trust most school food. She was, however, impressed by the beef nachos and the fresh fruit.
On average, about onethird of the students at the district’s most affluent schools buy lunch in the cafeteria each day.
When asked a few years ago what they wished their cafeterias had, students from one Parkland school said Starbucks, Moppert said.
By contrast, an average of almost 90 percent of kids eat cafeteria lunch at schools where at least three-quarters of the students eat free or at reduced prices.
“You have a lot of people in those areas that are hungry and they’re dependent on school meals,” Moppert said.
By law, every meal must contain one-third of the daily requirements for protein, calories, Vitamins C, A, iron and calcium. They must also use 100 percent whole grains. And all kids who order school lunch are required to take one cup of fruit and vegetables.
To make sure they serve fresh produce, the school districts in Palm Beach and Broward counties contract with local farmers. But that doesn’t mean all kids eat the fruit and vegetables.
In Palm Beach County, many of the kids simply trash their produce, said Allison Monbleau, director of school food service. Schools responded by setting up tables where students could leave their unwanted food for other students who wanted it.
Although getting kids to eat their greens isn’t always easy, there’s one healthy food that’s popular across the board: yogurt parfait.
Miami-Dade and Broward school officials said that’s one of the crowd favorites.
“My son gets up every morning and says, ‘Mommy, I don’t want to take the bus.’
“Because if he takes the bus, he’s not going to get there in time to get the parfait,” Kennedy said.
When asked what they wished their cafeterias had, students from one Parkland school said Starbucks.