School lunches not good eating

Pop-Tarts and doughnuts for breakfast for 2-year-olds. Rolls, chicken nuggets and French fries for school lunches. Brownies given the same nutritional value as a slice of whole-wheat bread.

Federal nutrition programs are failing children and contributing to an epidemic of obesity and chronic illnesses in America, according to speakers who testified Wednesday at a U.S. Department of Agriculture listening session. From the type of food served to the excess calories ladled onto trays, kids are learning unhealthy eating habits, they said.

“School lunches are contributing to childhood obesity patterns, in some cases as much as 16 pounds a year,” said Amanda Ridley, nutrition director for Murray County schools.

With children spending the majority of their waking hours at school, food offered there is especially critical, said Natalie Rogers, speaking for the Georgia PTA.

“School foods have sold out and reduced to competing with junk foods to be kid friendly,” Rogers said.

As the federal government prepares to update child nutrition programs in 2009, a mix of sometimes competing interests took the stage at the listening session. Those programs cover WIC, the supplemental feeding program for pregnant women and young children; school lunches and breakfasts; programs for child and adult day care facilities; and summer feeding programs for poor children.

Directors for school nutrition, preschool child-feeding programs and hunger relief services, as well as parents, industry lobbyists and community activists lined up to speak for five minutes apiece at the hearing at the federal building in downtown Atlanta. Feedback from the Atlanta conference and others across the country is part of reauthorizing the program.

For many speakers, the top priority is updating nutritional requirements to follow the most recent federal dietary guidelines, issued in 2005. That would mean meals that contain more whole grains, fiber, lean meats, fruits and vegetables, and less sodium and starchy vegetables such as potatoes.

Another need: Setting aside more money to pay for healthier food, which often costs more, said Cynthia Downs, nutrition director for Cobb County Schools. Many speakers said rising food and energy prices are pinching meal budgets.

Georgia Organics lobbied for farm-to-school programs. The Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association suggested salad bars in every school. Nutrition program directors complained of paperwork requirements that swamped workers and discouraged parents from seeking help for hungry children. A Southeast United Dairy Industry Association representative touted the benefits of flavored milk.

Not so fast, said Sydney Shipps, whose kids attend Atlanta Public Schools. She has worked to remove strawberry-flavored milk from those schools, and was upset that it returned this year.

A dairy representative assured her the milk helped kids because it contained calcium —- but it also contains artificial red and blue dyes, high-fructose corn syrup, and twice the sugar in nonflavored milk.

“Similar logic,” Shipps said, “would enable me to get my daily Vitamin C by drinking three screwdrivers for breakfast.”