Junk food in the classroom!

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?


Schools strive to dump junk food

By Noreen Gillespie
The Associated Press


STEVE MILLER / AP
Seventh-grader Stephanie Aurora, 12, right, enjoys a salad as classmate Niko Taylor, 13, center, has a cheeseburger and tater tots for lunch at Nathan Hale School in New Haven, Conn.


NEW HAVEN, Conn. — At Nathan Hale School, candy bars are confiscated. Bake sales are frowned upon. The vending machines don't carry soda — only water, milk or juice.
This is a "junk food-free school," an early phase of a districtwide initiative to fight childhood obesity. It's where third-graders have salads if they don't like the main course, and where seventh-grade girls take Pilates after school.

Nationwide, many schools are reconsidering their vending-machine offerings and changing their lunchroom food lineup. But New Haven, an urban district on Connecticut's shoreline, is particularly committed.

"There isn't a candy bar in this school," said principal Kim Johnsky as she surveys the maze of lunch tables.

Nathan Hale, a K-8 school, is the first to go completely junk-free. Next fall, the program will expand to all schools.

Vending-machine choices will be overhauled: Baked chips will replace fried, granola will replace cookies. Cafeterias in elementary and middle schools have already rolled out baked versions of things such as chicken nuggets and French fries, and fried foods will be gradually phased out of high schools, too.

The program doesn't stop in the cafeteria.

The district has started cooking classes for parents and infuses regular science classes with nutrition lessons. Building renovations include designs for larger gyms to encourage physical activity.

Even the bake sale, a traditional source of fund raising for classes and parent organizations, is being discouraged in favor of plant sales and penny drives.

The poverty rate in the school district is so high that the system has a universal free-lunch program. The district doesn't have hard data on how many students are obese, but officials say a significant number of its 20,400 students have diabetes.

Nationally, about 15 percent of children and adolescents between 6 and 19 are obese, according to government figures.




Dr. Stephen Updegrove, a medical adviser for New Haven schools and one of the primary architects of the district's policy, said one goal is to create a "ripple effect" from the school to community.

But the program has met some resistance, particularly among school officials who fear that healthful eating will result in unhealthy budgets.

The junk food- and soda-stocked vending machines pull in up to $10,000 in extra income for some of the high schools each year, and some schools fear income won't be as high with more healthful snack options.

"That's considerable, considerable dollars," said District Superintendent Reginald Mayo, who is looking for ways to make up the lost revenue.

Susan Fiore, a nutrition specialist with the state Department of Education, said: "We can't guarantee they won't lose money, but maybe the payoff is worth it. There's a lot of research out there that kids who eat better learn better, and that's a pretty easy sell."

A separate program will work with 10 local school systems to create nutrition policies. For example, teachers start rewarding students with something other than candy, and birthday parties might mean extra recess instead of cupcakes, Fiore said.

"It's slow," she said. "There's a lot of ingrained things that take time to change. You talk about not having cupcakes at birthday parties, and people freak out."

Meanwhile, in the cafeteria at Nathan Hale, the new lunches are getting mixed reviews.

Angela Cable, 9, is happy with the salad option.

"I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't eat a lot of meat," she said. Seventh-grader Stephanie Aurora is more blunt. She wants soda, and doesn't like the tuna that is on her salad.

The new food choices aren't her favorite, she said, "but they're OK."

MSNBC - At least 9 U.S. troops killed in Iraq attacks

MSNBC - At least 9 U.S. troops killed in Iraq attacks

First let me say that I have the utmost respect for our troops fighting in the gulf--and elsewhere. These men and women have been tasked in Iraq with an extremly difficult task in Iraq. They have been asked to accomplish this task since the beginning without proper support and or troop strength required to accomplish the task. This is not my opinion but the opinion of the pentagon generals that the president chose to ignore. Now we are paying the price of that arrogance compunded by the arrogance of a President Bush's bravado and go it alone startegy that left out the rest of the world. Istead of building a coalition and getting buy in from the UN Bush has wated the goood will the United States got and deserved after the events of 9-11. It is sad that so many of our men are dying under these cercumstances and I only wonder if the price could have been lower had better decisions been made. My heartfelt thanks to the men and women.