Cafeteria food tastes great, less filling, experts say
School menu gets a makeover
By Sophia Fischer sfischer@theacorn.com

GOOD EATIN'- Cafeteria workers in the Oak Park School District are preparing healthier fare for their students thanks to the district's Wellness Council. The food is greatly reduced nitrates, additives, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, preservatives and artificial colors and flavoring.

Oak Park students are eating healthier at school but they might not realize what's changed in their cafeteria menu.

According to school officials, the food is nearly completely free of nitrates, additives, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, preservatives, and artificial colors and flavoring.

Organic, natural, whole selections and more locally produced items are being offered instead.

Kids are eating turkey wraps and turkey quesadillas using meat sliced fresh daily; freshly cooked pasta salads with grilled vegetables; and vitamin-rich salad bar servings. Burritos and grilled chicken, rice and bean bowls are brought in from El Pollo Loco and a local pizza parlor delivers pies made with natural, fresh ingredients. The pizzas offered previously contained unripe tomatoes filled with sugar to sweeten them. Hot dogs and corn dogs are filler and nitrate-free.

The pasta making and slicing of meats is handled at the district's production kitchen at Oak Park High School and delivered to elementary schools which do not have kitchens. The high school and middle school have kitchens onsite where foods are prepared daily.

The changes are the result of the district's Wellness Council, formed in 2005 to address new state and federal guidelines regarding school menus. As part of those changes, the school district hired Laurel Goins, former Whole Foods marketing director and a graduate of the California School of Culinary Arts.

Goins hopes to offer a larger selection of organic foods within the next two years.

The new choices have been going over well with students, Goins said. "Because everything is healthier, it tastes better. The goal is to remove all additives by next fall."

Timmy McGinley was not aware of the changes other than that he can now purchase orange chicken along with the salad bar, chicken rice bowl and pizza lunches that he enjoys. The Brookside Elementary School fourth-grader does have some advice for Goins.

"I want them to change how they make the chicken for the salad bar and make it hot instead of cold," Timmy said. "I also would like to see them offer pepperoni pizza."

Not all students are happy with the changes. Meghan Toomayan misses the pink lemonade soda, doughy chocolate chip cookies and barbecued chicken pizza she used to buy from the Oak Park High School cafeteria.

"Now they have wheat pizza that tastes horrible," said Meghan, a junior. "I wish they still offered the other things so that we could have a choice."

Goins describes what students were being served before the changes were made. For example, the turkey used in sandwiches was presliced and contained a light form of bleach used to prevent bacteria growth. She likened its strength to a kitchen floor cleaning solution. Some chicken nuggets included a food grade glue used as a binder to hold the ingredients together.

"Chicken nuggets shouldn't have 18 ingredients," Goins said. "If children knew the kind of preservatives that are in their foods they would make healthy choices automatically."

The United States is one of the only countries in the world that uses preservatives and other chemicals in foods, according to Goins. During the 1950s' population boom, Americans began demanding that all foods be available year-round, whether they were in season or not, she said. Manufacturers came up with ways to keep foods as fresh as possible using chemicals, even if they were made months earlier.

"Other countries would not find this acceptable," Goins said. "My best philosophy is that if you can't pronounce it, you probably shouldn't eat it."