In case you missed it, I had an op-ed in the Sunday edition of the Chronicle on school food in our district. I urge our school officials to reconsider the outsourcing of HISD’s food to Aramark and to assess the feasibility of a self-operated food services department, with a return to more scratch cooking.
You can read the piece here.
Follow The Spork Report on Facebook, Twitter or on The Lunch Tray.
When I was once asked by Slow Food USA to explain why I started my daily blog about kids and food, The Lunch Tray, I realized that a packet of animal crackers played no small part in the decision.
I was attending my very first HISD Food Services Parent Advisory Committee meeting in February 2010, just as the First Class Breakfast program was being fully rolled out across the district at the direction of Superintendent Terry Grier. There was a lot of concern among parents at the meeting (and throughout HISD) about some of the items on that initial breakfast menu, including brightly hued Trix yogurt, shrink-wrapped, processed maple-flavored waffles, and packets of animal crackers.
When I asked HISD’s then-head dietician about the animal crackers specifically, she said they were added to the menu to meet the USDA’s iron requirements for school breakfasts (via the fortification of the flour) as well as its high calorie requirements (via the sugar). I was so appalled by a system (called the “nutrient standard” method of meal planning) that would lead to this bizarre result that I began to learn as much as I could about the federal school meal program. Eventually I wanted to share that knowledge via a blog and The Lunch Tray was born.
When I revisited the animal cracker issue on The Lunch Tray back in August, 2010, I was told by the district, to my relief, that they were going to be phased out of HISD’s breakfast program in the fall of last year. (And, indeed, if you look at the current published HISD breakfast menus – here, here and here– animal crackers are nowhere to be found.)
But a few days ago my daughter happened to mention seeing them every day at breakfast in her middle school and she brought home a packet to show me. Concerned, I contacted Brian Giles, Senior Administrator of Food Services, to find out what was going on. He wrote:
Our commitment was to eliminate the fortified crackers from the elementary breakfast menu. That has definitely happened. The item is approved for a la carte during the lunch period. . . .
Due to higher calorie and iron requirements for middle school age groups, the item is still offered as part of the breakfast menu at that level.
Regarding the calorie/iron conundrum, here are some solutions we have been working on:
1) We will be moving from “nutrient standard” menu planning to “food based” menu planning next year. This menu planning approach has lower, more realistic calorie standards. It will also allow us to increase the variety of food groups offered on a given menu. Because of lower calorie requirements, we could eliminate the menu need for items like the animal crackers (which are a good source of iron and calories).
2) In our current “Select Items” bid, we are seeking additional breakfast items that are high in iron and meet calorie requirements. Bid responses will be tabulated in December and we could see these new items on menus as early as February, replacing the need for a cracker item.
When I asked Brian why animal crackers were being served without appearing on the middle school menu, he wrote:
I checked the online menus and it looks like we have a typo that says “cereal assortment” every day. We will change the online menu so it is accurate.
When I pressed him to find out how long the typo had been appearing, he added:
As far as we can tell, the typo stretches back to last spring’s online menus. Certainly no intention to mislead the public. It was simply a data entry error in the process between menu creation and menu publication that we didn’t catch. Thanks a lot for bringing it to my attention.
I take Brian at his word, of course, and mistakes can happen to anyone. But it disturbs me that any food item (and particularly one that had been the subject of some controversy) was being served to students for so long without the knowledge of HISD parents.
At any rate, I personally will be very pleased when our schools are no longer offering what are, in the end, cookies, to HISD middle schoolers every morning. Nutrition aside (these particular animal crackers do contain some whole grain), this seems like a terrible message to be sending our students about sound food choices, particularly in an age of rampant childhood obesity.
I’ll keep you posted here.
Follow The Spork Report on Facebook, Twitter or on The Lunch Tray.
I’m a parent of two children in Houston ISD public schools, a former lawyer and a freelance writer. I care about improving school food, and the health of kids generally, so I serve on HISD’s Food Services Parent Advisory Committee as well as the district’s School Health Advisory Council (SHAC.)
Stemming out of my activities here in Houston, a year and a half ago I launched a widely-read daily blog, The Lunch Tray, devoted to ”kids and food, in school and out.” (You can read more about The Lunch Tray here.) The Lunch Tray is national both in scope and in the composition of its readership, but lately I’ve also wanted to focus on HISD school food specifically, providing interested parents with information on the latest developments in our district.
That’s why I created The Spork Report, an unofficial source for news and opinion about Houston ISD school food. The key word there is “unofficial:” I’m not in any way affiliated with the district, any views or comments I express here are entirely my own, and I take full responsibility for any inaccuracies in my reporting. My independence from the district means I’ll call the shots as I see them, criticizing HISD where I think it’s warranted and praising the district for steps taken in the right direction.
The Spork Report has its own Facebook page and Twitter feed and posts appear simultaneously on the Houston Chronicle‘s Chron.com website and on The Lunch Tray. You can also subscribe to have Spork Report posts delivered directly to your email inbox. My goal is to update the blog weekly, or more often as my schedule allows.
I appreciate reader comments and will do my best to respond to them. However, due to the significant time it takes me to publish and manage The Lunch Tray each day, comments on The Spork Report may sometimes go unanswered or may not be answered promptly. I appreciate your understanding. And if you do decide to comment, please be courteous. Per my legal policy, I reserve the right to delete comments for any reason, including tone and language, and I won’t hesitate to exercise that right to keep this a friendly forum.
Thanks for reading The Spork Report! I hope you find it informative.
- Bettina Elias Siegel
