Fresh approach earns school lunches big fans

Even teachers are buying the healthy cafeteria food, which is winning awards

Diners at the Argenziano School, recently commended in the HealthierUS Schools Challenge. New dishes, including spinach quesadillas with low-fat cheese, were OK'd by students. (Globe Staff Photo / Pat Greenhouse)

If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, the nurse at Dr. Albert F. Argenziano School at Lincoln Park in Somerville might need to look for another job.

First-graders Joshua Frost, Joshua Martizano, and Ryan Devereaux are big fans of apples. Also sliced oranges, mangos, and bananas - which they said they would choose over a bag of chips.

"This school loves fruit," said food manager Peggy Huckins. Starting Oct. 20, the Argenziano School replaced home-brought snacks with fresh fruit three days a week.

The healthy progress there and at Somerville's other elementary schools isn't going unnoticed. On Oct. 24, the US Department of Agriculture presented the district with a silver ranking in the HealthierUS Schools Challenge.

Though the award went specifically to the Winter Hill Community School, all of the city's K-8 schools serve the same meals, said district spokeswoman Gretchen Kinder.

Improvements began in 2003 with a health promotion program, Shape Up Somerville, which was recently featured in Good Housekeeping magazine, Kinder said. Now the district has more than doubled its produce budget to more than $160,000, not all attributable to higher prices.

"We used to have a lot of canned vegetables. Now it's all fresh," Huckins said.

The USDA ranking recognizes schools that serve at least three different fruits, five different vegetables, and three whole-grain foods weekly, and have widespread nutrition and physical education programs.

It's all the more significant because school cafeterias provide half of many students' diets. More than half of the school's 484 students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Many eat breakfast at school. The district also serves more than 1,000 meals a day during the summer.

"I think Somerville is really cutting-edge," said Jennifer Lawrence, director of Groundwork Somerville, which participated in Shape Up Somerville and maintains gardens at several elementary schools. Although promoting healthy, farm-to-table food is becoming a trend in schools, it still isn't widespread, she said.

When the district hit a $25,000 state cap for buying local food last year, the School Committee allocated extra funds.

"Their budget is phenomenal," Lawrence said. "I am really, really impressed."

(Kinder didn't expect budget cuts to affect food decisions; most money comes from the federal government, she said.)

The lunch line at the Argenziano School on a recent Monday made the days of meatloaf and mashed potatoes look as distant as - well, peanut butter and jelly.

Granted, the day's offerings didn't explode off the tray with healthfulness. Huckins said the school serves lower-effort meals on Mondays so they can prepare for the rest of the week.

Still, the chicken nuggets were baked, not fried, the roll was whole wheat, and shelves overflowed with salads, baby carrots, and bins of fruit. No cookies, no chips.

The district's cafeteria manual directs cooks to steam some vegetables immediately before serving. This month's menu features roasted butternut squash. The school celebrated its October vegetable of the month, fresh corn, with an epic shuck.

Nearly all the students piling into the bright, airy cafeteria ate the school lunch, and all interviewed professed to like it.

"I love it," said Devereaux, a spiky-haired towhead.

"They make good food and they do a lot of stuff here," said Frost, pausing to chomp.

"I put ketchup here," said Martizano, showing off his self-made wheat roll/chicken nugget slider, so excited he talked with his mouth full.

Not just Mikey likes it: Huckins said about one-third of the teachers buy the school lunch each day.

To bypass the "ew" factor, district food director Mary Jo McLarney and Groundwork held tastings to introduce the healthy vegetables. Students voted several new dishes - such as the winter squash and quesadillas with low-fat cheese and spinach - onto the district's menu. Students also help with Groundwork's schoolyard garden.

McLarney has analyzed garbage pail contents, Kinder said, resulting in the reluctant deletion of whole-wheat bagels from the lineup. (The white-flour bagels, there for picky eaters, are a little too popular, Kinder said. They're trying to diversify into SB&Js - sunflower butter and jelly.)

Criticisms from one table of salad-eating seventh-grade girls implied the school wasn't health-conscious enough.

"I think the pizza's too greasy - they should put, like, less oil on it," said Iara Reis. Joytika Bhargo wanted more "stuff for vegetarians," and Katherine Mercer, more tropical fruit.

Still, Sheyla Novaes said some students thought the school food program was "unfair . . . because they don't get to eat their chips."

This all may seem bizarre to adults raised with Coke machines and generic Chips Ahoy. "We used to sell a lot of snacks - cookies, brownies," said Huckins.

But since the school stopped that five years ago, she pointed out, "These kids don't even realize we sold them."

Huckins speculated, "If they don't know what it's like," she paused and looked out the window at the satiated kids running on the playground, "they won't have weight issues."

Danielle Dreilinger's e-mail address is djdreilinger@ comcast.net.