Food and Nutrition

An online anthology of ASBJ school food and nutrition article.

Understanding Agriculture
Getting high-quality agricultural education programs off the ground requires more than laws and leadership, and more than money and models. It also depends on school leaders who have the patience and persistence to work on problems researchers have identified.
June 2008

No Free Lunch
She's as sweet as her name sounds, but a visit from Gertrude Applebaum is a nerve-wracking experience. She can find the flaw in a stack of spreadsheets, see the waste in a menu cycle, and detect disparities down the chain of command. Nothing gets past this woman, which is precisely why school districts with troubled food service programs hire her.
June 2008

The Outsourcing Question
It sounds tempting: Hand over all the responsibility for food service management--that byzantine department that usually operates in the red--to a private company. But the mere mention of the dreaded "O" word may set off protests from employees, unions, and parents and divide the administrative staff.
June 2008

Food for Thought
Do board members understand that school food service programs are probably the second largest part of the budget? School cafeterias certainly are the single largest source of federal revenue. Do we consider the impact that lack of good nutrition has on achievement? Parents certainly know that hungry children don't learn.
June 2008

Newsmakers: Robert Harrison
When you want to focus attention on a growing epidemic, it never hurts to have a former president in your corner. Bill Clinton and the American Heart Association joined forces last year to form the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a partnership that is focused on putting an end to childhood obesity by 2010. In this interview, the CEO of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation talks about his organization’s efforts to end childhood obesity.
September 2006

The Safety Factor
Food-borne illnesses in schools made up just 3 percent of reported outbreaks nationwide in the 1990s, according to the latest analysis available from the U.S. General Accounting Office. That translates to about 195 incidents in a decade—a miniscule number, considering the 29 million lunches served in school cafeterias each school day. But if you’re an administrator in a district hit with one of those illnesses, the problem can be catastrophic.
June 2006

The Allergy Factor
Food allergies have become more common in the past decade. Experts report that the rate of allergy to peanuts and tree nuts, for example, has doubled in recent years. Despite the increase, a School Nutrition Association survey conducted last year found that just 57 percent of districts nationwide had a food-allergy preparedness plan in place. But cases in which students have died while on a field trip or after snacking on candy sold as a school fund-raiser point to the need to be prepared for the most dire allergic reactions—not just in the cafeteria but at all times.
June 2006