Will It Be an Incumbent Sweep? - The Spectrum Magazine

RCSD Corner: News From the Redwood City School District
SCafeteria Time Is Surprisingly Robust for RWC Kids
chool is back in session, and each day thousands
of Redwood City students file toward the
lunchroom after working up an appetite from a
morning of learning. While the prospect of a school
lunch for some conjures the specter of mystery meat,
the quality and diversity of school lunch and breakfast
offerings in the Redwood City School District are
impressive and surprisingly robust.
When President Obama signed the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010
into law, which prescribed new mandates for child nutrition programs to be
phased in over several years, the district was able to report that it was already
meeting many of the new provisions. Specifically, the new federal guidelines
require an overall reduction in total calories, new cholesterol, fiber and sodium
thresholds, and a discontinuation of Vitamin A and C, iron and calcium parameters
in addition to various other recommendations from the Institute of Medicine.
Redwood City School District serves up more than 1,000,000 lunches per
school year to its preschool through eighth-grade students. In addition to
various entrees, there are weekly offerings of fresh, favorite seasonal fruits,
such as watermelon, tangerines and strawberries (that are grown locally, to
the extent possible) and produce-of-the-month taste testing. District staff
have even analyzed various ways of presenting apples (presliced? whole?) to
maximize their appeal to students, who can be picky eaters.
All pasta and rice, and over 90 percent of bread products, are whole grain.
All lunch menus comply with the Healthy US Challenge gold standard award
for First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Campaign. Over the coming
months, portable all-you-can-eat salad bars will be installed at each and
every one of the district’s 16 school sites.
Another idea to build on an already impressive nutrition program is to
add more freshly prepared, nonprocessed foods — which are healthier and
also tend to be more environmentally friendly. For example, though labor-
intensive, hand-rolled burritos have proved a popular option among students.
Various student activities surrounding the cafeteria seek to impart valuable
health and nutrition knowledge and better educate students to choose healthy
lifestyles. An annual cooking contest showcases students’ budding culinary
abilities, and International Week at Clifford exposes the children to a diverse
sampling of multicultural fare.
Many schools also maintain organic gardens, and instructors seek to
connect the principles gleaned from students’ participation therein with the
food being served in the cafeteria.
Board of Education Trustee Shelly Masur, who also sits on the district’s
Wellness Committee, has long championed the cause of student health and
fitness; she frequently cites studies linking student wellness to learning and
achievement. “We know that when students are eating high-quality nutritious
meals and engaging in regular physical activity, they are enabled to perform
better academically and we see higher levels of student achievement,” said Masur.
Students at Fair Oaks School sampling foods from their new portable salad bar
The Spectrum 5