May 2015 Rolling Stone

6
Features
Let’s Taco ‘Bout It
Story by Chenoa Baker and Anna Barnard
MPH lunch staff is served with challenges
Photos by Maddy Rieks
From left to right: Cindy Parody, Trish Etter, Mary Judd, Sonya Mattice
Mary Judd and her crew arrive
at the Manlius Pebble Hill lunch
room at 5:30 a.m. Every day, they
wash tables, prepare the soups and
entrees of the day, slice fresh items for
the deli bar, make breakfast and prepare
salads.
Then, they watch more than 500
students and faculty members flood
the cafeteria to eat the food they prepared.
This daily routine is what the
kitchen staff goes through every day
to prepare snack (breakfast) at 9:30
a.m. and food for three lunch periods.
The lunch staff at MPH works hard
to provide students with lunch, snack,
and the occasional dessert.
Students don’t understand the challenges
that the lunch staff faces trying
to please so many people on a budget,
while making sure that the food
is healthy.
“Mary pays meticulous attention
each day to providing [520] people
with not only a nutritionally-balanced
meal, but one that accommodates
dietary restrictions such as nut-free,
gluten-free and vegetarian,” said
Amy Critz, Assistant to the Head of
School, in an email.
The first challenge for the dining
hall staff is staying on budget.
The overall food budget for 2015 is
$339,404, but that breaks down to a
little less than $4.00 per person per
day. Although lunch is included in
tuition, most students don’t know the
cost of their meals. This budget includes
paying for labor, utensils, beverages,
salad bar, hot meals, deli bar,
condiments, and upkeep for the dining
hall.
Judd compared the cost of MPH’s
lunch to a McDonald’s kid’s meal.
A McDonald’s Mighty Kids Meal
costs $3.99 for six-piece chicken nuggets,
fries, apple slices or yogurt and a
drink (not including tax).
“So you have to realize that I put
out cereal, milk, juice, yogurt, all of
this food and it’s less than what you
could get a Happy Meal for at Mc-
Donald’s,” she said. “So it’s kind of
hard to... I mean I like to be fancy
when I can, but I have to stay within a
budget, so you know even at $4 a head
you really can’t go out and buy much
with that.”
The second challenge is to provide
healthy meals at MPH. With
childhood obesity on the rise, school
lunches have long been criticized for
their content. Schools that participate
in the National School Lunch Program,
and therefore receive federal
money toward their lunch expenses,
must now follow the guidelines set by
the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act,
championed by Michelle Obama and
passed into law in 2010. The new law
required schools to begin phasing in
healthier snack and lunch options in
2012, including whole grains, low-fat
milk and more fruits and vegetables.
It also set limits on fat, sugar and sodium
contents.
MPH participated in the National
School Lunch program from 2000 to
2012, according to Tara Webster of
the New York Child Nutrition Program
Administration in the state
education department. The school
stopped participating as the new regulations
for lunch content were being
rolled out.
Though the new school lunch standards
have come under attack, a study
by the Harvard School of Public
Health reports that fruit and vegetable
consumption has increased since the
new standards. While students have
long thrown away fruits (40 percent)
and vegetables (75 percent), the study
finds that fewer vegetables were discarded
after the change (down to 60
percent).
A different study done by the
School Nutrition Association, however,
found that 80 percent of schools
(out of 240 districts that participated)
reported more lunch waste since the
changes.
Though MPH does not currently
have to follow any regulations,
the cooking staff strives to provide
healthy meals for the students. But
whether students eat it or not is up to
them.
“Nobody really wants to be forced
into something they really don’t
want,” Judd said. “I really think that
especially today’s children, they want
choices and they’re pretty mature
thinkers nowadays, so I think they
have the right to.”
Theresa Shepherd, an oncology
dietitian, agrees that healthy options
may not always be chosen. Her son
attends East Syracuse-Minoa schools.
“[I am] not thrilled with the school
lunches,” Shepherd said. “Parents
have no control over what their children
choose. I give [my son] money
every day to buy lunch. They offer
veggies and fruits, but also pizza. I’m
not a big fan of having cheese burgers
and chicken fingers every day. I
would love to see salad bars at all of
the schools, but it may not be financially
feasible.”
The fourth challenge at MPH is
to make meals that appeal to the
tastes of so many. Although many
students aren’t aware how the budget
is stretched they have praised the
school lunch for its diversity, varying
choices and healthy options. In a random
survey of students and teachers
conducted by MPH’s Rolling Stone, it
was found that the MPH school lunch
was rated six or seven out of ten. The
survey found that students preferred
MPH’s school lunch compared to the
public school lunches they’ve had.
“There’s a lot of varying food
choices so on different days we have
different options,” said sophomore
Amina Kilpatrick, who used to attend
Jamesville-DeWitt Elementary
School.
Additionally, Judd tries to accommodate
dietary restrictions by offering
nut-free, gluten-free and vegetarian
options. With all these challenges,
she makes a weekly menu that a lot of
students appreciate. Judd welcomes
communication with the students because
she wants school lunch to be enjoyable.
She wants a relationship with
the students and wants the students to
feel comfortable talking to her about
any ideas, problems and requests.
“My main challenge,” Judd said,
“is making healthy meals that the majority
of the people will eat and like.”