By the numbers
1.8 million: Meals prepared annually by the Springfield City School District.
2,000: Meals prepared daily at Springfield High School.
75: Percentage of schools nationally who allow students to taste new menu items, according to a survey.
Source: Springfield City School District, School Nutrition Association.
Healthy Springfield: About this series
Many readers responded to a report late last year that ranked Springfield as the least healthy city in Ohio. That response — including wanting to make a positive difference — prompted the Springfield News-Sun to take a closer look at the community’s health. This year the News-Sun will dig into the public health issues facing the city, including obesity and minority health disparities and efforts to improve them. Next month, the News-Sun will investigate women’s health.
Unmatched coverage
The Springfield News-Sun provides complete coverage of important public health issues in Clark County, including recent stories on mental health care and earlier start times for high school students.
MORE ONLINE: For all of our Healthy Springfield content, including videos, photos and more stories, log on to SpringfieldNewsSun.com/healthy-springfield.
Springfield City School District Wellness Policy
The district’s wellness policy also shows four ways it is working to improve student health, including:
• All lunch items, including French fries, are baked, not fried.
• Healthy snack and beverage machines are located in the high school cafeterias.
• Fresh salads are available each day as an alternative to the regular lunch.
• Total fat content must be less than 30 percent of calories with less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat.
School lunches have come a long way from counting ketchup as a vegetable, but Springfield experts said cafeteria food could still be healthier.
The Springfield City School District provides more than 1.8 million meals per year for students and local Head Start programs. The district qualifies for a program for low-income areas that provides free breakfast and lunch for every student — making it even more important to provide healthy options, district Food Service Director Chris Ashley said.
“We’re very aware that for some of our students, these meals are important to them because when they go home, we’re not sure if they’re eating or what they’re eating,” Ashley said.
Recently updated federal standards have improved meals at schools but they could be healthier if they included less processed and more fresh foods, said Springfield resident Diana Cuy Castellanos, a registered dietitian and assistant professor at the University of Dayton.
“(The new standards are) a step in the right direction, but I think we have a long way to go,” Castellanos said.
However local school food leaders say it’s difficult to prepare fresh foods with the facilities at local school buildings.
Developing healthy eating habits at an early age can prevent obesity and diabetes, as well as future chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke and cancer, Clark County Combined Health District Creating Healthy Communities Coordinator Sarah Dahlinghaus said.
About 45 percent of high school students and 42 percent of middle school students in Clark County reported being overweight or obese, according to the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Surveys.
“They’re spending more time there than they’re spending at home, almost,” Dahlinghaus said. “A school is really a place for us to work to instill some of these habits in kids, and not just nutrition, but also physical activity and tobacco prevention.
“It’s all about the habits and the choices, trying to instill in them that healthy living can be something that starts young and you hold on to your whole life,” Dahlinghaus said.
And proper nutrition habits should start at home, Cuy Castellanos said.
“It’s really a societal issue,” she said.
Inside the cafeteria
Federal standards were updated four years ago for school meals, setting minimum and maximum amounts for calories, sodium, saturated fats and trans fat for breakfasts and lunches, as well as a minimum number of fruits, vegetables, meat and grains offered per week.
If the meals aren’t up to federal standards, schools cannot receive reimbursement from the federal government as part of the National School Lunch program.
Springfield must coordinate its menus to prepare those meals in enough time for students in the allotted time, Ashley said. The high school produces about 2,000 meals per day, while middle and elementary school kitchens each produce hundreds per day.
“We’ve got this whole school schedule and we don’t want to interrupt that,” he said.
While new standards have improved student health, it’s a double-edged sword, Ashley said.
Each vegetable subgroup — dark green, red/orange, beans/peas, starchy and other — must be provided each week, meaning some popular foods, such as corn and baked potatoes, cannot be offered twice in the same week. That’s led to decreased selection, Ashley said.
At the city elementary and middle schools, nearly half of the fruits are fresh, while the rest are canned. At the high school, fresh and canned fruits are offered every day. The school district works with Springfield-based W.R. Hackett Inc. to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables when in season, Ashley said.
Most of the remaining items are purchased as prepared frozen or canned foods and simply heated up, such as pizzas, sweet potato fries, BBQ pork and nachos.
The district would like to use less processed food, he said, but the kitchens have a limited amount of equipment, including ovens and stoves.
“We basically have to use an oven for everything,” Ashley said.
When the new buildings were built, the district used a central kitchen to cook all of the meals that were then shipped at 28 degrees and reheated at each school, Ashley said. The cook/chill process, however, wasn’t conducive to popular foods children eat, he said. The program was later changed to have each school kitchen prepare food daily.
“We’re very limited in what we can do,” Ashley said. “I would like to see the processing better, but if it wasn’t for processed foods we would have a very difficult time feeding the children at all.”
Changes to standards
Recent changes to federal standards have every school district in the country re-evaluating the meals and snacks offered to students in a la carte lines and vending machines, School Nutrition Association spokeswoman Diane Pratt-Heavner said.
After the new standards were created, districts have begun using new strategies to make sure school lunches are both nutritious and appealing to students, Pratt-Heavner said.
More than 75 percent of districts surveyed allow students to perform taste tests on items before they’re served to the campus, according to a survey of 1,000 school nutrition directors performed by the association.
The survey also found about 66 percent of schools offer a salad bar, 57 percent offer locally sourced fruit and vegetables and about 45 percent offer gluten-free options. About 18 percent partner with chefs to develop recipes.
The association wants Congress to increase how much schools are reimbursed for meals, which currently stands at about $3 per free meal depending on the district. The money must cover not only food, but also labor, utilities and equipment, she said.
“It’s not a whole lot of funding to cover a meal that has to include milk, fruit, vegetables, whole grain and protein,” Pratt-Heavner said.
It’s also difficult for cafeterias to cook food for hundreds of students in the time allotted for lunch, she said.
“They’re limited in the amount of time they have to scratch prepare items,” she said.
Food companies have worked with schools to make products that fit into the meal pattern, she said. Pizza, for example, is now often made with whole grain crust, reduced sodium sauce and low-fat cheese, she said.
“Even if it’s been pre-prepared, it’s healthier than what kids are finding when they go out to eat in restaurants,” Pratt-Heavner said.
A different type of lunch
Nightingale Montessori, an infant through 12th grade school with about 150 students in Springfield, runs a garden-to-kitchen program through a $1,000 team nutrition grant, as well as partnerships with both the Ohio State University Clark County Extension Office and the Global Impact Stem Academy. Last year, the grant was worth about $4,600.
The school uses locally grown products to fix from-scratch meals prepared by about 40 to 50 student chefs per week, Principal Maria Taylor said. The meals — which follow federal standards — are also prepared with local ingredients, including chicken and turkey from New Carlisle-based Bowman Landes and organic beef from McClain Farms in West Liberty.
The lunch program has about 65 percent participation from students and staff, she said. The school’s menu includes items such as nachos with ground turkey, quiche and North American gumbo. The school also provides a daily salad bar. On Fridays, the school orders Donatos whole-wheat pizza, which meets federal standards, Taylor said.
“We try to avoid all processed foods,” she said.
All students are eligible to participate in its Student Nutrition Action Committee, which allows them to work with the school chef to create a meal with a specialty fruit each month, Taylor said. This month, the students will work with starfruit, pineapple and bananas.
As a Team Nutrition school in Ohio, Nightingale doesn’t allow unhealthy foods to be brought in for holidays or birthdays. The students are also allowed to bring in fresh fruit and vegetables for snacking during the day, she said.
“We don’t want the artificial things coming in,” Taylor said.
As a private school that charges tuition, they’re also able to use general fund money to partially fund the salary of the head chef, which isn’t typically allowed at public schools, she said. The gardening and cooking program at the small school requires a lot of planning, which Taylor said would be difficult at larger districts.
“We value the cooking program for the values it brings the children and their learning experience,” Taylor said.
Parents must continue the momentum created throughout the day at home, she said.
“Schools can make a big difference, but it’s something schools can’t do alone,” Pratt-Heavner said.
Small changes — such as switching from white to whole grain bread or eating a few salads per week — will go a long way. The recent changes in the nutrition standards have allowed schools to make those changes, Dahlinghaus said.
“But we have to make sure we’re not counteracting it allowing them to buy as much candy or as many pops as they want,” Dahlinghaus said.
‘Free and nutritious’
On Sept. 13, students at the Springfield High School cafeteria were provided several options for lunch, including bacon cheeseburger, sweet potato fries, buffalo chicken pizza, chicken patties and a potato bar, as well as pineapple and apples. Kiosk lines included boneless chicken wings, salad and nachos.
Students had varying opinions about the food at the lunch last week.
The portions are decent, but some days sophomore Sam Towns needs a little more.
“It’s great compared to other schools,” said Towns, , who already stands 6-foot-4. “It’s free and nutritious.”
The lunch tastes good and there are several options every day, sophomore Tyler Van Wey said.
“I get an apple and a milk every day,” Van Wey said.
Some days are better than others, sophomore Maddie Cochran said. She likes the options, but she said occasionally the food is greasy.
“Sometimes it will be too soft or hard, but most of the time, it’s OK,” Cochran said.
The food at the high school tastes better and is healthier than what was offered last year at middle school, freshman Jordan Louden said.
“There are more things to choose from and the food is just a lot better,” Louden said. “I just think it’s all around good.”
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