By the start of the next school year, new regulations will be implemented that will force the school to provide healthier and more nutritious food options.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH), the Act Relative to School Nutrition requires the department to create standards for the foods served in public schools across the state. The school must comply with these standards by Aug. 1, 2012.
According to the MDPH, “The goal of the standards is to ensure that public schools offer students food and beverage choices that will enhance learning, contribute to their healthy growth and development and cultivate life-long healthy eating behaviors.”
Included in these new standards is a ban on caffeinated beverages, fryolators or beverages with added sugar or sweeteners.
Career and technology education teacher Paul Carpenter, coordinator of the culinary program, believes that the laws will interfere with the creativity of students who work in the restaurant.
“The regulations are too strict for me to teach my students how to work in a restaurant outside,” said Carpenter. “They would learn basic cooking, but they wouldn’t learn how to do any kind of specials.”
Currently, Carpenter plans on continuing to serve coffee and tea to adults. However, the food Restaurant 108 will serve in the future might change.
“We’re not getting rid of everything,” said Carpenter, who has come up with a list of at least four different options for Restaurant 108 that comply with the new standards.
He is leaning toward serving adults Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and tailoring the Thursday menu to students.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the food standards technically do not apply to adults in public schools.
Carpenter stresses that no plan is set in stone for Restaurant 108.
“It is really difficult to make a decision on what we should do in order to keep the program running so that the students will learn,” said Carpenter. “We are in a tough situation right now.”
Acting Assistant Director of Food Services Teresa Vidette says that the cafeteria has already been in compliance with most of the new standards, other than the sale of coffee.
In addition to getting rid of their fryolator, the cafeteria has taken steps in recent years to improve the healthiness of the foods they are serving.
According to Vidette, the pizza being served this year is much healthier than the pizza of previous years because of the decreased fat content in the cheese and crust.
Senior Olga Birbrayer feels that the food served in the cafeteria is certainly not as healthy as it could be.
“I’ve seen the grease stains on people’s paper plates,” said Birbrayer. “It just does not look natural. I feel that the cafeteria food should be held to a higher standard because it is served every day.”
According to Vidette, the cafeteria already has the highest mark on the A-list, a list of foods and beverages that meet the Massachusetts À La Carte Food and Beverage Standards to Promote a Healthier School Environment. For example, the various ice creams being served currently are all on the A-list.
The standards were first published in 2004 and later revised in 2009, according to the John C. Stalker Institute of Food and Nutrition at Framingham State University.
The list is currently under revision in order to reflect the new regulations created by the MDPH and is expected to be republished in February of 2012, according to the Stalker Institute.
Vidette believes that students who regularly purchase coffee and tea from the cafeteria will find some other way to obtain their caffeine.
“I think the effect will be huge,” said Vidette. “I hate to deprive kids, but it is just something we have to go by. But if they want it, they are going to get it.”
Olivia Netsky, Carpenter’s assistant in Restaurant 108, thinks students will find some other source of caffeine when the school bans its distribution.
“It is not like kids are going to stop drinking coffee,” said Netsky. “They’re just going to have to walk a little bit farther to get it. How many Dunkin’ Donuts are in walking distance of here? How many Starbucks?”
Though these new laws are part of an initiative to provide healthy foods, Netsky believes that simply enforcing them will not teach students about the importance of eating healthy.
“I find the more you try to push something on someone, the more they’re going to resist it,” said Netsky. “If you give them the knowledge they need to make healthier choices, they are going to feel more empowered to take that knowledge and use it in their own life.”
Juvan Bonni can be contacted at [email protected].
