Nutrition in Poudre Schools: Where to Start?

By, Michael McNulty

     While schools across the country are making changes to the lunch menu, Poudre School District is evaluating their own nutritional information served to students. After Tuesday night’s school board meeting, directors and the public discussed the future of what a school lunch should look like in PSD.

     The meeting began with open comments from the public, and right away talk of the current food service arose. The majority of the comments argued a previous proposal from the board about changing the menu. “You have to have a choice to learn to make a healthy choice,” said Monica Morrison, a concerned mother. Morrison explained that choice is important during lunch and instead of forcing students to eat “healthy,” schools should be educating them on making good nutritional decisions on their own. Dierdre Sullivan, a member of the District Advisory Board stressed that the kitchen staff should be referred to as, “lunch teachers rather than lunch ladies.”

     “I don’t have a problem with the school lunches” said Patti Dale, a school nutrition sub and mother of elementary students. Darlene Laubenstein, a kitchen manager at Fossil Ridge High School argued that off-campus privileges are to blame for teen nutrition problems. A majority of students do not even eat at school because they have time to drive to local fast food restaurants.

     Two dietitians presented statistics proposed new programs for schools to look into. Virginia Clark, a member of the obesity and nutrition program CanDo explained current student nutrition facts and proposed to go above and beyond the USDA requirements. Clark recommended establishing committees and experts who will conduct studies and monitor nutrition in Poudre Schools. “Schools play an enormous role in what kids eat and their attitudes toward food,” Clark said. She disagrees with choice but also believes schools should educate students by presenting nutritious foods.

     Craig Snyder, with the Child Nutrition Program also spoke to the board. His business serves schools the food they feed students and he also presented goals that PSD should try to attain. The board immediately had a lot of questions pertaining to these proposals and explained that before anyone implements changes, the board needs more information and decision. “Your points don’t show that our system is broken,” said Director Albright, “and I’m hesitant to fix it if it doesn’t need fixing.”  The crowd applauded.