Not your papa’s school lunch

Anyone who cooks for kids regularly knows how finicky some children can be when it comes to food.

So imagine trying to prepare breakfast and lunch menus every day for 14,000 school children. That’s the task of the child nutrition staff for Hoover City Schools.

The percentage of kids who participate in the school lunch program in Hoover dropped from 68 percent in the 2009-10 school year to 53 percent in 2016-17. But last year — after a slow, steady decline for seven years — the numbers increased to 55 percent.

Hoover school officials changed their primary food distributor last year in an effort to get higher quality food and have more control over food selection, child nutrition director Melinda Bonner said.

They also have tried to get more creative with their menus and started marketing aggressively, she said. Principals let them share information in school newsletters, and they’re making menus available online.

“We’re providing more and more tools for our parents with nutritional information regarding content, calories and carbs,” Bonner said. “We send our menus out on Twitter. We have really come a long way.”

A lot of people like to blame the decline in school lunch participation on new dietary requirements put in place during President Barack Obama’s administration, but Bonner said it was more a matter of perception in Hoover.

“We had already been serving whole grain bread and fresh fruits and vegetables,” she said. French fries have long been baked; Hoover schools haven’t had fryers for 20 years, she said.

But parents and kids heard about the new, healthier requirements, and more kids started bringing their lunches, she said.

Testimonials

Nina Williams said her daughter, who attends Bumpus Middle School, and her youngest son, who attends Brock’s Gap Intermediate, both started taking their own lunches to school last year. They got tired of the same foods, and the food seemed to have less seasoning, she said. With a focus on healthy foods and less fat, there were fewer things offered that they liked to eat, she said.

On the other hand, her oldest son at Hoover High School and her husband, who teaches at Brock’s Gap Intermediate, eat the school lunch every day, she said. “He [her husband] says you can’t beat the price and you can’t beat the food.”

All of her kids like the crispitos served on “Taco Tuesday,” she said.

Jeannie Morton, who has children at Bluff Park Elementary and Simmons Middle School, said her children like the school food overall, but with reduced levels of salt, the vegetables can be really bland. “They weren’t as good as what we had when I was younger,” she said.

Nevertheless, she’s glad her children like most of the food. “Our kids eat in the lunchroom because I’m not making lunch,” she said. “It was never an option for my children. I work full-time.”

Rebecca Clark, a freshman at Hoover High, said she packs her own lunch almost every day. For the most part, she doesn’t like the school food and thinks it’s super-expensive. But she will buy the yogurt, Pop-Tarts and cheese sticks with marinara sauce.

Bonner said the nutrition staff realizes the importance of offering food that students like, so they try to keep up with the trends. They survey the kids, but the best indication is what the children choose in the serving line, she said.

The cheese sticks with marinara sauce is a good example, she said. Students today like finger foods they can dip in a sauce.

Also, children’s palates have changed from what they were decades ago, Bonner said. “You can’t serve ‘em the same things you served 20 years ago.”

The lunchrooms still occasionally serve rectangular pizzas, like most of the kids’ parents ate when they were in school, but now the schools offer pizza wedges and round personal pan pizzas as well.

Kids today want Mexican food and Asian food, she said. Many of them like teriyaki chicken, but “if you served that 30 years ago, nobody would eat it,” Bonner said. “We sell guacamole. We sell hummus. These kids are eating brussel sprouts and asparagus, I kid you not.”

Students also eat kale and turnip greens, and many prefer chicken alfredo over hot dogs, she said. “It’s a whole different culture of kids.”

But the No. 1 selection of students is chicken fingers, followed closely by crispitos, Bonner said.

Laura Britt said before her daughter moved from Riverchase Elementary to Berry Middle School this year, her biggest concern was whether they would offer crispitos at Berry, too. Last May, her daughter asked the lunchroom staff at Riverchase to call Berry and make sure, her mom said.

Some boys, after graduating high school, have called back to their lunchroom asking where they can find crispitos, Bonner said.

Needs vs. wants

While the nutrition staff is cognizant of kids’ favorite foods, they also keep in mind the types of foods students need.

The lunchrooms feature a produce of the month to try to introduce children to foods they otherwise might not eat, such as mangoes or bell peppers, she said. Each meal served has to have at least one vegetable or fruit to be considered a “full meal” that’s eligible for a subsidy reimbursement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bonner said.

Riverchase Elementary student Adrianna Britt said while they make her get at least one fruit or vegetable, she doesn’t mind “because they’re actually good.” But she also likes the “yummy snacks” they can buy, such as ice cream and cookies.

Some schools, such as Bluff Park, Greystone, Riverchase and Trace Crossings elementary schools and Berry Middle School have started their own gardens and are contributing food to the lunchroom. This has helped get kids interested in new vegetables, too. Spain Park High School is growing lettuce in an indoor tower garden with ultraviolet light, Bonner said.

The lunchrooms have brought back salad bars (minus the croutons and tons of cheese), which is more popular among high school girls. Yogurt is offered a la carte, and lunchrooms recently started offering a tuna pouch.

A few years back, the school system had “meatless Mondays,” but Laura Britt said she was glad they stopped that. “Why would I not want them [my children] to eat meat on Monday?” she said.

The only drinks offered in elementary and middle schools are milk, water or drinks with 100 percent fruit juice, Bonner said. No artificial sweeteners or carbonation is allowed. 

The high schools also offer unsweet tea, diet sodas with 5 calories per ounce and low-calorie Gatorades, Bonner said. Those rules remain in effect until 30 minutes after the school day ends. Concession stands are allowed to sell other drinks.

Participation in the school breakfast program grew from about 14 percent in the 2008-09 school year to 16 percent in 2013-14 and then shot up to 28 percent in 2014-15. That’s when schools started serving free breakfast to everyone in the classroom at schools with higher percentages of students from low-income families. The percentage of students eating breakfast at school last year increased to 30 percent, school system records show.

About 25 percent of students in Hoover City Schools qualify for free or reduced-price meals, based on family income.

Sandra Whitehead, who has a ninth-grade son at Spain Park High School, said her son eats the school food and loves it.

“He’s a picky eater, and there’s always something on the menu that he’ll eat,” she said. He probably likes the chicken sandwiches, hamburgers and Gatorade the most, but “he likes their spaghetti, too, and he normally doesn’t eat spaghetti. … He hasn’t seen anything he didn’t like yet.”