NEW SWEDEN, Maine — School lunch programs have long since had a reputation for being unhealthy and unappetizing, thanks to negative stereotypes that have been established over the years. However, at the New Sweden Consolidated School, food service manager Melanie Lagasse has spent more than a decade trying to reverse the opinions of those who would attach such negative connotations to school lunches.
Lagasse prepares most of the school’s meals from scratch. According to Lagasse, 95 percent of the school lunches she serves consist of homemade meals, such as chicken stew, meat loaf and chop suey, of course, with whole wheat pasta.
With the nation in the middle of a transition to try and serve students healthier school lunches, New Sweden’s school is leading the way and setting an example of change that can hopefully be mimicked by schools all over the country.
Several years ago the federal government began making plans to revamp school lunch programs nation-wide, in hopes of providing students with a healthier diet, at a young age. With these new nutrition standards inevitably becoming a requirement, Lagasse and the New Sweden åSchool decided to take the initiative and make-over their lunch program the best way they knew how. The school started serving only whole- and multi-grain breads and using only wheat flour. Lagasse claims the school hasn’t served white bread to their students in about five years.
The school is also now serving half a cup of fruit and three-quarters of a cup of veggies at lunch. This change was officially required to take place last year, under new U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines.
In order to receive increased federal reimbursements schools must also be able to keep costs down, while implementing these new healthy policies. Roughly 84 percent of Maine schools are now meeting the new guidelines, which is just about even with the 86 percent national average. However, the problem now lies with the financial burden these new nutrition standards are placing on schools.
According to a new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, many Maine schools simply can’t afford to prepare homemade meals for their students, as Lagasse has dilligently prepared for the 64 students attending New Sweden Consolidated. The lack of space for things like storing fruits and vegetables is causing the need for more deliveries, ultimately increasing cost. A lack of sufficient equipment needed to cook healthier meals is also a growing concern among schools all across the state, as most don’t have the financial flexibility to replace or purchase cafeteria equipment like walk-in freezers to store fruits and vegetables.
On Sunday, Lagasse traveled to Washington, D.C. for a trip to attend a national conference and explain just how much the school is doing to create healthier lunches for students. The National School Lunch program has been going through major changes throughout the last few years. The Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act was put into effect in the fall of 2012, and has placed much stricter guidelines on lunches, as far as limiting calories and salt.
“Only two people from Maine were invited to speak at the conference in Washington. The Pew Charitable Trusts asked me to present their bill to legislature, so we can hopefully explain what it is we need,” said Lagasse.
The bill Lagasse was asked to present, known as the School Food Modernization Act, directly calls for the Secretary of Agriculture to issue loan guarantees for purposes of financing improvements to school lunch facilities, training school food service personnel, and for other purposes. However, the problem would then lie with a struggle to repay equipment loans. School lunch programs already operate on shoestring budgets, and according to Lagasse the new nutritional guidelines cost schools 26 cents more per lunch tray.
Lagasse will be meeting with the office of legislators such as Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King, on Tuesday, where she hopes to speak to both officials directly, but there is no guarantee, she said.
According to GovTrack.us the prognosis for the bill is not optimistic, as statistics show that only 11 percent of bills made it past committee and only about 3 percent were enacted from 2011-13. This is certainly not good news for schools like New Sweden Consolidated, however, food service managers like Lagasse and organizations like the Pew Charitable Trusts will not be deterred in their fight for the ability to maintain new and improved healthy school lunch programs.
