By Neil Fater
Staff Writer
—
Smoothies. Jicama salad. Quinoa. Sushi.
This is what's being served in the Andover school cafeterias.
Gone are the fryolators, and fatty, canned dinners. Since the hiring four years ago of Gail Koutroubas as food services director, Andover's public school lunchrooms have been making significant changes, especially in the area of more healthful lunches made from scratch. Powdered mashed potatoes are replaced with real mashed or with fresh red bliss potatoes. Dried spices are replaced by fresh herbs, some grown in a garden at the school.
This year, with the approval of new state guidelines on food, similar changes will continue in Andover and begin in all schools across Massachusetts. The nutritional changes are expected to spell the end of bake sales, cola and junk food in the vending machines, and create major changes at the decades old Andover High school store. Part of the state law will not allow anything but food from the school's program to be sold during the school day, or during the half-hour before and after school. That would mean no more baked goods or candy-bar fund-raisers for after-school programs during school hours.
"We don't want to send a mixed message. We don't want to be selling candy or anything that's not healthy to support healthy programs like sports," said Koutroubas.
The decision also helps keep money flowing into school lunch programs throughout the state. Andover's program is almost entirely self-supporting, paying for the food and employees' salaries and benefits without any local tax money, Koutroubas said.
"That's why it becomes increasingly important that we don't have competition during the school day," she said. "Our program pays $20,000 a month for health insurance costs. That's out of one program charging $2.50 for a lunch."
Traditional items can still be sold by boosters at nighttime activities such as sporting events and plays. Koutroubas made a point of saying that she wants to work with groups to provide opportunities to raise money, suggesting events such as walkathons.
Andover does receive 5 cents per meal from the state and 24 cents per meal from the federal government to pay for each regular lunch. Lunch costs $2.50 at the elementary schools, $2.75 at the middle schools and $3 at Andover High. Andover sells about 3,500 lunches and 750 breakfasts per day to its 6,000 students.
Increased interest
Koutroubas said the closing of school snack bars to devote time to "scratch cooking" has paid dividends, creating fresh, healthy - and more popular - lunches. A snack bar at the high school has been replaced with a smoothie bar that will also serve frozen yogurt, popcorn and pretzels.
The changes have helped the Andover's school lunch program itself, said Koutroubas. In the past four years, the program has gone from selling $1 million to $2.2 million in lunches. While about one-quarter of the students used to buy lunch, more than half of the students now do, she said.
She credits her staff for devoting the time to learn how to prepare fresh meals and for making connections with the students. This spring, staff volunteered to take a Friday night and all-day Saturday course. While the town paid for the course, the cafeteria workers were not paid for their time.
At High Plain Elementary School, nutrition professional Janet Volker was nominated for the Mary French Award, given to school workers - normally teachers - who work well with special needs students.
"When kids come through the lunch lines, they interact with the kids," said Koutroubas. "The students see us as part of the school."
"Gail, more than any other person I've met, does a tremendous amount of training," said Ruthie Olney, assistant to the director. "They don't see themselves as cafeteria ladies, they see themselves as school nutrition professionals. They take pride in their job. Our uniforms are more chef-oriented."
This year, High Plain Elementary will try a pilot program, moving recess before lunch. The idea is that if kids have time to run around before lunch, they will settle down and spend more time eating lunch. Currently, many kids throw away at least part of their lunch so they can head right out to recess.
"That's definitely what happens," said Koutroubas, who would also like to see more time given to lunch breaks. "Here's a problem we have. As our program grew from 25 percent participation to 55 percent, you have longer lines. If we're going to put all this effort into better foods, we need to give them time to eat it."
The school will judge the success of the pilot program by studying whether more food is eaten and whether the young students seem more attentive after lunch than they did in previous years.
