It was a thrill to have Ann Cooper here last month to talk about school lunches. The topic is gaining more and more attention as the Centers for Disease Control now predict that one in three Caucasian children and one in two African-American and Hispanic children born in the year 2000 in our country will develop diabetes, many of them before the age of 18. This startling statistic was the first of many eye-openers presented during Ann’s visit. For those who haven’t been in town too long, Ann is a former resident. She cooked for Telski and Baked in Telluride, catered for the Telluride Film Festival and ran a wonderful restaurant called Pandora’s Box. When she left Telluride she worked as the executive chef at the Putney Inn in Vermont before becoming involved in the Ross School in New York. It was at the Ross School that she tackled the idea of creating the “ideal” school lunch program. Ann now works with Alice Waters and the Chez Panisse Foundation and is the director of nutrition services for the Berkeley Unified School District. Her latest book is titled Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children.

School lunches can be a touchy subject, and there are many factors to balance in creating a nutritious, delicious repast for our young ones. The ideal lunch looks very different, depending on which audience you ask. An uninformed second grader might choose macaroni and cheese while the more discerning (at least in their own minds) high schoolers might prefer a Mexican repast. Representatives from the Telluride School District met with The New Community Coalition to discuss possible ways to follow up on information presented by Ms. Cooper.

Ann mentioned that when she started at Berkeley the only tools in her kitchen were a microwave oven and a box cutter. Here in Telluride we’re way ahead of that scenario. In fact improvements in school lunches at the public school have already occurred and more are planned.

Brita Padgett serves as Food Services Coordinator and has been working to improve school lunches at the Telluride public schools. Fresh vegetables are added to a basic spaghetti sauce along with lean beef or chicken. When time permits fresh bread is baked using unbleached flour. Mexican dishes favored by the high schoolers are mostly made from scratch. Locally made pizza crusts will soon be used as the base for the all-favorite pizza day and Head Chef Giovanni Perla makes the sauce.

Just recently the MS/HS snack break has been changed to a breakfast break. Kids hungry at the mid-morning break are able to purchase freshly cooked eggs with hash browns and vegetables, pancakes, breakfast muffins and breakfast burritos. And sadly for some, but as a direct result of Ann’s visit, the chocolate milk (soda in drag due to the amount of sugar) has been replaced with 1 percent and 2 percent milk options.

Like most savvy consumers Brita has been reading lots of labels. She’s working to reduce the amount of trans fats and incorporating low sugar alternatives in the meals.

There are many challenges to running a school lunch system. Kurt Shugars, director of Administrative Services, notes that the Telluride school lunch runs on a balanced budget and is one of a very few in the state that does. And balance is a key factor when looking at improvements to make. How would you feed 300-400 kids five days a week and keep the nutrition level AND the kids’ interest level high on a budget? It’s a daunting task!

Brita will be looking at ways to implement suggestions from Ann Cooper, the student body, parents and the school Wellness Committee. The support of Superintendent Mary Rubadeau, Kurt Shugars and the School Board are key to taking the next steps. Brita hopes to find ways to eliminate trans fats and severely curtail items with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) – not an easy task if you start looking at your favorite foods. HFCS is everywhere these days and according to medical research its over-consumption can lead to increased LDLs leading to increased risk of heart disease. It can alter the magnesium balance leading to increased osteoporosis. The increased risk of diabetes is known as well as accelerated aging. By interfering with copper metabolism it can create a copper deficiency that can cause increased bone fragility, anemia, ischemic heart disease and defective connective tissue formation.

It’s hoped that whole grain products will become the norm. Recently Brita removed the oversized muffins from the items kids could buy in the snack line. Now she’s looking for a local source of muffins, smaller, whole grain, low sugar that can be provided to the school in appropriate quantities and within the lunch budget.

Improving the edible offerings at the public schools can be a great community project. We – the School Board and administration, parents, students and staff – can come together to help create the school lunch program we envision. Healthy, nutritious food will feed young minds, and we can raise a generation of kids who have fewer diet related health problems and understand the connection between growing food, cooking food and developing lifelong healthy eating habits.

Sounds good enough to eat!