Though students are out of the classroom for the summer, cafeteria nutritionists and workers from across Tennessee were hard at work in the Orchard Knob Elementary School cafeteria, serving up a hearty blend of healthy meats, grains and vegetables that will grace students’ lunch trays in the fall.
The purpose of the program, Back to Basics, is to demonstrate healthier options to school nutritionists and cafeteria chefs, according to Cyndie Story, a chef and child nutritionist of 25 years from Scottsville, Ky. Story led about 20 nutritionists in making from-scratch entrees rather than the processed food — such as chicken nuggets — with which students are more familiar.
Back to Basics lasted 10 hours over Monday and Tuesday and was a precursor to the School Nutrition Association conference being held this week in Chattanooga.
It comes at the right time, too. Though obesity rates in Tennessee have decreased from 2007 when they were 36.5 percent, Tennessee was still the sixth-highest state for childhood obesity in 2010 with roughly one of every five kids — 20.6 percent — considered obese, according to Nashville Public Television’s Children’s Health Crisis website.
Changes already have affected U.S. public school lunchrooms. In January, new requirements for the National School Lunch Program upped the required weekly intake of vegetables, meats or meat alternatives and whole grains.