Lombard school lunches lacking?

One healthy lunch a week.

That's all a group of parents from Lombard Elementary District 44 wants.

A few parents attended the school board meeting Tuesday night and one spoke, bearing a petition with 438 signatures and a plan to achieve healthier lunches.

“I think we should have more fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains. Nothing crazy,” said Brigitte Baur, a parent leading the push for healthier lunches. “You've got to start somewhere.”

Baur and Laura Johnson, another parent behind the lunch improvement ideas, said they heard lots of community support from parents who are willing to help students start vegetable gardens at schools, and they believe forming a committee to address the school lunch issue also will help.

The parents specifically want to decrease the amount of high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils in the lunches and increase the amount of produce and whole grains, Baur said.

“The lunch program I consider subpar even though I understand it meets all the nutrition guidelines, but the nutrition guidelines are extremely weak,” she said.

The district's meals are prepared at Glenn Westlake Middle School, then transported to the six elementary schools. The district has about 880 students who receive free or reduced-price lunch, Superintendent Jim Blanche said, and improving the nutritional value may be even more important to the health of those students.

“I don't eat a school lunch and I probably wouldn't eat a school lunch,” Blanche said. “When you have guidelines that count ketchup as a vegetable, that might be a problem.”

The district has a contract with food vendor Arbor Management Inc. until summer 2012. But Baur and Johnson said they are willing to work with Arbor to see what changes can be made to the menu before that contract expires. They want parents to be involved in selecting a vendor after the contract expires as well.

“It's about revisiting the lunchroom and treating it as a classroom using the opportunity to teach kids that wellness is about all the time,” Johnson said. “You can't just eat pizza and hot dogs all the time and expect to be healthy.”

School board President Becky Kirsh said she appreciates the show of parental support for increasing the nutrition in school lunches.

“It shows so much when parents are willing to put together a grass-roots effort,” Kirsh said.

Blanche said he has never seen such a coordinated effort toward change in his seven years in the district.

“We're certainly open to looking at what we can do,” Blanche said. “Everyone wants lunch to be healthier for our children, and we have to remember that there's going to be a cost associated with it, too.”

He said the district will consider forming a committee and get back in touch with the group of parents after Thanksgiving.

“We are confident that large improvements can be made without straining the district's finances,” Baur said.