District 44 schools getting healthier lunches

As one of the main partners in the Tri-Town YMCA’s efforts to reduce obesity in Lombard, the village’s elementary district has at least one healthy change in store for next school year.

Healthier foods added to lunches at Hammerschmidt Elementary School in March will be served at the five other elementary schools in Lombard District 44 in August, Tod Altenburg, assistant superintendent for finance and operations, said. Menu options at Glenn Westlake Middle School will not change.

The changes include more whole grains, brown rice and vegetarian baked beans; romaine lettuce instead of iceberg; and 1 percent milk instead of 2 percent, Altenburg said.

Arbor Management, the district’s contracted food service provider until summer 2012, was able to add the more nutritious options without increasing costs, Altenburg said.

The district will be implementing healthier menus at its other elementary schools because whole grains and produce didn’t stop students from eating school lunches.

“If it flopped and the children didn’t like the changes made to the menu, we would see the negative impact on the daily sales,” Altenburg said. “There was no negative impact; it was pretty much neutral.”

According to district records, a total of 1,278 students purchased hot lunches on April 4, a date chosen to represent the average school day. That includes 124 Hammerschmidt students who had the healthier menu in place.

Expansion of the nutritious menu is exactly what Lombard parent Brigitte Baur wanted when she spoke to District 44’s school board June 7.

And it fits perfectly with community objectives released in early June by the Tri-Town YMCA in collaboration with FORWARD, a DuPage County anti-obesity campaign: increase access to healthy eating; expand opportunities for physical activity; and promote active transportation.

The district offers physical education every day, recess around lunch time and brain breaks, in which students move around or do calisthenics, between subjects, spokeswoman Jay Wojcik said.

Baur said she hopes the district will do more to promote walking or biking to school. She said she tried to start a “walking school bus” route and often walks with her children, but districtwide efforts could have a broader reach.

“We walk a lot, but we’re definitely in the minority,” Baur said.

District officials said it’s tough to tell how many students walk to school, get driven or ride buses. Of 3,100 students, 1,322 are eligible to ride a bus, according to district records, but some of those students may arrive at school by other means.