Love the fries, miss the big cookies
September 6, 2011
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Kristin Rushowy
EDUCATION REPORTER
The “Big Belly” cookies are gone.
The chocolate-chip treats, one about the size of 17-year-old Jackie Chan’s two hands, have been replaced with smaller, applesauce-sweetened cookies the size of her palm.
“I miss the big cookies,” the Grade 12 student said in the school cafeteria at Mississauga’s Applewood Heights Secondary.
“Now there are mini ones — I’ll have to have four,” she joked.
While students may have been longing for some of the treats once available in the caf, they gave the thumbs-up to the new, healthy offerings now mandated by the province.
The new rules force all food sold in a school — including fundraising bake sales — to have high levels of essential nutrients and to be low in fat, sugar and sodium. Foods with little nutritional value — fried foods, candy and energy drinks — are banned.
At Applewood Heights, a test school for the Peel District School Board, healthier foods have been on the new menu for about a year.
Among teens’ favourites are baked fries, pasta and white-meat chicken burgers. On Tuesday, the caf did brisk business, although there were also lineups at the Tim Hortons and the Chinese takeout place about half a kilometre away.
“You know it’s nutritious because it’s gone through the different tests, and because of the serving sizes,” said Chan, who ordered the $5 pasta combo with a side salad and chocolate milk.
“It’s good for you, and it makes it easy that it’s available right in the school. You don’t have to walk to Timmies when it’s cold outside.”
She also likes the new pizza, with a non-oily, thinner crust and lots of veggies.
“The only healthy food we could get before was at Valu-Mart,” the grocery store down the street, said Nilani Ananthamoorthy, 17.
Branden Tang said that last year the chicken burger and fries were both dry. He ate the same meal on Tuesday and said it tasted great.
“I would stay here for lunch now,” said the 17-year-old.
“The fries tasted really good — a big improvement,” added Grade 12 student Daniel Lee, who also raved about the chicken burger. “But sometimes the portions are small for the cost.”
One Grade 11 student, sitting outside and sharing a big, $5 plate of sesame chicken from the Chinese fast-food place with a friend, said she misses the school’s vending machines. Just one is left, and it sells water and juice.
“We don’t even have little treats — I wish we could get even a small treat at lunch — even if they were just little Halloween chocolate bars.”
Teacher Angela Currie said cafeteria staff listened to student input when it came to changing the menu.
As for school fundraisers, students had to think of ways to raise money without bake sales — when raising money for Japan after the tsunami, for example, they sold paper cranes instead of baked goods.
Since schools are allowed only 10 days each year to bend the food rules, many groups were vying for an exemption to hold fundraisers such as bake sales or barbecues where they’d offer higher-fat fare, she added.
But the changes are positive, she added, because “kids start to realize what is a treat, and what they can eat every day.”
Out with the old, in with the new
• Some of the food available at Mississauga’s Applewood Heights Secondary School:
milk/chocolate milk/strawberry milk
juice/smoothies
pasta with tomato/tomato and meat sauce
baked fries
chicken burger
“pulled” chicken sandwiches
sugar-free, caffeine-free pop
• What’s long gone:
chocolate bars
pop with sugar, caffeine
energy/sports drinks
anything deep fried
canned soup (now homemade)
big cookies