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Writing Matters - Text Binder: Texts: “Cafeteria Confi dential”CBC MARKETPLACE: YOUR HEALTH » CAFETERIA FOOD

Cafeteria Confi dential: Students Take Aim at Food Choices

Broadcast: January 2, 2005Related video can be found at http://www.cbclearning.ca/CBCEDS/Shopping/

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Allison Elwell is a grade 11 student. She’s a little sad to be nearly done with high school – she’s learned a lot and made a lot of friends. But Allison says there are a few things she won’t miss: early morning classes, homework, and cafeteria food. “I’ve often wondered why high schools, a place that helps shape the rest of our lives, have such bad quality food,” says Allison.“When you consider good food is proven to help students learn, what are adults thinking when they stock our cafeterias? Maybe they should eat a little more brain food.”Take a quick glance around a high school cafeteria. The fi rst thing you might notice is the pop machine, packed with sugary, caffeinated goodness.Allison spent her entire Grade 10 year trying to get those machines out of schools, but failed (Coke has moved on, but Pepsi got the contract to put vending machines in Toronto District School Board schools). And while she was down after losing the battle with the soft drink companies, Allison was not out – far from it. Allison has decided to come back for more. “This time I’m taking on cafeteria food,” she says. “I’m convinced most of the food is not only unhealthy, and doesn’t taste great.”With the help of a group called FoodShare, Allison convened a group of like-minded students who were concerned about what students are being offered at cafeterias.The group, whose members hail from schools across Toronto, meet in secret at an undisclosed basement location and discuss their plight: “I haven’t been to my high school cafeteria since grade nine,” remarks one of the posse, Zoe. “I remember the fi rst day … the food was so bad, I haven’t really been back since.” “The only healthy choices in my school right now are vegetables with dip and sandwiches,” laments Ryan. “And that’s it.”After the talking was over, it was time to act. The group decides it's time to collect the evidence: high school cafeteria food.

Grade 11 student Allison Elwell and her posse of like-minded food advocates hatched a plan to gather the evidence: high school cafeteria food.Each of the students off to a specifi ed school to sample the fare available at the school cafeteria. They pretend they are ordinary students on an ordinary day.“For one week we tasted and we tested, and when no one was looking, we made notes,” explains Allison. The group paid attention to how the food smelled, how it tasted, what other students thought about the choices available. They also took pictures.“We collected the evidence,” says Allison, “and fi nally, fi ve days later, we had our fi nal rendezvous.”The group meets again at their secret basement den. This time they are joined by special agents: nutritionist Julie Daniluk and food critic Marion Kane.They pick apart each lunch (which had been collected earlier that day). Their goal: to grade the best –and the worst–lunch of the lot.


Writing Matters - Text Binder: Texts: “Cafeteria Confi dential”

School #1: Pizza and salad“I have here some vegetarian pizza,” says Stephanie, a grade nine student at Etobicoke School of the Arts. “It was the ‘healthy special’ … In my cafeteria, there is a lot of variety. They had a salad with every healthy meal.” Daniluk and Kane marvel at the pizza’s hand-made crust – and the fact that the meal came with a fresh salad. “This looks to be real vegetables,” says Kane. “They do,” agrees Daniluk. “They have red pepper on there.” In the end, Allison decides Stephanie’s school deserves an A.

School #2: Lasagna and salad Another grade nine student, Rowan, sampled the food at Ursula Franklin Academy’s cafeteria. “What’s usually on the menu is stuff like beef patties, chicken burgers, spicy and regular fries." On the group's fi nal testing day, Rowan collected a sample of the cafeteria's lasagna.Rowan’s meal also came with a salad, unfortunately topped with a piece of less-than-crisp lettuce. In the end, Allison decides that Rowan’s school gets a B.

School #3: Muffi n, chicken wrap and broccoli soupMarina, who hails from Newtonbrook Secondary School, brought along brought along a muffi n and a chicken wrap – and a greasy bowl of cream of broccoli soup. “You can see the oil,” says Marina. “It’s on the healthy special.” “Look at it, it’s all watery,” says Kane. “It looks like prison food. You couldn’t pay me to eat that. “When you eat, it should be a pleasurable experience, it should be a shared experience. It should be a comfortable experience.” Marina says it’s options like greasy soup that have a lot of her fellow students heading to the mall food court instead of the cafeteria. “There’s a restaurant there and a lot more choices – healthier choices.” Allison gives Marina’s school cafeteria a C-.

School #4: NoodlesShirley’s school is in Scarborough. She says the cafeteria has a daily special that costs $3.99. “We have noodles, pasta and subs. We have Asian food and somosas.” “Carbs, carbs, carbs,” remarks nutritionist Julie Daniluk. “Without protein we can’t build lean muscle and we can’t function in the world. “Where is the classic fi ve servings of veggies and three servings of fruit that we all need to eat to stay healthy? It’s just non-existent. A few pieces of lettuce don’t constitute your veggie portion, unfortunately.” When it comes to the meal offered at Shirley’s school, Daniluk adds: “you’ve spent a small fortune and ended up with very little for your dollar. If you spent the same money on food, and making it yourself, you’d be eating like a king.” The group concurs that Shirley’s school is defi nitely not the king. Allison hands out a D.

School #5: Fish and chips and coleslaw Lauren steps up with the offerings from her school, Northern Secondary. “I decided to get the special,” says Lauren, presenting the group with a plate fi sh and chips and died coleslaw. “I’m concerned about the amount of fried foods,” observes Daniluk. “Trans-fats are not good.” Lauren’s school comes out with a D-.

School #6: Chicken burger and onion ringsFinally, the group turns to the worst lunch – which had little competition to become the most questionable culinary centrepiece: Ryan presents the group with onion rings and a chicken burger, which he’d picked up earlier that day from Leaside Collegiate.



“I’d like to know what you guys think,” says Ryan. “In my opinion, none of them taste particularly good. “This is representative of what the caf offers at my school. It’s your typical fast food.”The group dissects the meal, with some displeasure. “I think this is a frozen patty,” says food critic Marion Kane. “It’s been deep fried. The bun tastes like a pillow. I’m now really worried. This is really bad food.” In the end, Allison decides to give Ryan’s cafeteria an F. All told, the group hands out one “A”, one “B”, and the rest of the schools measure up much worse.

Dishing out solutions What can students do about the bad food in their cafeteria? At Allison Elwell’s school, she and a group of friends gave up on the cafeteria altogether. Now they make healthy lunches, like chilli and salad, for other students.“Our Home Economics classroom doubles as our kitchen and dining room,” says Allison. “The food’s cheap, it tastes good … and we guarantee satisfaction. “If we can decide to serve only healthy food that tastes delicious, why can’t the school board? That’s a question I still don’t understand,” Allison adds. “If someone – anyone – can explain that to me, well, I’ll give them a free lunch – and a very nutritious one too!”The students who participated in Allison and FoodShare's cafeteria food test took notes about what they observed.

Here is a selection from those diaries:Stephanie"In my cafeteria, there is a lot of variety," says says Stephanie, a grade nine student at Etobicoke School of the Arts. "They had a salad with every healthy meal."

Rowan"What’s usually on the menu is stuff like beef patties, chicken burgers, spicy and regular fries," says Rowan, who sampled the food at Ursula Franklin Academy’s cafeteria.

MarinaMarina attends Newtonbrook Secondary School. For the group's fi nal testing session, she brought along brought along a muffi n and a chicken wrap – and a greasy bowl of cream of broccoli soup. "You can see the oil," says Marina. "It’s on the healthy special." ShirleyShirley’s school is in Scarborough (she asked that it not be identifi ed). She says the cafeteria has a daily special that costs $3.99. “We have noodles, pasta and subs. We have Asian food and somosas.”

RyanRyan, who's school cafeteria scored the lowest mark in the group's test (an "F"), brought along a chicken burger and onion rings for the fi nal meeting. "This is representative of what the caf offers at my school," he says. "It’s your typical fast food."Armed with the results from her posse’s cafeteria food test, Allison Elwell decides she needs to get some answers. She goes to see Catherine Moraes, who heads up nutrition at the Toronto District School Board.

The following is an edited excerpt from that interview.

Allison Elwell: One of the most popular items that students bought ... were these deep-fried chicken burgers with fries, onion rings and pizza... What sort of nutritional value is there in deep fried chicken burgers and onion rings?



Catherine Moraes: I think where I’d like to start – just to let you know, the Toronto District School Board… many years ago when we were promoting healthy food for teenagers and saying “eat this food because it’s good for you.” Well, we all know what happens when we tell a teenager to do something because it’s good for them… The approach that the TDSB took was healthy pricing strategy. Every single cafeteria – right across the system – we price a certain number of healthier choices below market value. For example, right now at every one of our schools [you’ll fi nd] milk for 50 cents, when a pop is a dollar. You can get a bagel with cheese, a piece of fresh fruit and a white milk for $2.65, but if you want to buy your chicken burger, onion rings and a large coke that’s going to cost you $5 to $5.50. So we’ve been encouraging students to do that… Can we mandate students not to buy French fries? Well, there’s a whole mixed feeling around that. First of all, a lot of our kids are saying to us, ‘if you don’t have them here, we’re going to go out into the community and buy them at the 7/11.’ And chances of them fi nding any choices at all at 7/11 is even worse than getting them at the cafeteria.

Elwell: How do you, as a school board, make sure that there are healthy choices … if it is contracted out?

Moraes: That’s a good question. We audit cafeterias – there is a 170 across the system. We also do a personal visit – a surprise visit – at least once a year.

Elwell: And how many staff do you have doing that a year?

Moraes: Four people share that kind of responsibility. Now, if there’s a problem, we bring the contract caterers in, we talk to them about it. We give them a few days, a week maybe to correct their problems and we go back. The other way is if we have student complaints come in, if we have principals call us, if we have guidance councilors, parents -- that triggers a whole series of audits. Maybe as much as once every two months to make sure they’re adhering. Do we fi nd things that are not up to standard? Of course we do ... And that’s why we’re fairly rigid about our process. We also survey schools on an annual basis and we ask the principal to take the survey out to the student council, to the kids in the cafeteria as well as the teachers. Some schools give us great feedback, other schools don’t.

Elwell: On the subject of offering fries so that students won’t leave the school, another student was talking from Vaughan Road Academy where they [had] … no good comments from it ... Even her philosophy teacher had commented on how the food had no taste and no value to it in class. She was really happy when her friends went to a local falafel place and bought her back a falafel because that was probably the best thing she’d eaten that week. Students are leaving the school to get healthier options because what’s being offered…

Moraes: Well, a falafel is deep-fried, fi rst of all so we need to know it’s deep-fried chickpeas, which is not necessarily healthier, but it tastes good.

Elwell: Although it is better than a deep-fried chicken burger--

Moraes: --I know for a fact that the cafeteria standards require to varieties of sandwiches, two varieties of fresh fruits, two varieties of salads on a daily basis, yogurt, an energizer meal special, milk and some of those key kind of nutritional services that there below market value. And when we audit, pretty much they have them.

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Now, what students choose to purchase -- we can’t be food police. And actually what we’re getting from a lot of students is “who are you to tell me what I can eat?” At what point do our students have that choice of making their decisions of what they’re going to consume? At what point do we as adults stop thinking for them and they take responsibility for their choices? Now, I think what we’re seeing a little bit is a much more balanced cafeteria tray. We might see that chocolate chip cookie and French fries, but what we hope to see is the white milk and piece of fruit with it. The only thing that we can really do at this point, I think, having been a mother of teenagers … is encourage it. And the best way we found to do this was through the pocket book. Now we know that students –

Elwell: Sorry, how can you talk about encouraging healthy food when the fi rst thing you see when you walk into the cafeteria is this wonderful Mars bar vending machine, or all the chips? I don’t see many healthy options in there.

Moraes: Well, if you walk in our cafeteria you’ll fi nd baked chips as opposed to deep fried chips, you’ll fi nd sushi in that cafeteria, you’ll fi nd souvlaki and salad in that cafeteria. And if you watch, you’ll fi nd students with French fries and the less healthy choices… We had a discussion about banning French fries, and we had a focus group and there were students and teachers and principals... And I thought, to be honest with you, banning French fries was the way to go. And I was told really loudly that we couldn’t ban French fries because some of our Islamic students, fries are one of the few food items that they have full comfort with… Elwell: Have you ever eaten a fried chicken burger in our cafeterias?

Moraes: I wouldn’t eat a chicken burger outside the cafeteria, because that’s not something that I enjoy. Elwell: Then why is it being offered for students?

Moraes: I wouldn’t eat chocolate dipped donuts and a double double coffee either and that’s offered to adults. It’s personal choice. I think what we want to do is encourage balance, so we have a curriculum that gives knowledge. We have healthier alternatives. We try to make them appealing. We try to market them.But at some point, students must take responsibility for making the choices that they – actually they’re insisting on making the choices. And when we go back to the Pepsi vending machine controversy at the high school level, that was very split and very, very divided. Some students, like yourself, said ban. Absolutely ban. Other students said ‘Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. I’m old enough to have a Pepsi if I want to. Who are you to ban anything from my school?’ And it was probably as far right and as far left as you were ever going to get. Which is why we left the decision at the local school, with the local school council and local community and the local school administration.

Elwell: Is that the same for school cafeterias?

Moraes: We have minimum standards that we establish as a school board. That’s a special menu of the day, that’s our tuna salad sandwiches that’s cheap.

Elwell: Do schools get to decide who gets the contract in the cafeterias, what’s being offered in their cafeteria? If it is about choice, why not open cafeterias to students deciding what would be on the menu?

Moraes: That’s a good point and that happens in a lot of our schools. If a school has concerns about what’s being served in a cafeteria. And when I say ‘school,’ I mean a representative group of students … What we do is we bring in the contract caterer, we sit down at a meeting together and we go through a menu and they agree to test our pilot [menu]…

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And it’s also to do with what’s available on the corner -- whether they can go to a French fry place. When I see the kids going out … they’re not coming back with falafels and a whole-wheat pita, they’re coming back with fries, burgers, candies.

Elwell: And so the school board wants to compete with those and offer the very same thing!

Moraes: Well, the choice has to be there because what we’re hoping is that while you’re eating your [hamburger], you’re drinking a milk.

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