Meals Offer New Details To Digest

Revised School Menus Help Identify Allergens

By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 2, 2007; LZ01

Loudoun County's school cafeteria food is about to get a closer inspection from parents this year, as the school system publishes ingredients for every item on the menu.

The 34-page list of nutritional content is intended to inform parents of students with food allergies, religious dietary restrictions and other concerns.

"By this time last year, I would have been inundated by phone calls from parents who wanted to know what's in this and what's in that," said Suzie Kollaja, supervisor of food service for Loudoun schools. With the menu linked to the school system Web site and circulating at back-to-school nights, she said, the call volume is down. The school year begins Tuesday.

The detailed menu explains that a four-ounce lower-fat chicken corn dog from Foster Farms has more than 30 ingredients, including enriched yellow corn meal, mechanically separated chicken, potato flour and sodium nitrite. Potential allergens are gluten, soy, wheat and eggs. A sloppy Joe contains, among other things, ground pork, textured vegetable protein and dehydrated onion.

The information is part of a greater effort to boost the customer base for a food service program that has been losing money for the past few years, said schools spokesman Wayde B. Byard.

Slightly more than half of Loudoun's 51,000 students bought school-prepared meals last year, Kollaja said. She's trying to increase that number by making the food more attractive and nutritious, while appealing to students accustomed to fast food. "Not an easy task," Byard said.

This year, Kollaja said, students can expect more variety and more vegetarian options. At least three days a week, a lunch entree, such as lasagna, will be offered with and without meat. The schools will continue to specify on the daily menu if items include meat.

On the first day of school, elementary school students will decide between pizza or mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce with a side of broccoli, hot spiced apples or mixed fruit. Older students can have pizza or a fish fillet sandwich, with baked french fries, steamed broccoli or chilled pineapple.

Meals will cost slightly more than last year. For students in elementary school, lunch will cost $2.20, and in middle school and high school $2.30. Full-price breakfast for all students will be $1.30.