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Where EAST meets the Northwest
DELICIOUS AND NUTRITIOUS. Elbert Estes serves pizza to students at Kalihi Elementary School in Honolulu. Starting in August, 15 entrees in the 25-day monthly menu cycle will be made from scratch in Hawaii public schools, where 100,000 meals are served daily in the nation’s 10th largest school system. Hawaii has the only statewide district in the country. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy)
From The Asian Reporter, V21, #11 (June 6, 2011), page 8.
More cooking, less reheating for Hawaii schools
By Jennifer Sinco Kelleher
The Associated Press
HONOLULU — After feeding thousands of tiny mouths in her lifetime, Cindy Saffery knows the most important ingredient when cooking for children: love.
Saffery is the cafeteria manager for three schools on Oahu’s Waianae Coast, where there’s high concern about diabetes and childhood obesity, especially among Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islander students.
Schoolchildren nationwide share those health concerns, which have led to a demand for healthier cafeteria food. The Hawaii Department of Education is heeding the call by launching an ambitious program that requires a majority of its entrées be made from scratch in the upcoming new school year. It’s a trend that’s growing nationwide.
"It’s hard work but I believe it’s more tastier when it’s made from scratch," Saffery said. "It’s like feeding our own children."
Starting in August, 15 entrees in the 25-day monthly menu cycle will be made from scratch in Hawaii public schools, where 100,000 meals are served daily in the nation’s 10th largest school system. Hawaii is the only statewide district in the country.
"The mission is to have less processed food and use basic ingredients instead of opening up a box and heating up something," said Glenna Owens, director of the school food services branch. The district already serves about 10 entrées from scratch, but the new initiative moves toward making a majority of the meals that way.
While Hawaii cafeteria workers aren’t trading hairnets for chef’s hats, Saffery said her staff is willing to put in the extra work that comes with more cooking.
Food service directors nationwide say cooking from scratch is ideal yet challenging because of high labor costs, limited equipment, and technical concerns such as handling raw meat. There’s also the challenge of making meals that appeal to picky young eaters.
"A lot of programs do struggle to move toward scratch cooking," said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association, a Maryland-based group that represents school nutrition professionals. She said the effort is becoming a trend nationwide with districts attempting to make more food from scratch.
Margo Wootan, director for nutrition policy for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, said she doesn’t know of any other district that requires a majority of its lunch entrées to be made from scratch. Hawaii’s effort is ambitious and admirable, she said, but she cautioned that cooking from scratch doesn’t automatically translate into better food: "I don’t know of any evidence that shows cooking from scratch is healthier than if you don’t cook from scratch."
Owens agreed, but said she prefers Hawaii’s students eat healthy food made from scratch instead of any processed food.
"I’m a purist when it comes to food," she said, although she acknowledged that it’s not realistic for the district to eventually make all food from scratch.
She believes cooking from scratch is the best way to serve island-style favorites such as kalua pork with cabbage, teriyaki chicken, and curry stew. There’s still plenty of standard cafeteria fare on Hawaii’s menus like pizza and corndogs.
Kalua pork, slow-cooked and similar to pulled pork in the south but without the barbecue sauce, is a favorite when served in the islands’ cafeterias. Saffery said it’s made without any salt — unheard of in Hawaii house- holds.
"We’re going back to the old days when we mostly cooked from scratch," she said after a hurried lunch hour of feeding 900 students at Leihoku Elementary made-from-scratch chili with rice, another meal popular among Hawaii families. The school’s version is made with ground beef that’s 75 percent soy protein, and the rice is brown — not that the kids know, or seem to care.
As the students passed through the line, many affectionately greeted the workers by calling them "Auntie." Saffery said many of the cafeteria ladies have served generations of Hawaii kids.
"A lot of them come from the old-school when we used to cook more," she said. "They were the ones resistant to serving processed food."
But Daniel Leung, educational specialist for Kapiolani Community College’s highly-rated culinary arts program, worries that recent workers don’t have the same cooking skills.
"The school food services managers don’t require culinary training," he said. "We see technical problems with that."
The recipes are standardized, Owens said, meant to be executed by anyone.
Dr. May Okihiro, a pediatrician at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center and director of the Hawaii Initiative for Childhood Obesity Research and Education, said cooking healthier versions of homemade favorites in school can help balance Hawaii’s attitudes toward food.
"In Hawaii we value food as an expression of gratitude and love. It’s a thank you gift, it’s a love gift," she said. "So serving good food in large quantities is showing that we value children."
The challenge is teaching students and their parents to understand portion control, she said.
Schools are helping families learn that. The local-style cafeteria meals tend to go naturally with a popular staple at Hawaii’s dining tables: steamed rice. It’s common for local families to consume rice at every meal. But at school, where there are portioning standards, Saffery said she strives to make sure kids aren’t getting too much of it, even though kids often ask "Auntie Cindy" for more.
"I think Hawaii is so very unique because of that ohana feeling," she said, using the Hawaiian word for family. "Cooking becomes something personal, because for locals, we tend not only to care for our own child, but we care for other people’s children, too."