School district looks to scrap junk food

BOULDER - For lunch throughout the Boulder Valley School District, next year students will have choices such as roast chicken, brown rice and a salad bar. Chicken nuggets, fries and the ice cream sandwich may be on their way out.

Ann Cooper will be directing the district's nutrition program and is pushing for changes that include no sodas in vending machines, no foods laced with high fructose corn syrup and a better effort to incorporate greens and grains into the school menu.

"I was hired by the BVSD to come in and help change their program and really start to implement a change district-wide to make every kid have an opportunity to have a healthy breakfast, lunch or snack," Cooper said.

Cooper presented her ideas to the school board on Tuesday. Among those ideas is a proposed movement away from those traditional bake sales, where kids sell cookies, candies and other sweet stuff to raise money for their schools.

Since the district is trying to promote healthier eating habits during the school day, she says to promote such sales outside of the school building would be inconsistent that effort.

In a perfect world, Cooper says she would like to see K-8 students selling something other than junk food.

"We have our children selling M&M's and Coke. What are we teaching them? And I think as a school district that we would like to have as a goal that we find other things to teach our kids to sell so that they can make money to do good in their communities," Cooper said.

There are more than 28,000 students in the BVSD, and many of them will eat at least one meal in school during the school day. One of Cooper's goals is to have a salad bar at each of the district's schools next year.

One school board member says its members should be proud that the district is taking on an initiative that will invest in the health of the students, not just their education. She cited statistics that indicated that nearly 20 percent of children in Colorado schools are overweight and a higher percentage are obese.

She applauded Cooper's efforts and said the media should focus more on the fact that the district is trying to instill better eating habits rather than highlighting what they may be selling during bake sales.

The school board will likely vote on the proposals and a revised wellness/nutrition policy sometime in August.