Posted October 6, 2010
Here’s a puzzle for you.
What’s the best time to serve lunch at school — before or after recess?
For more than a century (give or take), the order has been lunch, then recess.
The Las Cruces Public Schools decided to rethink that. In fact, through the office of Nutrition Services, directed by Nancy Cathey, a study was conducted at two different elementary schools, one using the traditional order, and the other going with recess, then lunch.
The study found that kids who went to recess before having lunch consumed 30 percent more fruit, vegetables and milk than students who followed the traditional pattern.
How they calculated the food intake levels you probably don’t want to know.
“We had to sort through the garbage,” Cathey said with a laugh.
The effort was worth it. The study was presented before a national meeting of school nurses, and now the idea has spread throughout the country.
The study also suggests that students who eat more healthy foods are more focused when they return to class after lunch, Cathey said.
It’s a national paradigm shift — and it originated in the Las Cruces Public Schools.
At Loma Heights Elementary, which just began its third year with the new recess-lunch order, Principal Rudy Leos has noticed that students eat more food and drink a lot more milk than they did before the change.
“The kids watch the table [with the milk] like hawks because they want that second milk now,” he
said.
He also said kids settle down to work in class much more quickly than they did under the old system.
“As soon as I heard the research [from LCPS Nutrition Services], I was convinced,” Leos said. “It’s funny how you sometimes have to hear it from somebody else first. But as soon as you think about it, it makes a lot of sense.”
Four Loma Heights elementary fifth graders who remember how it used to be back in the day all agreed that the new system is better.
“I think recess, then lunch, is better because before some kids would throw up, their food wouldn’t digest,” said Anisah Gallegos, 10.
Esteban Olivas, 10, added that under the new system there isn’t the same crush of kids trying to be first in line for recess.
Gallegos, Olivas and fellow fifth graders Brissia Terrazas, 10, and Armando Martinez, 10, all said that they are eating more food and drinking more milk than in the old days when lunch came before recess.
However, they also said they’ve noticed a trend toward greater sleepiness upon returning to the classroom.
“You come in tired, sleepy,” Martinez said.
“It’s tiring, exhausting,” Terrazas said.
“We don’t want to do much,” Olivas said.
“Some kids … some kids are exhausted,” Gallegos said.
The four students also offered several reasons why recess needs to be longer.
Fruits and veggies matter
The Loma Heights fifth grade contingent was also aware that the school district has been increasing the amount of whole grains, fruits and vegetables in their diets. They said they don’t have any problem with this, as long as the food tastes good.
“Kids have pumped up hearts,” Martinez said, explaining why, for him, taste is more important than nutrition. “It has to taste good. As long as it tastes good, we’ll like it.”
In recent years, the amount of fruit, vegetables and whole grains has been steadily increasing in the 9,000 breakfasts and 14,000 lunches served every day in district schools.
“We are open about it,” Cathey said. “It’s not hidden.”
In fact, the basics of good nutrition are woven into all kinds of school subjects, and teachers, parents and cafeteria workers alike have the information to help educate kids on the importance of healthy eating.
A recent whole grain initiative was the use of brown rice in Spanish rice, Cathey said.
“The kids seem to be okay with it,” she said.
Muffins, cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls are now made with half wheat flour, and in many cases, kids have an option of choosing 100 percent whole-grain products.
When local produce is in season, LCPS buys directly from area farmers. The farm-to-school program has started small — the major logistical factors seem to be the delivery schedule and school cafeteria storage space — but the program has increased the variety of produce available for school meals. Last year, local farmers delivered such items as melons and zucchinis, Cathey said.
Kids are introduced to healthy foods through various means, such as the expanded breakfast-in-the-classroom program, the afternoon fruit-and-veggie snack program (in seven elementary schools), and the monthly testing programs, where kids taste test four different fruits or vegetables.
Cathey said at one taste test, they introduced Santa Claus melon, though she admits shes not sure where it got its name.
Jeff Barnet can be reached at (575) 541-5476.
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