• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz., Mark J. Scarp Scottsdale Column: School Lunch Menu Adapts Flashiness of Fast-Food Vendors

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By Mark J. Scarp Scottsdale, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Feb. 22--Why do kids love food courts? And why if Scottsdale Fashion Square was open on Christmas Day, you'd still find several hundred teenagers ordering lunch? The answer is found by coming to terms with the idea that youngsters' food preferences aren't as narrow as you might think.

They like taste, as they always have, but they also like choice. Ask a kid about foodcourt food's popularity and he or she will say it has to do with the variety of fare proffered on the brightly lit menu boards above the counters. It's all able to be surveyed in a matter of seconds and served in doublequick time. Because restaurants often drag out this process over half an hour is why most kids hate to eat there.

Such marketing gems are important to keep in mind when trying out some new school lunch items yourself. I joined students at Cheyenne Traditional School in getting a preview Tuesday at more varied and quite healthy food that will be offered starting March 6. Eyes bulged, heads nodded and fingers pointed at an array of wraps, salads and low-fat items presented only a few feet away from pizza, burgers and governmentcheese quesadillas, mind you.

When told of the new menus, the kids broke out into applause, something schoolcafeteria people just don't hear every day.

Quality food isn't cheap, of course. Scottsdale Unified School District nutritional services and wellness director Sue Bettenhausen and her staff must meet a district mandate that her department pay its own way.

They juggle federal and state rules on what constitutes healthy eating that aren't always in step with each other, as well as child preferences often influenced by parents whose own abysmal diets would be eligible for cover stories in Obesity Illustrated.

Luckily, these days kids are also exposed to more varieties of quick-but-healthy cuisine, certainly more than were their parents at their age. Today, Bettenhausen said, youngsters are as influenced by what's behind the local grocery deli counter than anything served under arches.

I selected a crispy chicken salad, which included a tasty combination of chicken strips, romaine lettuce, cucumber pieces, shredded cheese and whole tomato slices. A la carte price: $1.75.

More than 30 years ago, when I went to school in Scottsdale, the price wasn't much lower but the quality was. And the selection was nonexistent. As such I spent most of grade school and high school eating lunch out of a paper bag (and it was delicious, Mom).

On Tuesday I couldn't help but stifle that phrase I've fought hard to avoid uttering, "Things sure are different than when I was a kid." But now that I have said it, what I've learned is that people said it to me years ago because it was actually true.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Tribune

More News in this Category