By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed changes to the School Breakfast Program and the National School Lunch Program that has the potato industry up in arms. The recommendations significantly limit the amount of starchy vegetables, including potatoes, which can be served in school lunches and eliminates them in the school breakfast program.
To help inform school food service providers, nutrition opinion leaders, consumers, and potato industry stakeholders of the issues surrounding the proposed changes, the potato industry has launched a new website, PotatoesInSchools.com.
PotatoesInSchools.com is designed to be the key resource for information supporting the potato industry’s position that there is no need to, or value in, limiting starchy vegetables in school meal plans. The website also includes nutritional information, innovations in product offering and preparation, recent survey results from school food service providers, a model alternate school menu that includes potatoes, talking points, a sample letter and contact information for submitting comments which are due April 13.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a member of the Senate Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee, defended the health benefits of the white potato March 10 and urged Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to include it in both the school lunch and federally-funded health and nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children known as WIC.
“To combat the wave of obesity and to promote more healthy food choices, we need to promote those food items that present a diverse set of vitamins, minerals, ones that are low in fat, sodium, and cholesterol, and offer a good source of energy. We also need to promote healthy cooking techniques, like baking, broiling, and boiling, instead of frying. The fresh white potato is perfect for this role,” said Collins as she held up a fresh white, Maine potato. “It is a perfect combination of nutrition and can be cooked in countless healthy ways. It should be included in both the WIC program and school meals programs, and it should be done so in a manner that promotes their healthy cooking.”
The USDA recently updated the WIC Program to encourage participants to buy more healthy fruits and vegetables, yet it excluded the white potato from the program. Worse, the white potato is the only vegetable to be left out. Collins believes this simply doesn’t make sense because the program includes hundreds of foods with lesser nutritional value, such as iceberg lettuce.
“I find it contradictory that the Department simultaneously promotes the consumption of more fresh fruits and vegetables while discounting the nutritional value and undermining the success of a household staple,” she said. “WIC and the school breakfast and lunch programs are designed to assist lower-income families and children obtain more healthy sources of food. These individuals already face significant obstacles to eating a balanced and healthy diet. The potato would advance these programs’ goals of supplying participants with more healthy, inexpensive, dynamic vegetables.”
In Aroostook County, school officials are equally displeased with the proposed changes.
“I think it would be a horrible mistake for them [the USDA] to take white potatoes out of the mix for us to use,” said Frank Keenan, superintendent of the Easton School Department. “Obviously I’m biased; I’ve lived here all my life and I love eating potatoes as does my family and everybody that I know. I find it to be an important part of most meals, as does our head cook, Lori Gilman.
“I don’t believe that there’s any data that would support making a claim that the white potato is not healthy,” he said. “I believe every data that you would look up would find that it is rich in nutrients and it is a very, very healthy food.”
Recently completed research using data from the 2003-04 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) shows potatoes provide the largest and most affordable source of potassium of any vegetable or fruit.
In addition to potassium, one medium-size (5.3 ounce) skin-on potato contains just 110 calories per serving, provides almost half the daily value of vitamin C (45 percent), and contains no fat, sodium or cholesterol.
“It really comes down to the preparation of the potato — baked, mashed or fried — when you start getting into problems,” said Keenan. “We don’t have any fryalators here; we don’t fry our food. If students have what would be fries, they’re baked. They’re basically a potato cut into a fry form that’s baked. We do a lot of baked potatoes and a lot of mashed potatoes, but we also incorporate the potato in our soups, and in a combination of meals with other vegetables. The kids love it and it’s a food they enjoy eating, and there are a lot of foods they don’t enjoy eating. If you take away one of the ones that they enjoy eating, then you start to having kids not eating enough and then that will affect their performance in school.
“These proposed changes would also create a negative impact on the economy of our state and in Aroostook County,” he said. “When you’re born and brought up in Aroostook County, the kids come to us with potatoes as part of their diet and an expectation and a desire to see them on the menu. It’s also very cost-effective compared to a lot of the other vegetables. To me it’s wrong-headed to even suggest changing it.”
Easton Elementary School students said they “really love potatoes” and wouldn’t want to be short-changed on their favorite vegetable.
“I really like our school’s mashed potatoes with butter on it,” said third-grader Lydia Ferris. “Potatoes are really healthy for you, and it would be bad if they [the USDA] limited potatoes because our stomachs wouldn’t feel good without as many potatoes.”
“It would be bad to have only a small amount of potatoes a week,” said third-grader Joshua Kawalansky, “because I really like potatoes. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give the mashed potatoes at school a 10. If we can’t have potatoes as much as we do now, I’d rather eat carrots and peas, but potatoes are my favorite. They’re the best.”
In Easton schools, some form of a potato is served 2-3 times a week.
Kathy Allen, food services director for SAD 1, said if the proposed recommendations pass, it would greatly take away from the school lunch program.
“Potatoes are a big part of the students’ meals. We use them in the hot lunch line and we use them in the à la carte line,” she said. “I feel that a lot of kids don’t have the opportunity at home to have a hot meal, so we’re trying to give them the opportunity at school; they learn better with warm bellies.”
The proposed requirement that affects potatoes the most is to decrease the amount of starchy vegetables, such as potatoes, corn and green peas, to one cup a week.
“When we’re offering five meals a week,” Allen said, “that doesn’t give us very much to work with.”
In SAD 1 cafeterias, potatoes are typically mashed or baked, and are also served in the form of oven-baked French fries, oven-baked potato puffs, in soups and casseroles, and on the salad bar.
“We usually offer potatoes with the combo meals every day and in the hot lunch line up to twice a week,” said Allen. “With the combo meals, for example, if you have a chicken burger you would have French fries with it; two parts of the meal together. District-wide we serve 80 combos a day and 40-50 hot lunch meals a day.
“I don’t think the kids are going to be happy if all their French fries and potatoes go away,” she said. “If you take away their favorite and give them what they consider ‘less desirables,’ they’ll probably find another meal plan.”
The agriculture department is asking for input on the proposed rule during a public comment period that ends April 13. To offer comments, log onto PotatoesInSchools.com and click on the link, “Tell USDA to Keep Potatoes in Schools.”
