Schools

School Lunch Nutrition Information is Accessible, Says D211

The district's director of food service has binders filled with nutritional information available to parents and students.

It’s no surprise that students generally don’t like the food that’s served in the school cafeteria. But a about their high school lunch program is getting the attention of parents and administrators.

In the video, the students said they couldn’t get access to school lunch nutritional information when they asked for it.

“The students didn’t get the information they were asking for because they didn’t go to the right people,” said Associate Superintendent David Torres.

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Although nutritional information is not on the district's website or published with the food that is served, Torres said the information is available from the director of food services. School officials also said that ingredients and menus in the district's five high schools change from week-to-week making it difficult to publish uniform nutritional information.

The district responded to the students' FOIA request for calorie counts and nutrition facts stating: "While the District does not publish nutritional information or caloric counts for its' menu options, we do provide general nutritional and caloric information on many of our meal options to school nurses for assistance with students and staff that may have special dietary needs or allergies."

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The letter goes on to say that for more information about the food service program, the National School Lunch guidelines, or ingredients and nutritional facts on most foods served in the food services department, the person to contact is Mary O' Connor, assistant director of food services, who was filling in for Director of Food Services Lauren Hummel while she was on maternity leave.

Hummel said the nuturitional information is available and is contained in binders in her office.

Unlike some school districts that outsource their food service program, District 211 runs its own, which allows it to continually change the meals that are served to students. Because products used in the district’s five high school cafeterias aren’t always consistent week-over-week, it would be difficult to maintain an online nutritional database, Hummel said.

For example, if they have a shortage of one ingredient, they may find a substitute product that has a slightly different ingredient makeup.

Hummel said that all the meals served at District 211 do follow the nutrition standards for school lunches that are set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“For example, all menus must be less than 30 percent fat,” Hummel said.

The video caught the attention of D211 school board member Bill Robertson, who said in an email to Patch: “Information related to school cafeteria food nutrition facts is certainly important.  This information can be obtained by contacting the Director of Food Services, Ms. Lauren Hummel, at 847-755-6680.”


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