AUBURN — Third-grader Ryan Theriault was concerned about Friday's healthier lunch at his Walton Elementary School.

"I never tried pizza with wheat crust," Ryan said. "In case I didn't like it, I brought a cold lunch."

He tried the pizza. He liked it. He ate the hot lunch — wheat pizza with low-fat cheese, ½ percent chocolate milk, an apple — instead of his cold lunch.

The Auburn School Department has a new, healthier lunch menu for K-8 schools.

Some healthier foods are being introduced at Edward Little High School, but not to the extent of the lower grades.

The high school's kitchen lacks space, and "they're struggling with wheat pizza. They're working on that," said Paula Rouillard, director of Auburn School Nutrition Program.

At Walton school Friday, students gave the new menu high grades.

The new chicken nuggets "are really good," better than the old nuggets, second-grader Sara Younk said.

"The fries are pretty good. Some of the stuff is a lot better," said third-grader Nick Davis, 8.

Hot lunch costs have gone from $1.25 to $1.50. The last time there was a price increase was 1997, Rouillard said.
In addition to the wheat pizza dough, menu changes include switching from white to wheat breads and pasta.

Hamburg in burgers, meat sauce and shepherd's pie is a blend of turkey and beef. "Turkey is healthier," Rouillard said.

There are no more chicken patties and nuggets from processed chicken. The replacement is teriyaki nuggets, chunks of pure chicken breast that are not breaded.

The new milk is half-of-one-percent fat, almost skim.

French fries have been removed from the menu, replaced with baked potato wedges.

There's less canned fruits in syrup and more fresh fruits and vegetables. Friday's offerings were apples, pears, kiwis and fresh carrots with a yogurt dip. So far, the yogurt dip has provoked the most student complaints. They like ranch dressing.

School breakfast no longer offers Pop Tarts, Lucky Charms or Frosted Flakes. Sugared cereal has been replaced with non-sugared cereal such as Cheerios or Raisin Bran.

In the second week of healthier lunches, Walton Principal Michelle McClellan was pleased with how the food is disappearing from cafeteria trays.

"Chicken nuggets is a very popular item with students. Last week they got introduced to teriyaki nuggets, a nonbreaded breast meat. I thought we were going to have an uproar." They liked it, McClellan said.

Some students are being introduced to new foods.

"That's OK if it's something they immediately don't like," she said. "We're going to put broccoli in the bowl on some days. If they don't like it, that's all right. Eventually they will like it."

Some of the healthier food is more expensive. "The biggest expense is wheat hamburg and hot dog rolls. They're almost double," Rouillard said. She's cutting costs by giving students one choice for hot lunch instead of two. That reduces waste, she said.

A healthier menu has been talked about for a while, Rouillard said. "We decided it was time to do it."

Dr. Dora Mills, who heads Maine's Center for Disease Control, called Auburn's changes "fantastic."

Each food change may sound minor, "but all these little steps adds up to big steps in fighting the epidemic of obesity," Mills said. "To have that kind of modeling of excellent nutrition in school has a big impact on students' lives," and will get many in lifelong habits of eating wheat bread, fresh fruit and vegetables, she said.

Many Maine schools are working to give students healthier food "with bare-bone budgets," Mills said. "It's great. Everybody recognizes that every agency, every family, every school, needs to do their part to address obesity."

bwashuk@sunjournal.com

Easy way to pay: Auburn parents can make hot-lunch payments online, and view their child's lunch account, at mynutrikids.com