Project LEAN aims to bring good food back to school

Andrew Wainer

If you are what you eat, a recent study released by the Berkeley-based

Public Health Institute shows that too many of Huntington Beach’s high

school students don’t have the healthiest eating habits.

The study -- released last month by the nonprofit organization -- shows

California’s high school students may be eating up to double the

federally recommended fat intake. The culprit? Fast food and other

unhealthy items available in school cafeterias.

A quick check of high schools in Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley may

indicate that eating habits in this community don’t stray far from the

state norm found in the Public Health Institute study. The district sells

fast food items from Little Caesars, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, among other

chains. Ocean View High School also has a Taco Bell outlet on its campus.

In addition, candy, sugary sweet soft drinks and hamburgers are readily

available at all of the district’s high schools. And if you talk to a

student, it’s not hard to see why.

“I like fast food. The other stuff is crap,” one senior at Huntington

Beach High School said.

Although the cafeteria was also offering an inexpensive and nutritionally

balanced meal of turkey and mashed potatoes, the majority of students

lingering outside the cafeteria were munching on the more expensive pizza

and burritos.

“I wouldn’t eat that stuff,” one student said of the balanced hot entrees

the cafeteria offers every day.

“I didn’t even know they had salads,” one freshman said about the

cafeteria’s fruit and vegetable salads offered daily.

Huntington Beach High cafeteria manager Jeanne Waugh said the

availability of fast food on campus is a result of the students’ ravenous

demand.

Waugh said previously students left campus during lunch to dine at nearby

fast food outlets.

“We have to compete with the fast food chains,” Waugh said. “And by

offering their foods at the cafeteria, we keep the kids on campus, and

they are safer.”

District Food Services Director Lauren Teng said the fast food industry

has too strong of a grip on the adolescent psyche for school cafeterias

to vanquish.

“Fast food restaurants spend a lot of money in the media advertising,”

Teng said. “Families go to these restaurants, so the students are

familiar with the foods.”

But Teng and a group of district students are leading a revolution that

is quietly changing the daily fair at the district’s high schools.

Through Project LEAN, which stands for Leaders Encouraging Activity and

Nutrition, Teng and district students are introducing healthier food

options on campus.

Through taste tests, healthy food carts and health fairs, Teng said

Project LEAN is making inroads against the fast food juggernaut.

“We are planning on starting breakfast carts on campus that have bagels

and milk and fruit,” Project LEAN member Karla Lopez said. “That way,

people will not wander off campus and buy breakfast at McDonald’s.”

Lopez, 17, who is a senior at Westminster High School, said students’

tight schedules often force them to opt for the quickest option when it

comes to eating breakfast -- fast food.

She said the carts will be distributed around campus so students are able

to grab a quick and healthy snack without wasting time walking to the

cafeteria or walking to McDonald’s.

They also have polled students to see what types of food they would like

to see in the cafeterias that are not currently available. Yogurt and

granola desserts, rice and vegetable bowls, and additional fruits have

been introduced onto the district’s cafeteria menus because of these

polls.

At Edison High School, student complaints about the food resulted in Teng

bringing in a master chef who helped to design the school’s popular rice

bowls.

The school now offers Chinese and Mexican style rice bowls with carrots,

broccoli and other vegetables.

“They’re good,” Edison sophomore Torie Hartge said.

Health fairs introducing students to different types of fruits and a

nutrition seminar for athletes are some of the events and

consciousness-raising that Teng and her student partners are bringing to

the district.

A Milk Mustache campaign is also in the works. It’s aimed at getting

students to drink more milk and consume enough calcium.

Lopez said Project LEAN has made a difference on campus.

“Students say ‘Wow, did you get that yogurt at McDonald’s?’ But we

created it ourselves,” Lopez said.

Teng also claims the district now offers one of the most diverse menus of

any district she has visited.

“We offer students a constantly changing menu,” Teng said.

Teng said the goal is not to eliminate fast food.

“Students need to think about balance in their diets,” Teng said. “Fast

food is only the enemy if students eat it all the time.”