Conestoga Valley High School junior Margaret Borza used to love the grilled cheese on a pretzel bun her school would serve for lunch.

Classmate Allison Herr looked forward to the cold chicken fajita wraps, and fellow 11th-grader Ilya Dariychuk liked to fill up on potato chips with his meal.

But all these foods have disappeared from the regular lunch menu at CV High School as a result of stricter nutrition standards that took effect at all public schools this year.

And the juniors aren't too happy about the changes.

School officials in Lancaster County also aren't quite sure what to make of the new standards, which call for more fruits and vegetables, reduced meat portions, a switch to whole-grain breads and limits on calories.

The healthier lunches tend to be more expensive, and students aren't exactly embracing many of the new offerings, leading to increased waste and grumbling from students — and parents — that the kids aren't getting enough to eat.

"Is it better for a student to have a less healthy lunch and have a full stomach, or is it better for them to have a healthy lunch and put half of it in the garbage can?" said Michael Leichliter, Penn Manor superintendent.

The nutrition standards were revised under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which is designed to get children to eat healthier foods to stem the alarming rise in childhood obesity, which has nearly tripled since the 1980s.

The new standards apply only to meals provided through the National School Lunch Program, which pays schools subsidies ranging from 27 cents to $2.86 for each meal they serve.

Schools still may offer less healthy a la carte items like pizza, BLTs and Hot Pockets, but the vast majority of students eat the cheaper, subsidized lunches.

Gone from many standard menus are cakes, cookies, pies, crackers, white potatoes and potato chips — even the baked kind. Chicken and hamburger portions are smaller, while most breads are now whole grain.

French "fries" often are baked, and drinks are limited mainly to water, 100 percent fruit juice and 1 percent white or nonfat chocolate milk.

Lunch menus now feature such items as pineapple spears, orange wedges, sliced peaches, red pepper strips, cucumber slices, broccoli florets, sweet potatoes, romaine lettuce and baby carrots with dip — fat free, of course.

Schools also are required to serve legumes and dark green and red/orange vegetables, prompting cafeteria cooks to become creative.

CV, for instance, serves a brownie made with black bean puree, while other schools offer three-bean salads and self-serve fruit or vegetable bars, along with "grab and go" prepared salads, to get students to eat their fruits and veggies.

"It's the biggest change in school meals in 60 years," said Randy Wolfgang, Penn Manor's director of support services. "With almost all these changes, there's an increased cost."

Schools that meet the requirements will get an extra 6-cent-per meal federal subsidy, but school officials are concerned that won't cover the added costs. Romaine, for example, costs about $1 per pound more than the iceberg lettuce it replaced.

Officials also are concerned about reduced revenue if students who used to buy lunch decide to bring their own instead.

While a couple of Lancaster County schools report lunch sales are off by 6 percent or less this year, others said it's too early to tell what impact the new regs will have on income.

So, how are the new foods playing in Peoria?

Students interviewed at two county schools had mixed views. Younger pupils were more willing, in general, to try the new fare, while older students objected to the changes.

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"They're trying to make us eat healthier, but it's not really working," CV student Allison Herr said. "I think it's a waste of food."

In the first few days of the new school year, CV was throwing away hundreds of pieces of uneaten fruit each day, a cafeteria worker said. But that was the result of confusion over what students were required to take.

Since then, waste has dropped considerably, food service manager Teresa Drager said.

Still, on a recent visit, plenty of high schoolers were pitching their unopened fruit cups and milk cartons into the trash.

Junior Margaret Borza complained that because pupils have to pay extra for chips and other items that used to be included with lunch, they aren't eating as much.

"We need to eat a lot of food because we're going to sports practices right after school, and we're hungry by that time," she said. "I don't think the price of the school food is worth what you're getting."

At Manor Middle School, students were a little more generous about their tweaked lunch menus.

"I like the way they give us more fruit now," eighth-grader Ian Hank said. "I like fruit. I like peaches, apples, grapes, so I think it's a good thing."

Classmate Daniel Cheston said he misses the french fries and giant chocolate chip cookies that used to be a weekly staple at lunch but are now extra-cost a la carte items.

But, Daniel said, he understands why the change was made.

"I mean, you used to walk around the school and there'd be kids eating a big cookie every day, and it was kind of ridiculous because you just thought, 'Wow, that's really unhealthy.'

"Now it's better because it's more moderation, I guess."

bwallace@lnpnews.com

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