School lunch breaks squeezed
 No comments posted.
By ANDY HALL - Wisconsin State Journal
Saturday, September 22, 2007 11:29 PM CDT
The din rises as the children, eager to perform a feat of skill and speed, file into the gym of Lapham Elementary on Madison’s Near East Side.
For the next 20 minutes, this place hosts a blend of choreography and gastronomy.
It’s time for school lunch.
And somehow, in a time window one third the size that many adults take for lunch, 215 young children crowd around picnic-style tables, consume chicken nuggets — or whatever they brought from home — and hustle outside to play.
Squeezed by tight school budgets, the federal No Child Left Behind law and Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction rules on instructional time, the school lunch period isn’t what it used to be in many school districts.
“The amount of time has shrunk over the years,” said Frank Kelly, food services director of the Madison School District, who estimates that overall, school lunch periods in the district have been trimmed about 10 minutes over the past 10 years.
“I don’t think people are going to accept anything less than this.“
In fact, in response to complaints from parents four years ago, Madison officials eased the lunch crunch a bit for elementary students by using the last five minutes of the class period before lunch to move students to the cafeteria.
There was talk four years ago of expanding the elementary lunch period to 35 minutes. But the idea was dropped after officials estimated it might cost more than $2 million to pay teachers and lunch supervisors.
“We don’t have much flexibility in extending that,” said Sue Abplanalp, an assistant superintendent who oversees Madison’s elementary schools.
While DPI leaves it up to local officials to determine the length of lunch periods, Madison educators say they believe they attain a decent compromise by giving:
• Elementary students 20 minutes.
• Middle school students 30 to 34 minutes.
• High school students about 35 minutes (except at West High School, where most students get 55 minutes under a plan initiated last year).
Those schedules are typical of what’s found around Wisconsin, said Kelly, who has worked in food service for 31 years.
“For most of our people, it works very well,” Madison schools Superintendent Art Rainwater said.
In addition to considering financial issues, school officials also seek to strike a balance between giving the children time to eat and letting them head out for recess. Some schools, hoping to reduce the amount of food wasted, let students take recess before heading for lunch.
How much time do children really need for lunch at school?
A 2001 study from the federally funded National Food Service Management Institute at the University of Mississippi said researchers pursued that question by observing students at six elementary schools, six middle schools and six high schools across the country.
No matter what the age of the students or length of their lunch periods, students need about 10 minutes just to consume their lunches, researchers reported. They urged school officials to build in additional time for the students to go through serving lines, socialize and dispose of their dirty trays.
At the schools studied, serving line waits ranged from 2.5 to 8.1 minutes.
Time spent socializing varied, depending on the length of the meal period, and ranged from 2.5 to 21.4 minutes.
Clean-up time was less than a minute at all schools.
At Lapham and other Madison schools, plastic and paper stand between students and their food.
Students peel plastic from the main dish plate, from the side dish plate, from the “spork” and napkin, and from the straw.
They rip open — sometimes with the help of adults — milk cartons and packets of barbecue sauce and ketchup.
Finally, it’s time to eat.
On Thursday, with chicken nuggets on the menu, Lapham first grader Lydia Marszal opted for the school lunch while her friend, Corey Jacob, brought a ham and cheese sandwich from home.
With food service workers handing out the sealed meals as fast as the students in teacher Charn Lorge’s class could walk by, it took Lydia less than two minutes to receive her food and squeeze onto a table with Corey and their classmates.
The tables at Lapham are more crowded than in previous years because, due to budget cuts, class sizes increased from 15 to about 22.
The school now offers “overflow tables” for students not able to sit with their classmates. The seating will become even more crowded in the winter because children wear coats and snowpants so they can immediately head outside for recess.
After a smooth start to their meals, Corey and Lydia ran into trouble when his sandwich slipped off the edge of the table and fell onto their bench.
Lydia’s fruit cocktail then followed, landing on top of the sandwich and prompting the children to giggle about the new creation — a ham, cheese and fruit cocktail sandwich.
With five minutes left in the lunch period, the school’s principal, Mike Hertting, grabbed a microphone to remind everybody that they could remain in the lunchroom longer if they weren’t ready to leave when others would head to recess.
Without seeming to rush, Corey and Lydia finished their meals with time to spare.
As for Lydia, she wasted only her mashed potatoes, explaining that she doesn’t like them. “I had enough time to drink all my milk,” she said proudly.
Corey said that he too, was content. His applesauce “took the place of the sandwich” which was thrown away after falling off the table.
The sun was shining. The temperature was 75 degrees. Recess beckoned. No one lingered at the tables.
The lunchtime ballet was over, for another day.
“Hopefully, we’re dancing to the beat, most of the time,” Hertting said.
|
Archives