Teamwork
The Dutch are credited with bringing these to the U.S. in the 1800s - they were first called “olykoeks”, or oily cakes.
The Dutch are credited with bringing these to the U.S. in the 1800s - they were first called “olykoeks”, or oily cakes.
Between 1978 and 1995, 40 people died as a result of shaking these to get free merchandise, killing more people than sharks during that period.
Lined up, the 18,000 of these consumed last year at EHS is over 1 mile of sugary breakfast.
With the introduction of the home refrigerator and blender in the 1930’s, this drink was popularized by fitness guru Jack Lalanne. Soon, it will also be found being made at the student snack bar.
Think you know any of the answers to these questions? If so, you might’ve bested our students at a game of Food Services Jeopardy during our all-school morning meeting this Wednesday. The focus of the contest, led by student council and the student life department, was to discuss some of the changes made to EHS food services and MOST IMPORTANTLY, to dispel some of the myths.
The stakes? The winning representative and their floor were awarded the privilege of choosing the desserts for the school during the month of October. Needless to say, the atmosphere was more fun and rambunctious than at an actual Jeopardy filming. Apparently, a lot was on the line! After a fun, closely contested battle, with much audience participation, Isa Greenberg ’16 bested the other competitors to win the title for the Harmsworth Hall girls.
This was followed by a conversation with the students about EHS’s intentions to expand upon our highly successful SPARK initiative by coupling the promotion of physical activity with the education and implementation of better/proper nutrition. Many things have been added, and, to be expected, with change comes questions. However, during our conversation the students actually discovered that not much had been taken away at all—it’s about BALANCE. In fact, the school is adding many things to respond to their requests. I offer you a sampling of some of the students’ questions (and the corresponding answers) below:
1. Why did EHS get rid of muffins and breakfast pastries offered in the morning and desserts offered in the evening?
Until this year, they were available to the students at every meal. Moving forward they will still be available, but not every day. Our efforts are to offer things in moderation, not to remove things completely which would undoubtedly have a counterproductive effect. As I explained to the students, if they were home they would not have access to donuts for breakfast every day. Nor should they here.
2. If I am not hungry at brunch on the weekends from 9-11am, I can’t eat a meal until dinner?
As was always the case during previous years, and will continue to be, EHS offers a snack break at 2:00 in the afternoon on Saturdays and Sundays before dinner is served at 5pm. There is always peanut butter, and sun butter, along with jelly to make a sandwich. Fresh fruit, juice and other snacks are consistently available at this time as well.
To expand upon the offerings during this time—and at the suggestion of the parent advisory board—a full deli bar will also be available at this time. As such, students will now be able to make sandwiches with fresh, Boar’s Head meats, as they do at lunches and dinners during the week.
3. We can’t order food delivery anymore?
You can! In previous years, the policy has been that each dorm floor had a designated order out night during the weekday, every other week. This is still the case.
In previous years, students also ordered out on both Friday and Saturday nights. We scaled this back just to Saturday nights. We want our kids to have the privilege of ordering food from off campus on occasion, but eating pizza three times per week is simply too much. There is also access to the on-campus snack bar during these times.
4. Can we have other options after the dining hall is closed?
This is one of the largest changes EHS is responding to per conversations with student council.
First, fruit, granola bars and snacks will now be sent with each athletic team travelling to away games for them to properly fuel before and after they begin. We found that if students were eating lunch at 12:30, playing a game at 4:30 with no food in between was not allowing them to perform at their best.
Second, vending machines will be added throughout campus offering tasty (even by teenager standards), but healthier alternatives to combat late night hunger. A couple of examples are Nature Craving vending machines (http://natural-cravings.com/products/snacks) and a frozen soft serve fruit brand called Chloe’s (www.chloesfruit.com). Student council was eager to see these implemented.
Lastly, the student snack bar, open on weeknights, will now offer a smoothie bar. Cutting out some of the fried and microwaved options like frozen pizza rolls and adding this in its place provides a healtier, but still tasty alternative. Again, balance. Student council will prepare these smoothies with both dairy and non-dairy alternatives.
5. Why are the only foods healthy foods in the dining hall anymore?
This is perhaps the biggest myth. Other than the aforementioned cutting back of processed sugars from every day to once in a while, the main entrees at lunch and dinner, along with breakfasts are exactly the same as they have always been. As always, there is a deli bar, salad bar, and fruit bar at all lunches and dinners. And, yes, regular Belgian waffle batter, in addition to a wheat batter option, will still be available on weekends.
Of course, these changes will also be supported by ongoing discussions about nutrition in classes, on the dorm floors and during our first evening seminar this year. We have hired a nationally recognized pharmacist and nutritionist, Julie Nicoletti, to assist with the education portion of this initiative. Julie’s education of the faculty and administration began last week, and she will begin working with the students during this coming Wednesday’s all-school meeting. Julie’s assessment of EHS’s food service department and menu choices was glowing, saying that the options and balance of food choices rival any prep school with whom she has worked. She even gave a hug to our food service director, Kathey St. John-Richard, for the care that obviously goes into EHS’s food. In addition to working with numerous private schools and sports clubs throughout New England, Julie also trains many professional athletes around the country. There will be more on her visit in next week’s 242.
The bottom line is this: yes, we still go to Wal-Mart twice per week. Yes, there are still evening dinner trips. In fact, students are headed to a Japanese Hibachi place tonight. Nevertheless, providing these students with the education to support good choices and avoid the all too common pitfall of being overfed, but undernourished, is something for which EHS continues to strive.
You may have heard feedback from your children about what is offered and what is not, so I hope this helps dispel some myths. As Rick Lavoie said to the parent body during his Commencement Address at EHS a few years back , “if you promise to believe half of what your children say goes on at EHS, we promise to believe only a quarter of what they say goes on at home!”
We’re in this together…have a wonderful weekend.
-Chris
For those of you curious, answers the the trivia questions are: Donuts; Vending Machines; Pop Tarts; Smoothies