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| navigate: home: magazine: winter 2000: article | |
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Food Leadership Institute helps improve the quality of life for children By Deborah A. Benedetti | |||||||
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The Hon. Shirley Watkins, undersecretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, gave the keynote address during the 1999 Penn State Food Service Leadership Institute. Watkins, who also serves as the Penn State Walter J. Conti Professor in the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Recreation Management, outlined what USDA is doing and how it impacts food service professionals throughout the nation. Nearly 70 food service professionals from Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey attended the institute. The theme was “Lessons for a Lifetime.” Sponsored by the College of Health and Human Development’s School of Hotel, Restaurant and Recreation Management, the institute was designed for food service directors, supervisors and administrators, as well as cooks and managers engaged in food serving, planning, preparation, service and control. The institute offered participants educational sessions on current issues in food management technology, management and leadership, marketing and finance and cost control, as well as opportunities for professional development and networking. Dr. Peter L. Bordi, assistant professor in the Penn State School of Hotel, Restaurant and Recreation Management, and Dr. Frederick J. DeMicco, associate professor and associate director of the school, co-chaired the institute. They worked with Continuing Education’s Conferences and Institutes staff members to plan the program. During her presentation, Watkins focused on how USDA programs improve the quality of life for our nation’s children, as well as senior citizens and the working poor. She is the first African American to be named undersecretary for USDA’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services. President Bill Clinton nominated her for the post. She oversees a budget of more than $40 billion for nutrition assistance programs, including the Food Stamp Program, the National School Meals Programs and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. “Early in 1993, we worked very hard to improve the quality of meals in school lunch programs,” Watkins said. “We think our children should have the very best quality of food and the very best quality of service. To do this, we needed to make a lot of changes. As I travel around the country and visit schools, I find that some of the meals are incredibly good, but we still have a way to go.” Some of the changes USDA is making include introducing lactose-free milk and soy products and giving schools the option of providing after-school snacks subsidized by USDA, in addition to their federally funded school breakfast and lunch programs. Lactose-free milk joins skim, 1 percent, 2 percent and whole milk as milk choices available to school children. Soy products will give food service professionals more options and alternatives, she said. Watkins also reported a 3.2-percent increase in the number of schools offering a summer feeding program for their children since 1997–98. “We serve 26 million meals a day for lunch, and more than half of these meals are free or available at reduced cost, ” she said. “We need schools to serve as sponsors for the summer food service program. Be an ambassador for feeding children in the summer, ” she urged institute participants. USDA also has prepared a children’s food guide pyramid for elementary schools. This food guide is similar to USDA’s food guide pyramid for adults, but focuses on the special nutrition needs of children. It is a tool for both food service professionals and parents, she said. “Research is showing that the father is the nutrition role model for children. They will eat whatever he eats. This is why we need to work with parents.” USDA also is championing efforts to reduce childhood obesity. Watkins said one in five U.S. children is obese. If this trend continues, it will result in increased health care costs. Already, children as young as 4 years old are being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, and children ages 10 and 11 are showing signs of high blood pressure and heart disease. One step USDA has taken to combat this problem is to convene a conference on childhood obesity. Members of the medical community, food service professionals and others attending this first conference on childhood obesity pointed to lack of physical activity, not eating according to the food pyramid, not eating sufficient fruits, vegetables and dairy products and not drinking enough milk as causes of obesity in children. USDA plans to host more conferences on this topic. Another area of concern to USDA is the school environment and how it affects health, Watkins said. In her visits to schools across the country, she has witnessed crowded conditions in cafeterias, lunch times that start as early as 9:30 a.m. (leaving children without food until 3 p.m. when school ends) and the availability of non-nutritious foods in vending machines in cafeterias. In its latest budget proposal, USDA has requested $50 million for school breakfast research over three years, she noted. Researchers will look at the impact of eating breakfast on school behavior and academic progress. In addition to its programs for children, USDA has nutrition assistance programs for senior citizens and the working poor. USDA is considering offering a new program—meals for seniors served in schools, Watkins said. “We hear consistently that there are tens of thousands of seniors on waiting lists to go to elderly feeding centers, ” she said. “We have to do something about this.” Participants at the Food Service Leadership Institute also had the option of enrolling in one of two preconference workshops conducted jointly by School of Hotel, Restaurant and Recreation Management faculty members and Dairy Council Mid East and Dairy Council Middle Atlantic members. Topics were Healthy EDGE 2000, which focused on how to incorporate the Dietary Guidelines for Americans into school meal programs, and Serving it Safe, which addressed food safety and sanitation issues. Other institute topics focused on commodities, child nutrition, conflict resolution and management, marketing tactics, new dining trends, food safety and menu-planning computer software programs. An outreach program of the College of Health and Human Development | ||||||
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