The TVs aren’t the only new thing in the lunchroom this year. New policies are changing the way we eat everything, from our french fries to the ever-present chicken sandwich.      

                “The first major reason we changed [the way ketchup is served] was, because coming soon, over the next couple of years there will be new nutritional mandates that we will have to follow; one of which will be a reduction in sodium,” High School Cafeteria Supervisor Beth Jett said, “One of the best ways to reduce sodium intake is through condiments. We still keep the mayonnaise and mustard out, free serve, because [the students] don’t eat as much of those as they do ketchup.”

                New regulations weren’t the only factor in deciding when to make the change.

                “Ketchup consumption was huge, six cases a week of number ten cans. It was an amazingly large amount, so the easiest and best way to encourage and try to control some of that consumption was to go to packets of ketchup and have you pay a nominal charge for them,” Jett said.

                Although it may seem simple to pick out the menu every month, regulations are ever-present in deciding what to serve.

                “We always have to follow guidelines, it’s called the Child Re-Authorization Act: it’s nationwide; every school district in the country has to follow the same guidelines. All schools are doing the same types of things. We have to document the things that we serve; that means that if we allow you all the ketchup you want, that will throw us over our allowed sodium. Packets is one way to control that,” Food Service Director Larry Green said.

                Although the lunchroom lost ketchup by-the-squeeze, it has gained a salad bar.

                “We’ve done salad bars in the past, but in the past few years we haven’t. It’s something that we’re going to have to do, and it’s important to do, because kids like choices and from the participation in the salad bar so far, it’s been a good thing,” Green said. “It gets so crowded out in the scramble area, in the past it was hard to manage. The push now is for salad bars in schools, more fruits and vegetables, so that got us started in putting salad bars back in.”

                The cafeteria staff is constantly attempting to make lunches students will enjoy, and hope to be involved in the upcoming Principal’s Advisory Committee meetings.

                “There are a lot of changes coming, a lot of which you won’t even notice, a lot of them aren’t as dramatic as changing ketchup, if there’s anything major we’ll try to give a heads-up,” Green said.