School store, vending machines to offer healthier choices
by Elyse Kaner
Staff Writer
When the bell rings between classes and students pour into the Spring Lake Park High School store to grab a quick snack for later, they might be a bit surprised about their choices.
Joan Dauphinee, health teacher at Spring Lake Park High School, is working to offer students healthier food choices in the school store and in vending machines. (Photo by Elyse Kaner)
Joan Dauphinee, a teacher who challenges her students in class assignments to eat healthier foods with less sugar, is taking her vision to new heights: the school’s vending machines and school store.
“Primarily, as a health teacher, I don’t want junk food available at school,” she said in an interview with the Life.
The idea behind her effort, along with school store supervisor Andrea Moll, is that healthier foods make healthier students and better learners.
Change started last month
The two women, with the blessings of school principal Bill Sommers, are now in the process of switching out foods behind the counter and in the machines.
For now, trial and error are part of their guiding efforts. “We’ll just sell stuff until we find out what works,” Moll said.
“Some students come in asking for fresh fruit, or they say ‘I wish you had vegetables.’”
Their goal is to switch from candy bars, high-fat chips, cookies and sugary drinks to nutrient rich foods. They plan to eliminate foods with hydrogenated oils and saturated fats and to offer items with less sugar.
“Our hopes would be 16 grams or less of sugar per product,” Dauphinee said.
She pulls out a cellophane-wrapped wild blueberry muffin. She scrutinizes the nutrition information. Thirty-two grams of sugar. “That’s eight teaspoons,” Dauphinee says, most likely, looking at an item with limited days in this school store.
Jersi Rickenbach, a senior, stopped into the store between classes. She bought a Diet Coke and a bottle of water. She usually brings water to school but on this day, she forgot.
“I can drink water all day,” she said.
More protein items
Dauphinee and Moll also plan to add store items with more protein – tuna with crackers for example. Or a veggie tray with hard-boiled eggs.
They will also add foods higher in fiber.
“When you need 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day, we can do better,” Dauphinee said.
Some other choices they are looking into are fresh fruit, granola and protein bars and nuts and seeds: almonds, sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
They hope to change out the light chocolate candy to dark chocolate, purported to be healthier.
They now have soups. Last week, they brought in fresh fruit. Apples. Bananas. Clementines.
“It was all gone by the end of the week,” Dauphinee said.
As for beverages, Dauphinee and Moll are focusing on lower sugar content items. Vitamin water, juices, V-8 Fusion and Honest Tea. Diet Coke and Gatorade is still available.
The women are targeting not only the school store but the vending machines in the cafeteria (turned off during lunch time) and the one by the weight room.
“If the kids buy into it (healthier offerings), I think that’s a good thing,” Principal Sommers said.
Grant challenge
The changeover at the high school is due partly in answer to a challenge, issued from a two-year SHIP (Statewide Health Improvement Plan) grant, suggesting that schools take a closer look at the school store, vending machines and class projects, Dauphinee said.
District 16 received $48,000 in grant funds allocated by Anoka County.
The goal of SHIP is to educate students to live longer, better and healthier lives. A particular focus for SLP is nutrition. Some of the grant funds are being used to upgrade the teaching of nutrition, such as bringing in speakers and purchasing DVDs and books for classroom use.
The changeover from junk foods to healthier items also may be attributed to Dauphinee’s personal journey. In her 37th year of teaching, Dauphinee knows about the importance of good nutrition. She is a three-time cancer survivor and has switched to healthier eating habits to flood her body with more nutrients. It gives her more energy.
In the future, the women hope to make sandwiches and salads available to students for after school snacks.
Next month, they start putting together a poster campaign. The posters will feature adult school personnel and students with healthy foods and will be displayed both at the school and at the district services center. Signage will also be added to foods to indicate the healthier choices.
In the larger scheme, other nutrition changes would be to offer stickers rather than food for rewards. Some of the school groups are already selling plants rather than pizza for their fund-raisers.
“My hope is that it’s going to be successful,” Moll said.
“That we get healthier kids,” Dauphinee said.
“And that they’ll notice a difference, have more energy and feel better,” Moll added.
Elyse Kaner is at elyse.kaner@ecm-inc.com
