The Findings of My Interviews...

For my research project I've been interviewing people about what goes on in our school's breakfast and lunches, and so far I've talked to our Health teachers, our principal, our lunch ladies and Chef Dan. Through these interviews I've discovered the why's of the Nutrition in Branford High School.



The first interview I conducted was with Mr. Panagulias. I asked him what say he has in the food served here. He said that he has no control, but he cautiously said, "the caf staff works very hard, what is served and how it's served the state has control over. " He would like to see more fresh food and maybe a salad bar or a cart with interesting foods.



Then I talked with Mr. Tracey, the Health teacher for Freshman and Sophmores. I asked him what he taught in the two years he had these kids and he said that he teached about Nutrition; the principals of nutrition and food pyramid in about 6-8 weeks. When asked about what changes he'd like to see he said he hates that we serve pizza and french fries. He also said that the lines are way too long for a 25 minute period.



After this I went to the kitchen where the food is prepared and talked with Sandi. Sandi is in charge of putting together the lunch menu. The menu is put together based on the Healthy Eating Initiative Laws in CT. There are guidlines that have to be followed. She then directed me to Chef Dan for further questions.



Chef Dan and I talked for a long time about what goes on in the kitchen. There are five components that Dan puts into the meals; Protein, Milk, Grain, Veggies, Fruit. He also said that a way that he regulates the meals is by portion sizes; the meals have 850 calories and all of the meals have less than 30% of the calories are derived from fat. When asked about the fries and pizza he said that they keep it healthy by using wheat breads and instead of using the frialators they bake them instead; this way there is no saturated fats. The baking is done here but most of the food that comes in is frozen except for produce. A problem that he says is occuring is how many students are in each lunch wave and trying to serve them all with the space provided. At solution we could come up with is a third lunch wave, this would eliminate the long lines and kids could buy the lunch and still get to sit down and eat it.

These interviews have helped me to see how everything operates and what restrictions are placed because of the laws in CT, some are bad such as budget which stop us from serving better things because they are more expensive, and then the good things are the 5 components of nutrition. The next step in my progress would be looking up the Healthy Eating Initiative.