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TODAY’S PRAYER
Forgive our impatience,dear Father, when wewrongly think our prayers
have not been heard byYou. Amen.
WEATHER
SUNNY, WARMH: 91 L: 70
PAGE 6C
Volume 124, 240Five sections
Copyright 2015The OklahomaPublishing Co.,Oklahoma City
All rights reserved
Business 1CClassified 1EComics 8EDeaths 8, 10AOpinion 12ASports 1B
Poised on tiptoes to peer into the lunchline, Madden Judd filled his tray with good-ies: pepperoni pizza, a sweet
fruit mix, ranch-covered let-tuce and unpickled cucum- bers. He selected a carton ofchocolate milk to drink.
To Madden, a prekinder-garten student at John RexCharter Elementary School inOklahoma City, it’s just lunchon a recent Friday. But to the adults taskedwith protecting Madden’s health, as well asthe health of many other schoolchildren, it’sa carefully calculated combination of fresh
fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lowor fat-free milk with limited amounts of
calories and sodium.
So, is school lunch mak-ing the grade?
Beginning in the summerof 2012, the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture beganphasing in stricter nutritionstandards for school meals.The changes were required
under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of2010, an initiative championed by first lady
Amid debate over federal standards, schoolstry to provide students with balanced meals
SOURCE: U.S. DEPARTMENTOF AGRICULTURE
THE OKLAHOMAN GRAPHICS
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 required the U.S.Department of Agriculture to update federal nutrition standards forschool meals. The new regulations went into effect on July 1, 2012.
The changes require:
School mealsNUTRITION STANDARDS FOR
Free water
Sodiumlimits
Calorie limits
Wholegrains
Limits onunhealthy fat
Low-fat andfat-free milk
More fruits and vegetables
IN A LUNCH CRUNCH
Prekindergarten student Madden Judd eats his pizza during lunch Aug. 14 at John RexElementary School in Oklahoma City. Some schools report struggling with waste andpush back on healthy options, while other schools have excelled at incorporating freshfruits and veggies, reduced sodium and whole grains that comply with the enhancednutrition guidelines. [PHOTO BY CHRIS LANDSBERGER, THE OKLAHOMAN]
STAFF WRITER
JenniferPalmer
With ownership of FirstNational Center in disputeand concerns building overdeteriorating conditions,a judge is consideringappointing a receiver totake control of the land-mark as a way to restoreair conditioning andprevent shut-offs of otherutilities. U.S. District JudgeStephen Friot said that thesituation has moved “fromurgent to an emergency.”PAGE 1C
NORMAN — Traffic is alwaysan issue when the University ofOklahoma plays football, but roadconstruction along Lindsey Streetand two popular gameday exits
likely will make things even morecongested this season, beginningSaturday evening when OU facesAkron on Owen Field.
Both the Lindsey Street andState Highway 9 exits off Inter-state 35 are under construction,and there is additional roadworkon both streets after you exit. The
university, Norman police and theOklahoma Highway Patrol havemet several times throughout theoffseason to prepare for 2015 gamedays, but no amount of planningcan completely eliminate theadditional traffic sure to take overNorman when the Sooners areplaying at home this year.
“This construction is going to be great for the city of Norman,”said Lindy Roberts-Ivy, OU’ssenior associate athletic directorfor events and facilities. “They’lljust be a little bit of a headache ongame days for a year or two.”
BY JASON KERSEYStaff Writer
Getting to OU stadium might take new game plan
THE OKLAHOMAN WEDNESDAY , SEPTEMBER 2 , 2015 REACHING MORE THAN 475,000 PEOPLE EACH DAY NEWSOK.COM OKLAHOMAN.COM75¢
Helping table hunger PAGE 1DGUIDE TO GET
YOU PREPPEDFOR FOOTBALL
INSIDE
Two Oklahoma Depart-ment of Wildlife Conserva-tion game wardens investi-gating a call about possiblepoachers found more thanthey bargained for — a bird
blind constructed mostlyout of marijuana plants.After a search of a nearbyresidence, one man wasarrested on outstandingwarrants, and chargesare pending on him andtwo others, the agencyreported.PAGE 6A
Hunt forpoachersnets potplant bust
Oklahoma City Public Schoolsis suspending 63 percent fewerstudents than it did last year,leaving a top official to wonderwhether the district can fill a
new support program for thoseserving long-term suspensions.
The district suspended 135 inthe first three weeks of schoolcompared with 368 during thesame period last year, Teri Bell,executive director of studentsupport services, told The Okla-homan on Tuesday.
Bell credited the district’s newstudent discipline and compli-ance office for the reduction,along with a willingness on thepart of school administrators tospend more time doing inter-ventions.
“I think part of it is the pro-cesses we’re putting in place,”
she said, referring to an effort to better use data to monitor andanalyze district discipline data.
“We’re asking principalsto look at what’s causing theproblem. What are the circum-stances, and is it really an eventworth suspending for?”
The office was created in June
after a review of 14 middle andhigh schools found that overa two-year period the districtsuspended minorities at muchhigher rates than white students,inconsistently punished stu-dents for similar offenses and
Better behavior or
just policy change?
Fewer suspensions maymake it harder to fill support
program, but critics sayclassrooms not improved
SEE LUNCH, PAGE 2A
Judge callslandmark’scondition
‘emergency’
As he marksdecade, OSU’sGundy findssecond wind
After 10 yearsas OklahomaState’s head
football coach,Mike Gundy isbeginning the2015 season
with renewedenergy. StaffWriter John
Helsley reports.
PAGE 1B
BY TIM WILLERTStaff Writer
SEE SUSPENSION, PAGE 6A
SEE TRAFFIC, PAGE 2A
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2A WEDNESDAY , SEPTEMBER 2 , 2015 FROM PAGE 1A THE OKLAHOMAN | NEWSOK.COM
Michelle Obama. It wasthe first update to the
school nutrition standardsin 15 years.It’s important because
more than a third of chil-dren and adolescents arenow obese or overweight,according to the Centersfor Disease Control andPrevention.
The school lunchchanges were met withsome resistance. Electedofficials, at the urging offood companies, pushedfor pizza sauce to countas a serving of vegetables(it does) and continue tolobby for watered-down
standards.Some schools com-plained of food waste andsaid the fruits and veg-etables students wererequired to put on theirplates were going straightinto the trash. Disgrun-tled students began post-ing photos of their unsa-vory lunches on Twitterwith the sarcastic hashtag#thanksmichelleobama.
The law is set to expireSept. 30, and reauthori-zation has been held up inCongress by opponents,some of whom say the cost
of healthier foods burdensschools. Sodium limitsespecially have been underattack by those who ques-tion the benefits of reduc-ing children’s sodium con-sumption.
The School NutritionAssociation, an organi-zation of 55,000 schoollunch professionals acrossthe country, has been lob- bying Congress to relax thestandards and has spentmore than $2 millionon lobbying since 2010,records show.
But a new poll shows
Americans overwhelm-ingly support the currentstandards.
Nine out of 10 peo-ple surveyed support theschool nutrition stan-dards, and 86 percent saythe nutrition standardsshould stay the same or be
strengthened, accordingto a survey released Tues-day by the W.K. KelloggFoundation.
Additionally, nearly 70percent of people ratedschool meals as excellentor good, compared with 26percent who did so in 2010, before the revamped stan-
dards were implemented.
Filling their plates
Under the current stan-dards, schools must offerfruits and vegetables withevery lunch, and studentsare required to take at leastone half-cup serving oftheir choosing. Certainvegetable subgroups —legumes, dark green, redand orange — are requiredweekly, meaning cafeteriascan’t rely on kid-friendlypotatoes and corn to ful-fill the vegetable require-ments.
In addition, all breads,tortillas and othergrain products must con-tain at least 50 percentwhole grain. Calories andsodium are limited basedon age, and children are to be offered low-fat or fat-free milk at every meal.
The standards read likea complex math formula,leading many schools totake lunch off their plates.
Keystone Foodservice isone lunch supplier whose business has grown expo-nentially since the nutri-tional standards were put
in place.The Stillwater-basedcompany startedout catering meals tosororities and fraternitiesat Oklahoma State Univer-sity and the University ofOklahoma in Norman.
In 2011, they were hired
by Coyle Public Schoolsto provide lunch for theschool’s students, Key-stone Chief Executive JoshSanders said. The nextyear, they added five moreschools, and the venturecontinues to grow.
Keystone began the2015-2016 school yearsupplying 60 schools.
“It has gotten harderfor schools to do it them-
selves,” Sanders said. “Wehave a team that spendshalf a day formulating themenu for the week. That’sfive people we have sittingin here thinking about it.It’s not something we takelightly.”
Sanders said they havetwo registered dietitianson staff to ensure eachweek’s menu plan is com-pliant and flows well.
Keystone strives to makeas many items as possiblefrom scratch. So on pizzaday, whole-grain dough isdelivered to each school’s
cafeteria where it istopped with sauce, cheeseand toppings and bakedon-site.
On another day, theschools might fire upa charcoal grill outsideand grill hamburgers.And a salad bar, filled
with freshly choppedromaine, not bagged let-tuce, is available every day.
“We’ve gone back tocooking everything fromscratch and going com-pletely away from a heat-and-serve method,” Sand-ers said.
At about 75 percentof the schools Keystoneserves, the lunchroomworkers are actually Key-
stone employees, not theschool’s.Feedback from the
schools has been positive.On the first day of school,the principal at Jones Mid-dle School sent Sanders aphoto of the lunchroomtrash can. “He noticed a lotless waste and more kidseating,” Sanders said.
Planting seeds
Andrew Sartain, whofounded the Normancompany Earth Rebirth,is trying to bring back theschool community garden.
His goal is to have a gardenat every school in Normanproducing food that con-tributes to the cafeteria.
Sartain found that manyschools had a garden at onetime, started by a passion-ate teacher or enthusiasticstudent. But as the teacher
moved on or the studentgraduated, the gardenwas abandoned.
With the support of theschool, the company hashelped build gardens at sixschools. Their most popu-lar project is an aquapon-ics system at Norman HighSchool, which is growinglettuce and squash on topof a fish tank. The systemwas funded by $10,000
they raised on Kickstarter.To ensure the projectsdon’t wither and die, Sar-tain is working to build aschool curriculum aroundthe gardens. Ideally, sci-ence students will con-duct biology lessons inthe garden, agriculture
students will help tend theplants and home econom-ics students will preparefood with produce, whichwould then be sold in thecafeteria.
Early talks with Sodexo,the food supplier for Nor-man High School andother area schools, have been promising, Sartainsaid.
But they haven’t yet
gotten student-grownfood onto their lunch trays.At least for now, the
enthusiasm is growing.“We were just blown
away by how much thecommunity really wantsthese gardens to take placeat the school,” Sartain said.
FROM PAGE 1A
Lunch: Law is set to expire Sept. 30
Prekindergarten student Nike Thrash picks up her hotlunch tray Aug. 14 at John Rex Elementary School inOklahoma City. [PHOTO BY CHRIS LANDSBERGER, THE OKLAHOMAN]
Norman High School teachers Adam Lifsics, left,Melinda Tague and Andrew Sartain of Earth Rebirth
demonstrate the aquaponics system at Norman HighSchool on July 31. [PHOTO BY STEVE SISNEY, THE OKLAHOMAN]
SAMPLE STUDENT LUNCH MENU
•Monday: Spaghetti with meat sauce, greenbeans, bread sticks
•Tuesday: Chicken tenders, mashed potatoesand gravy, sweet corn, dinner roll
•Wednesday: Chicken wrap, roasted carrots,dessert
•Thursday: Homemade enchiladas, refried beans,rice
•Friday: Pizza, Caesar salad, carrot sticks
•Every day: salad bar, fresh fruit, water or milk.SOURCE: KEYSTONE FOODSERVICE
Go Code
XLWU
Go to oklahoman.com and enter thecode to watch avideo about schoollunches.
Although both exits are still open, the OU athleticdepartment issued suggested alternate routes to the sta-dium. For those traveling southbound on Interstate 35,fans are encouraged to exit earlier onto either U.S. 77 orTecumseh Road, or to take Sooner Road instead of theinterstate.
Fans coming from the south, meanwhile, are encour-aged to exit in Purcell and travel up U.S. 77 through Noble.
The fact that OU’s season opener is a night game, though,should alleviate at least some of the potential traffic prob-lems because fans are traveling to Norman throughoutthe day for tailgating. The bigger problems might presentthemselves when the Sooners play at home in the morningor early afternoon, Norman police Capt. Tom Easley said.
“A lot of people like to come in and tailgate and stufflike that, and we encourage that, because then you’re notwaiting until the last minute,” Easley said.
Roberts-Ivy stressed that construction on the south
end of Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium
will have no impact on fans and is completely separatefrom any road construction going on in Norman. The
roads around the stadium are always closed on game days.For fans like Dalton Mahoney, a 24-year-old who hastraveled nearly 200 miles from Alva for OU games the last10 years, leaving earlier than usual is probably the bestoption this season. Mahoney said he usually takes theLindsey Street exit but is examining alternate routes tothe stadium this year.
“Highway 77 is what I’ve been looking at, but I get ner-vous when I take new routes,” Mahoney said.
FROM PAGE 1A
Traffic: OU athletic department suggests alternate routes
Exit 112
Tecumseh
Rock Creek
Robinson
Gray
Main
Westheimer
Airport
Boyd
Lindsey Lindsey
Imhoff
9
Imhoff
Alameda
S o o n e r
2 4 t h A v e . N E
1 2 t h A v e . N E
P o r t e r
S t u b b e m a n
F l o o d
A s p
B e r r y
C h a u t a u q u a
J e n k i n s
C l a s s e n
2 4 t h A v e . S W
3 6 t h A v e . N W
B e r r y
Franklin
Exit 113
35
Stadium
Primary route
Secondary route
Possible heavyconstruction
Norman gameday travel maporman gameday travel map
Norman gameday travel map
A lot of people like to come
in and tailgate and stuff likethat, and we encourage that,because then you’re notwaiting until the last minute.”
NORMAN POLICE CAPT. TOM EASLEY