Provide names of other journalists involved.
Tina Reed
List date(s) this work was published or aired.
9-Jan-11
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
This story started out looking for all the meals from the school cafeterias that parents were telling us horror stories about. I wanted to see a cross-section of all the kinds of foods the schools were giving children during the day, especially in areas where there are higher concentrations of students who depend on that food for economic reasons. The goal was to describe those foods to the public, but also to take our findings back to health experts for them to evaluate the nutrition of our local school lunches. My reporting found our local schools were actually doing better than most. But I also found there were some confusing messages being sent about nutrition which was likely to lead some students to believe eating fortified “Honey Buns” or high fat foods – like nachos – every day of the week is OK.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
This took more time and human reporting. I went to several schools and sat down to talk with kids, go through the lunch line with them and try the food. It took a lot of pushing the school to get that much access to the cafeterias and to get the chance to speak with students. I also had to research the different federal grant programs and changing regulations regarding the National School Lunch program.
Explain types of human sources used.
I spoke with the head of food services for our county school district. I also spoke with multiple parents and children. I interviewed Board of Education members and local nutrition experts. I also had to reach out to school lunch and local and state public health experts about the school lunch changes moving through federal legislation.
Results:
Our newspaper has had much better access to information about our local school lunch programs and has been able to show where nutrition changes have been occurring, such as the elimination of high-fat condiments like honey mustard.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
This kicked off regular reporting about how the local school lunches have been changing along with federal regulations.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
It really made a difference to sit down and eat the foods being served in our local cafeterias. I noticed when I was going through the line the sort of items a student might not notice or might be attracted to and I was able to see the expression on students faces and what was getting thrown away while I was trying the same kinds of foods myself.