Helping table hunger

PAGE 1D

GUIDE TO GET
YOU PREPPED
FOR FOOTBALL
INSIDE

THE OKLAHOMAN

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

75

REACHING MORE THAN 475,000 PEOPLE EACH DAY

Better behavior or
just policy change?
BY TIM WILLERT

Staff Writer
twillert@oklahoman.com

Oklahoma City Public Schools

is suspending 63 percent fewer
students than it did last year,
leaving a top official to wonder
whether the district can fill a

Hunt for
poachers
nets pot
plant bust

new support program for those

serving long-term suspensions.
The district suspended 135 in
the first three weeks of school
compared with 368 during the
same period last year, Teri Bell,
executive director of student
support services, told The Oklahoman on Tuesday.

Bell credited the districts new

student discipline and compliance office for the reduction,
along with a willingness on the
part of school administrators to
spend more time doing interventions.
I think part of it is the processes were putting in place,

NEWSOK.COM

OKLAHOMAN.COM

Fewer suspensions may

make it harder to fill support
program, but critics say
classrooms not improved

she said, referring to an effort to

better use data to monitor and
analyze district discipline data.
Were asking principals
to look at whats causing the
problem. What are the circumstances, and is it really an event
worth suspending for?
The office was created in June

after a review of 14 middle and

high schools found that over
a two-year period the district
suspended minorities at much
higher rates than white students,
inconsistently punished students for similar offenses and
SEE SUSPENSION, PAGE 6A

IN A LUNCH CRUNCH

Two Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation game wardens investigating a call about possible
poachers found more than
they bargained for a bird
blind constructed mostly
out of marijuana plants.
After a search of a nearby
residence, one man was
arrested on outstanding
warrants, and charges
are pending on him and
two others, the agency
reported.
PAGE 6A

Judge calls
landmarks
condition
emergency
With ownership of First
National Center in dispute
and concerns building over
deteriorating conditions,
a judge is considering
appointing a receiver to
take control of the landmark as a way to restore
air conditioning and
prevent shut-offs of other
utilities. U.S. District Judge
Stephen Friot said that the
situation has moved from
urgent to an emergency.

NUTRITION STANDARDS FOR

School meals
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 required the U.S.
Department of Agriculture to update federal nutrition standards for
school meals. The new regulations went into effect on July 1, 2012.
The changes require:

More fruits and vegetables

Calorie limits
Free water
Low-fat and
fat-free milk

PAGE 1C

Whole
grains

As he marks
decade, OSUs
Gundy finds
second wind

Sodium
limits
Limits on
unhealthy fat

SOURCE: U.S. DEPARTMENTOF AGRICULTURE

THE OKLAHOMAN GRAPHICS

Prekindergarten student Madden Judd eats his pizza during lunch Aug. 14 at John Rex
Elementary School in Oklahoma City. Some schools report struggling with waste and
push back on healthy options, while other schools have excelled at incorporating fresh
fruits and veggies, reduced sodium and whole grains that comply with the enhanced
nutrition guidelines. [PHOTO BY CHRIS LANDSBERGER, THE OKLAHOMAN]

Amid debate over federal standards, schools

try to provide students with balanced meals
Poised on tiptoes to peer into the lunch fruits and vegetables, whole grains and low
line, Madden Judd filled his tray with good- or fat-free milk with limited amounts of
ies: pepperoni pizza, a sweet
calories and sodium.
fruit mix, ranch-covered letSo, is school lunch makJennifer
tuce and unpickled cucuming the grade?
Palmer
bers. He selected a carton of
Beginning in the summer
jpalmer@
chocolate milk to drink.
of 2012, the U.S. Departoklahoman.com
To Madden, a prekinderment of Agriculture began
garten student at John Rex
phasing in stricter nutrition
Charter Elementary School in STAFF WRITER
standards for school meals.
Oklahoma City, its just lunch
The changes were required
on a recent Friday. But to the adults tasked under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of
with protecting Maddens health, as well as 2010, an initiative championed by first lady
the health of many other schoolchildren, its
a carefully calculated combination of fresh SEE LUNCH, PAGE 2A

Getting to OU stadium might take new game plan

BY JASON KERSEY

Staff Writer
jkersey@oklahoman.com

After 10 years
as Oklahoma
States head
football coach,
Mike Gundy is
beginning the
2015 season
with renewed
energy. Staff
Writer John
Helsley reports.
PAGE 1B

NORMAN Traffic is always

an issue when the University of
Oklahoma plays football, but road
construction along Lindsey Street
and two popular gameday exits

TODAYS PRAYER
Forgive our impatience,
dear Father, when we
wrongly think our prayers
have not been heard by
You. Amen.

likely will make things even more

congested this season, beginning
Saturday evening when OU faces
Akron on Owen Field.
Both the Lindsey Street and
State Highway 9 exits off Interstate 35 are under construction,
and there is additional roadwork
on both streets after you exit. The

Business
1C
Classified
1E
Comics
8E
Deaths 8, 10A
Opinion
12A
Sports
1B

university, Norman police and the

Oklahoma Highway Patrol have
met several times throughout the
offseason to prepare for 2015 game
days, but no amount of planning
can completely eliminate the
additional traffic sure to take over
Norman when the Sooners are
playing at home this year.

WEATHER

SUNNY, WARM
H: 91
PAGE 6C

L: 70

This construction is going to

be great for the city of Norman,
said Lindy Roberts-Ivy, OUs
senior associate athletic director
for events and facilities. Theyll
just be a little bit of a headache on
game days for a year or two.
SEE TRAFFIC, PAGE 2A

Volume 124, 240

Five sections
Copyright 2015
The Oklahoma
Publishing Co.,
Oklahoma City
All rights reserved

2A

FROM PAGE 1A

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

THE OKLAHOMAN | NEWSOK.COM

Lunch: Law is set to expire Sept. 30

FROM PAGE 1A

Go Code

Michelle Obama. It was

the first update to the
school nutrition standards
in 15 years.
Its important because
more than a third of children and adolescents are
now obese or overweight,
according to the Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention.
The
school
lunch
changes were met with
some resistance. Elected
officials, at the urging of
food companies, pushed
for pizza sauce to count
as a serving of vegetables
(it does) and continue to
lobby for watered-down
standards.
Some schools complained of food waste and
said the fruits and vegetables students were
required to put on their
plates were going straight
into the trash. Disgruntled students began posting photos of their unsavory lunches on Twitter
with the sarcastic hashtag
#thanksmichelleobama.
The law is set to expire
Sept. 30, and reauthorization has been held up in
Congress by opponents,
some of whom say the cost
of healthier foods burdens
schools. Sodium limits
especially have been under
attack by those who question the benefits of reducing childrens sodium consumption.
The School Nutrition
Association, an organization of 55,000 school
lunch professionals across
the country, has been lobbying Congress to relax the
standards and has spent
more than $2 million
on lobbying since 2010,
records show.
But a new poll shows
Americans overwhelmingly support the current
standards.
Nine out of 10 people surveyed support the
school nutrition standards, and 86 percent say
the nutrition standards
should stay the same or be

XLWU
Go to oklahoman.
com and enter the
code to watch a
video about school
lunches.

strengthened, according
to a survey released Tuesday by the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation.
Additionally, nearly 70
percent of people rated
school meals as excellent
or good, compared with 26
percent who did so in 2010,
before the revamped standards were implemented.

Filling their plates

Under the current standards, schools must offer
fruits and vegetables with
every lunch, and students
are required to take at least
one half-cup serving of
their choosing. Certain
vegetable subgroups
legumes, dark green, red
and orange are required
weekly, meaning cafeterias
cant rely on kid-friendly
potatoes and corn to fulfill the vegetable requirements.
In addition, all breads,
tortillas
and
other
grain products must contain at least 50 percent
whole grain. Calories and
sodium are limited based
on age, and children are to
be offered low-fat or fatfree milk at every meal.
The standards read like
a complex math formula,
leading many schools to
take lunch off their plates.
Keystone Foodservice is
one lunch supplier whose
business has grown exponentially since the nutritional standards were put
in place.
The
Stillwater-based
company
started
out catering meals to
sororities and fraternities
at Oklahoma State University and the University of
Oklahoma in Norman.
In 2011, they were hired

Norman High School teachers Adam Lifsics, left,

Melinda Tague and Andrew Sartain of Earth Rebirth
demonstratethe aquaponics system at Norman High
SchoolonJuly 31. [PHOTO BY STEVE SISNEY, THE OKLAHOMAN]

by Coyle Public Schools

to provide lunch for the
schools students, Keystone Chief Executive Josh
Sanders said. The next
year, they added five more
schools, and the venture
continues to grow.
Keystone began the
2015-2016 school year
supplying 60 schools.
It has gotten harder
for schools to do it themselves, Sanders said. We
have a team that spends
half a day formulating the
menu for the week. Thats
five people we have sitting
in here thinking about it.
Its not something we take
lightly.
Sanders said they have
two registered dietitians
on staff to ensure each
weeks menu plan is compliant and flows well.
Keystone strives to make
as many items as possible
from scratch. So on pizza
day, whole-grain dough is
delivered to each schools
cafeteria where it is
topped with sauce, cheese
and toppings and baked
on-site.
On another day, the
schools might fire up
a charcoal grill outside
and grill hamburgers.
And a salad bar, filled

with freshly chopped

romaine, not bagged lettuce, is available every day.
Weve gone back to
cooking everything from
scratch and going completely away from a heatand-serve method, Sanders said.
At about 75 percent
of the schools Keystone
serves, the lunchroom
workers are actually Keystone employees, not the
schools.
Feedback from the
schools has been positive.
On the first day of school,
the principal at Jones Middle School sent Sanders a
photo of the lunchroom
trash can. He noticed a lot
less waste and more kids
eating, Sanders said.

Planting seeds
Andrew Sartain, who
founded the Norman
company Earth Rebirth,
is trying to bring back the
school community garden.
His goal is to have a garden
at every school in Norman
producing food that contributes to the cafeteria.
Sartain found that many
schools had a garden at one
time, started by a passionate teacher or enthusiastic
student. But as the teacher

Prekindergarten student Nike Thrash picks up her hot

lunch tray Aug. 14 at John Rex Elementary School in
Oklahoma City. [PHOTO BY CHRIS LANDSBERGER, THE OKLAHOMAN]

SAMPLE STUDENT LUNCH MENU

Monday: Spaghetti with meat sauce, green
beans, bread sticks
Tuesday: Chicken tenders, mashed potatoes
and 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

moved on or the student

graduated, the garden
was abandoned.
With the support of the
school, the company has
helped build gardens at six
schools. Their most popular project is an aquaponics system at Norman High
School, which is growing
lettuce and squash on top
of a fish tank. The system
was funded by $10,000
they raised on Kickstarter.
To ensure the projects
dont wither and die, Sartain is working to build a
school curriculum around
the gardens. Ideally, science students will conduct biology lessons in
the garden, agriculture

students will help tend the

plants and home economics students will prepare
food with produce, which
would then be sold in the
cafeteria.
Early talks with Sodexo,
the food supplier for Norman High School and
other area schools, have
been promising, Sartain
said.
But they havent yet
gotten
student-grown
food onto their lunch trays.
At least for now, the
enthusiasm is growing.
We were just blown
away by how much the
community really wants
these gardens to take place
at the school, Sartain said.

Traffic: OU athletic department suggests alternate routes

FROM PAGE 1A

Although both exits are still open, the OU athletic

department issued suggested alternate routes to the stadium. For those traveling southbound on Interstate 35,
fans are encouraged to exit earlier onto either U.S. 77 or
Tecumseh Road, or to take Sooner Road instead of the
interstate.
Fans coming from the south, meanwhile, are encouraged to exit in Purcell and travel up U.S. 77 through Noble.
The fact that OUs season opener is a night game, though,
should alleviate at least some of the potential traffic problems because fans are traveling to Norman throughout
the day for tailgating. The bigger problems might present
themselves when the Sooners play at home in the morning
or early afternoon, Norman police Capt. Tom Easley said.
A lot of people like to come in and tailgate and stuff
like that, and we encourage that, because then youre not
waiting until the last minute, Easley said.
Roberts-Ivy stressed that construction on the south
end of Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium
Exit 112

Norman gameday travel map

Franklin

Exit 113

24th Ave. NE

12th Ave. NE Sooner

Porter

Flood

Stadium

NORMAN POLICE CAPT. TOM EASLEY

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Asp

Boyd
Lindsey

A lot of people like to come

in and tailgate and stuff like
that, and we encourage that,
because then youre not
waiting until the last minute.

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Cla
n

e
ss

Primary route
Secondary route
Possible heavy
construction

Robinson
Gray

Berry

24th Ave. SW

Berry

Westheimer
Airport

Jenkins

35

Stubbeman

Rock Creek

Chautauqua

36th Ave. NW

Tecumseh

will have no impact on fans and is completely separate

from 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 has
traveled nearly 200 miles from Alva for OU games the last
10 years, leaving earlier than usual is probably the best
option this season. Mahoney said he usually takes the
Lindsey Street exit but is examining alternate routes to
the stadium this year.
Highway 77 is what Ive been looking at, but I get nervous when I take new routes, Mahoney said.

Imhoff

Imhoff

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