Junk food ban garners mixed reactions at Jasper Place High School

By Maxwell Rausch

EDMONTON – A junk food ban in Edmonton’s public schools has received a mixed response from students at Jasper Place High School.

The public school board officially banned junk food from cafeterias on Sept. 1 this year. Elementary and junior high schools have phased out junk food the last few years, so the full brunt of the new policy was felt most strongly this year by high school students.

“I thought it was a great idea,” said Jamie McEwan, Grade 11, who prepares food in the cafeteria as part of her culinary arts class. “How are French fries and gravy and cheese something into learn off of? How is that fuel?”

Grade 12 student Justine Foster echoes McEwan’s sentiment.

“Honestly, it’s probably a good thing. When most people see junk food they just go for it,” says Foster. “If it’s gone, people really have no choice but to eat healthy.”

 

The new menu offers many of the same items, but in healthier versions. Baked potato wedges have replaced deep-fried French fries. The chicken burgers now use grilled chicken breasts instead of breaded patties.

Not all students have embraced the new menu, however. Alison Stevenson, Grade 11, has worked with McEwan in the kitchen for two years.  The line-ups have been much shorter this year, she says.

“Last year, the cafeteria would be flooded, and you could hardly find a place to sit. Now, about half the seats are empty, because they’re at [West Edmonton Mall] or wherever.”

Daniel Cote, Grade 11, says he understands the reasons for the change, but doesn’t approve of the school encroaching on his freedom.

“It does sort of force us to healthy, which could be a good thing,” he says. “I eat healthy anyway, so it doesn’t really affect me. But a lot of my friends just go to the Tim Horton’s down the street.”

Grade 11 student Gabrielle Kovtunenko says she preferred the taste of the less healthy food that was offered before. She now finds herself eating lunch at McDonald’s more often than at school.

“I love junk food,” says Kovtunenko, “The food has changed so much from what we’re used to, so we don’t eat here very much anymore. Not a lot of people do.”

However, the menu at the cafeteria is set to expand, which could improve its popularity in the future. Jasper Place has planted a sustainable permaculture garden to provide ingredients for its kitchen.

Kelly Hobbs, the culinary arts instructor, is proud of the variety of food the school provides for itself. The garden includes onions, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, parsley, lovage (a plant that can be used in salads or in stock), even stinging nettle which is used for a pasta sauce.

“Because we grow so much of our own food, we have a lot of freedom in the things that we can prepare,” says Hobbs.

Board chair Dave Colburn says that data gathered from pilot projects in other districts, including junior high schools in Edmonton, indicates a clear pattern. Cafeteria revenues drop off at first, and then climb back up within a year.

Colburn believes students will ultimately choose the healthier option when it is made more available to them.

“What that tells me is that students initially have a gut response against having their choices limited,” Colburn said. “But if you were to canvass the students a year from now, I think you’d get a much more enthusiastic response.”

As it stands, many students who have given the new food a chance have given positive reviews. Time will tell when and if the remaining students turn over to the healthier choices.