By Bryan Thompson

School lunch has long been a target of jokes. Those jokes turned to complaints from students and parents alike in 2012 when new congressionally mandated nutrition standards took effect.

Since it was established 70 years ago, the national school lunch program has required the federally assisted meals to be nutritionally balanced. The revisions that went into effect in 2012 were the first major changes in 15 years. Based on recommendations from the Institute of Medicine and the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, they were intended to help stem the growing problem of childhood obesity.

The new rules mandated a greater emphasis on fruits, vegetables and whole grains — and less salt, saturated fat and trans fats. They also emphasized portion sizes and calorie counts designed to maintain a healthy weight.

In response, students at Wallace County High School in Sharon Springs, with the help of some of the school staff, produced a music video parody that quickly went viral. The video portrayed student athletes collapsing from hunger.

Elaine Fischer heads the school nutrition program in the small northwest Kansas town. She sympathizes with the students’ complaints, but only to a point.

Fischer plans meals carefully to give teens the calories they need to pay attention in the classroom and push themselves in sports — even after some start the day with chores on the farm.

“We serve them enough here that, if they take everything off of our main line, and then they have access to the fresh vegetables and the fruit and stuff off the garden bar, they shouldn’t be hungry,” she said.

The students must have come to the same conclusion, Fischer said, because the controversy has died.

Everyday nutrition lessons

Three hours to the south, at Liberal High School, students haven’t produced any protest videos. But they’re also not ready to give their cafeteria a five-star rating.

During a recent lunch period, the hot lunch included five chicken nuggets, a serving of potatoes and gravy, a whole wheat roll and milk. But the cafeteria also offered a salad bar stocked with a colorful variety of fresh vegetables and a prepared fruit salad of strawberries and bananas.

The salad bar is available every day, and students are allowed to take as much as they like of anything on it. One young man put everything from the hot line into the large compartment of his food tray. The other four sections were overflowing with strawberries and bananas.

But some kids, like wrestler Chris Boman, would rather have less from the salad bar and more from the hot line.

“It’s great that we can get as much as we care on vegetables and fruits and stuff, but I guess me personally, I like to have a little more meat and stuff,” Boman said.

Across the table, football player Jesse Navarrete — who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 280 pounds — said he doesn’t always get enough to eat.

“Sometimes I do get filled up by it, but sometimes if I don’t like it then I just eat the main course or a side,” Navarrete said.

It’s not just hulking defensive linemen who complain about not getting enough to eat. Bailey Crosier is on the golf team. She’s less than half Navarrete’s size, but her complaint is similar.

“Like, there’s no flavor or anything, and, like, I feel there’s not enough food,” Crosier said.

Likewise, Shay Wiltshire said she brings snacks from home to supplement her lunch. Otherwise, she’d be hungry at basketball practice. And she thinks the flavor of the meals suffered when the new standards went into effect.

“It was nasty. It just didn’t taste as good,” Wiltshire said.

Connie Vogts, nutrition services director at Liberal High School, suspects the complaints about flavor are probably mostly due to the reduction in salt. She takes critical reviews like these in stride.

“It always amuses me to hear the kids say the food is nasty,” Vogts said. “But you look down at clean plates. So what does that tell you?”

It tells Vogts that, while it may not be McDonald’s or Pizza Hut, the food is acceptable.

“Our goal is to teach kids healthy eating habits, to put nutritious food in front of them, and hopefully if you put it in front of them day after day, you know, they learn to respect and appreciate what healthy and nutritious food is,” she said.

Breakfast on the go

Vogts isn’t just any school nutrition director. She’s one of a handful recognized by two national foundations for her innovative approach to getting students to eat healthier.

Stephanie Scarmo is the lead researcher for a school nutrition project funded by Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She said Vogts was recognized for a program she launched two years ago called Second Chance Breakfast. It operates from a kiosk in the commons area between the first and second class periods.

“As the bell rings and kids get out of class, they can grab a healthy breakfast and take it to their next classroom,” Scarmo said. “And she told us during her participation in our expert panel that she’s able to serve over 400 kids in five minutes with this type of grab-and-go option.”

Eating breakfast improves academic performance, according to Cheryl Johnson, who oversees nutrition and wellness programs for the Kansas State Department of Education.

“When the students eat breakfast then the calories in the lunch, it fills them up because they’ve had breakfast,” she said.

Johnson said when she visits school cafeterias across the state, she sees kids — especially the younger ones — eating more fruits and vegetables, but the amount of food thrown away has not increased. Those are signs, she said, that the changes that sparked so much controversy in the beginning are now working without much fanfare.

Bryan Thompson is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

SALINE COUNTY – A Salina man died in an accident just before 8p.m. Saturday in Saline County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2012 Volvo passenger car driven by Jose A. Torres-Rodriguez, Junction City, was eastbound on Interstate 70 three miles west of Solomon.

The driver was attempting to avoid an accident that was in the left hand lane and struck a 1993 Jeep SUV from behind.

The Jeep was unoccupied and disabled in the right lane. The owner Kelly J. Turner, 61, Salina, was outside of the vehicle when it was hit.

Turner died at the scene and was transported Carlson-Geisendorf Funeral Home.

Torres-Rodriguez and a passenger Victoria G. Torres, 59, Junction City, were transported to Salina Regional Medical Center.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Police in Topeka say a man found dead in his home was the victim of a homicide.

Officers were called to a central Topeka home before 8 p.m. Friday for an unresponsive man. Police say 52-year-old Mark Everett Johnson was dead when officers arrived.

Police say it appears that Johnson died of blunt force trauma.

No arrests have been made and police are asking anyone with information to come forward.

LEAVENWORTH COUNTY -A Kansas prison escapee learned this week he will have to serve another ten years, in addition to the 128 years he’ll serve in Missouri for crimes committed while he was on the run.

Scott Gilbert, 53, was sentenced to 130 months for his aggravated escape from custody from the Lansing Correctional Facility on May 10, 2013, according to Todd Thompson, Leavenworth County Attorney.

Gilbert had already been convicted of 79 cases, including the ten from last year’s case in Platte County, Missouri.

Thompson says Gilbert acted as his own lawyer, had nothing to say about sentencing, and only made sure he could file an appeal.

Earlier this month a judge found him guilty of an aggravated escape from custody after a bench trial.

Gilbert was previously convicted and sentenced to 128 years in Platte County, Missouri for crimes relating to this escape.

Gilbert was sentenced last year on 10 felonies including firing at a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. A jury there convicted him after a two week trial.

In 2010, Gilbert was convicted in Sedgwick County for burglary and theft and was serving time at the Lansing Correctional Facility.

He along with two others escaped the Lansing Facility on May 5, 2013. Randy Riddens previously pleaded guilty as charged to this same aggravated escape. Riddens received 122 months sentence for the escape. Allen Hurst still awaits trial.

SHAWNEE COUNTY – A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper was injured in a 3 vehicle accident just after 2p.m. on Saturday in Shawnee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Volkswagen Beetle driven by Suvana Badgett, 19, Valley Falls,

was eastbound on I-70 seven miles west of Topeka.

A KHP patrol Dodge Charger was legally parked on the left shoulder, partially in the grassy median, with all emergency lights activated.

Badgett lost control of the Volkswagen. It left the roadway, struck the legally parked Dodge Charger and an unoccupied 2003 Chevy Impala, which was disabled in the grassy median due to a previous crash.

The KHP Trooper Scott Moses, 29, was sitting in the front passenger seat of the patrol vehicle.

Moses was transported to a hospital in Topeka.

Badgett was not injured.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper has been treated for injuries after his vehicle was involved in an accident on Interstate 70.

The accident happened Saturday afternoon near Topeka as a wintry mix was making roads slick, but it wasn’t immediately clear if the accident was weather-related.

Few details have been released but emergency responders say the trooper’s injuries did not appear to be severe, and he was able to enter an ambulance without assistance. He was taken to a Topeka hospital for treatment.

Several accidents were reported across the state, many of them related to freezing drizzle and snow.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Pat and Dan Krug’s granddaughters call their house “Santaland” at Christmastime, and for good reason: Their Topeka home is decorated with more than 200 Santa Claus figures.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the Krugs keep many of the Santas that go up starting Nov. 1 arranged on cotton snow on shelving, while others are on walls, cabinets, even a half dozen behind a couch.

There’s a Santa in a sleigh, Santa in a house, Santa with gifts, Santa with a candle, and many more variations of Jolly Old St. Nick.

Pat Krug says the hobby began 35 years ago when her parents gave her two large animatronic figures. Since then she’s been collecting Santas of all shapes and sizes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — CarMax Inc. and two other used-car retailers have settled complaints from federal regulators that they touted their inspections in advertising but failed to disclose that some of the vehicles were under safety recalls and unrepaired.

The Federal Trade Commission on Friday announced the agreements with CarMax, the largest U.S. used-car dealer, Asbury Automotive Group and West-Herr Automotive Group.

The agency also finalized agreements in similar cases with General Motors Co. and two other retailers.

Under the FTC’s proposed consent orders, which are open to public comment through Jan. 17, CarMax, Asbury and West-Herr can’t claim that used vehicles are safe unless recall repairs are made or open recalls are disclosed.