At a time when the state is trying to eliminate trans fats and junk food from school cafeterias, public schools spend thousands of dollars at fast-food restaurants, pizza joints and doughnut shops.

The state’s new nutrition policy eliminates sodas, trans fats and candy from schools in the next few years, but it includes a loophole that allows schools to feed students whatever is convenient anytime outside of “regular school hours” — on field trips, during extracurricular activities or athletic events.

GCDN

Buses line up outside of Whataburger.

Away from regulated cafeterias, school officials often turn to the most convenient or inexpensive places to feed busloads of students, and the places that score highest on price and speed of service score lowest in nutritionists’ grade books.

The nine county school districts each spent an average of $6,500 in the fall semester alone on pizza, hamburgers, french fries, soft drinks, fried chicken and doughnuts, almost all of which contain trans fats. The state’s Department of Agriculture said there is “no known safe level of trans fats in the diet.”

School invoices and receipts reveal that schoolchildren don’t usually get to choose what they eat when the bus pulls up to a fast-food restaurant.

These fast-food field trips could influence students’ eating habits for the rest of their lives, said Pamela Gould, co-author of “Feeding the Kid: The Flexible, No-Battles, Healthy Eating System for the Whole Family.”

Free meals and teaching supplies

Records show Galveston public school district spent enough at Cici’s Pizza to pay for 879 buffet meals in the fall semester, while Dickinson public school district spent enough at McDonald’s to buy 1,660 cheeseburgers. La Marque school district spent enough at Whataburger to purchase 1,367 of the restaurant’s signature hamburgers with cheese, while Clear Creek school district spent enough at Domino’s Pizza to order 284 large one-topping pizzas.

Not all records specify what was actually bought, only how much was spent.

Neither Texas nor California, which have the two most restrictive nutrition policies in the nation, regulate the meals students eat on field trips or during off-campus extracurricular events. Teachers and coaches often turn to fast food restaurants because they are quick, accessible and cheap.

But school invoices reveal that fast-food restaurants also offer enticements for schools to spend money there.

The fast-food restaurants frequented by school districts all accept purchase orders, the preferred payment method for school districts. The restaurants allow schools to open accounts so that teachers and coaches can purchase food immediately, and the restaurants bill the school district later.

Some of the restaurants offer discounts to schools, free meals to coaches and, in one case, free teaching supplies to instructors.

Double Dave’s Pizza, for example, offered Clear Creek school district a 50 percent discount on its signature pepperoni rolls. In return, the district spent $3,061 at the pizza chain in the fall, enough to buy 4,081 pepperoni rolls.

Casey Ellis, marketing director for the pizza company, said individual franchisers determine what sorts of discounts they will offer to school districts.

Cici’s Pizza offers free teaching supplies and field trips to entice schools to bring students to its restaurants. The “Lunch and Learn” field trip includes a mathematics lesson, where schoolchildren measure out ingredients to make their own pizzas, according to the company’s Web site. At the end of the field trip, students are invited to eat their creations, and according to Web site, “The class enjoys the delicious pizza and talks about how they can’t wait to come back!”

Dairy Queen franchisers often offer free fast food and ice cream as awards to students; discounts to high school students; tours of the restaurant as field trips and free meals for coaches. Whataburger, which offers a group dining program for schools, has marketed itself as the fast-food restaurant for postgame meals in a television commercial where a busload of noisy football players is quieted once the coach doles out orange-and-white bags of Whataburger food.

Jami Haney, regional field marketing manager, said the chain sends out mail targeting athletic directors specifically to encourage schools to enroll in the dining program.

“For Whataburger, we like to give back to the communities we serve,” she said. “And through our programs, the schools actually earn incentives for free food. When a group leader comes in, say, like a football coach, the coach eats for free. Whenever a group has 20 or more people, two eat free.”

Trans fats

Almost all of these fast-food restaurants and pizza places still serve food containing trans fats. The Texas Department of Agriculture has asked all schools to eliminate the use of trans fats, found in partially hydrogenated oils, from cafeterias by next year.

But student athletes who eat postgame hamburger meals at Whataburger, with fries and a medium Coke, are swallowing eight grams of trans fats and 1,340 calories — more than half an adult’s recommended caloric intake for an entire day.

Even in restaurants that are trying to phase out trans fats, many menu items remain high in fat, calories and cholesterol. A single slice of Cici’s pepperoni pizza has 175 calories, seven grams of fat and three grams of saturated fat. A spicy chicken breast from Popeyes has 360 calories and 22 grams of fat. A glazed doughnut from Shipley Do-Nuts has 217 calories and 11 grams of fat.

Although some of these restaurants offer lighter menu options, such as salads, students usually don’t get to choose what they eat. For example, after a basketball game, the Santa Fe High School girls team stopped at McDonald’s for 47 large double cheeseburger meals with 47 large Cokes, according to school receipts.

“A lot of times, we don’t special order for a big team gathering,” said Chad Marek, director of finance at Texas City public school district. “The coach is calling ahead of time and ordering 30 Whataburgers with no onions.”

Some schools have travel policies that restrict students from eating anywhere except fast-food restaurants.

Mike Bergman, superintendent of Hitchcock schools, said coaches prefer to eat at fast-food places because the school reimburses them only $6 a student per meal. Texas City and Dickinson public school districts’ travel policies set the reimbursement rate at $5 a student per meal.

If students want a more expensive meal, they have to pay extra out of their own pockets. Sometimes, healthier options at fast food restaurants, such as salads and fruit cups, are more expensive than a burger and fries. Schools pay for traveling students’ meals using student activity accounts, which are funded by fundraisers, or through athletic funds, which are funded by taxpayer money.

“That’s a standard policy in school districts,” Marek said.

Eating habits

Children learn their eating habits from parents and schools, Gould said.

“Any time children are exposed to food, especially when it’s done repeatedly, they form eating habits,” she said. “If Domino’s pizza is always in the school, it gives the message to the children, regardless of what nutritional message the school is trying to send: This is a valid choice.”

When a school condones eating at fast-food restaurants, students begin to believe fast food is an acceptable choice, she said.

“Whatever kids eat is what they get used to,” she said. “School is such a great opportunity to expose them to healthy foods ... It’s an opportunity lost when schools take the easy way out and go to McDonald’s.”

Trans fats cause obesity in children

Children eating foods laced with trans fats face a higher risk of heart attacks and other heart diseases at younger ages, said dietitian Sarah Peek.

Trans fats raise LDL cholesterol, which clogs arteries, while lowering HDL cholesterol, which removes the artery-clogging cholesterol, dramatically increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke, according to the Texas Department of Agriculture.

The federal government in January 2006 required that all food manufactures label trans fats. Although some trans fats occur naturally in beef and dairy, synthetic trans fats are the dangerous kind. Eighty percent of the trans fats Americans consume is from synthetic sources, according to the Texas Department of Agriculture.

Trans fats are created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to turn the oil into a more solid saturated fat. Foods that commonly have trans fats include margarine, fried foods, crackers, candies, baked goods and salad dressings.

Not only do trans fats cause heart disease, they increase a child’s chance of becoming obese, said Peek, a dietitian at The University of Texas Medical Branch. Studies have shown that when trans fats cause people to gain more weight, regardless of caloric intake.

“Trans fats make you hold onto calories and you’re not able to burn them as well,” Peek said.

Under the Texas Nutrition Policy, schools are restricted from selling items that contain more than 23 grams of fat, except one time a week. Peek said the average active teenage boy should consume no more than 69 grams of fat per week and no more than 2,500 calories for the day. Girls and younger kids should consume even less.

A Whataburger, for example, contains 32 grams of fat and 640 calories.

Peek said doctors have already found clogged arteries in kdis because of their poor diets.

Peek said its dangerous to consistently feed children high-calorie, high-fat fast food.

“If you get kids to liking things with trans fats and higher calorie foods, they’ll start to like the foods and like the taste,” she said. “If they’re eating a lot of trans fats, they’re more likely to be overweight. And if you’re obese as a kid, you’re more likely to be obese as an adult.”