Cafeteria Food Scores High in Fifth-Grader's Science Project

Madeline Mayer wondered whether lunches brought from home were as nutritious as those served in her school, Pecan Creek Elementary in Denton.

Her curiosity led to a carefully researched science project that earned Madeline a first-place ribbon during this year's Denton Independent School District Science Fair.

Madeline started her research by finding nutritional standards for school lunches on the Internet.

"I learned that school lunches are based on a weekly average of calories, protein, total fat, saturated fat, calcium, iron, vitamin A and vitamin C," she wrote. "This meant that I would have to average these nutrients in the lunches brought from home the same way the school averages their lunches."

She took pictures of her friends' lunches for two weeks. When she saw many items brought from home were packaged foods, she went to the grocery store to collect nutrition information on those items.

"I made a graph and went around the store and looked at the nutrition label on each item and wrote down how much of each nutrient was in each food," Madeline wrote. "Lunch items that were homemade (like a sandwich) were looked up on the Nutritive Value of Food Guide and added to the graph."

Madeline then entered that information into a computer and created a data table and graphs.

"To determine the results, I compared each nutrient in each averaged lunch type with the standard USDA school lunch requirement. What I discovered proved my hypothesis was correct. School lunches are healthier than lunches brought from home."

She noted while lunches from home often included healthy items, like low-fat yogurt and orange juice, the results indicated protein is the only nutrient high in all the home lunches. Calcium, iron and vitamin A are low in all the lunches brought from home.

Cafeteria meals, by contrast, met or exceeded all of the nutrient requirements.

Madeline said she hopes her study will influence her friends on what they choose to eat for lunch.