spotlight

Edible Education

School lunches shed their bad reputation to offer nutrition and variety

By Lauren Serge

Photo courtesy of Columbus School for Girls

AFTER YEARS AS the butt of countless jokes, school lunches of late have changed to include more expansive menus providing children from kindergarten through 12th grade with a balanced – and much more tolerable – meal every school day.

According to the USDA, schools are required by law to offer lunches that follow the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. These guidelines outline proper nutritional needs, ensuring that schools provide students with “the right balance of fruits, vegetables, low-fat or fat-free milk, whole grains, and protein foods.”

Emilia Martin is a food operations manager for Sodexo, a hospitality company that provides school lunches for Dublin City Schools. Martin says the school district encourages students to eat fruits and vegetables, and also encourages them to try a variety of new menu items.

“Our menus highlight a lot of different cultural cuisines like Asian ramen bowls and Chinese chopsticks, Mediterranean, Greek, Mexican and Italian themes,” Martin says. “We also offer American classics that are more typical comfort foods like chicken bowls, chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers, mac and cheese, and more.”

The district operates on an “offer vs. serve” basis, Martin says, in which students are not obligated to eat specific foods, but have several options for an array of flavors.

Vanessa Landrum, food services director with SAGE Dining Services for Columbus School for Girls (CSG), says the school also follows set guidelines to ensure nutritional needs are met for its students.

“We create a four-week menu cycle that must meet our team of dietitians’ approval,” Landrum says. “Throughout (my time here), we’ve generally offered more community-favorite foods while continuing to emphasize balanced nutrition.”

The daily offerings include soup, a hot entree with a vegetable and side, and a salad and deli bar, Landrum says.

In addition to ensuring the menu is stocked with nutritionally dense foods, many local schools have expanded menus to accommodate various dietary restrictions and food preferences.

As food sensitivities and preferences have evolved, Martin says, the availability of food options has as well, with districts catering to those specific diets through the inclusion of more expansive options.

“At this time, we offer some basic options that include (gluten-free) breads and chips that can be substituted for sandwiches, salads, etc. Eventually, I plan to have more (glutenfree) hot options that will correspond to our

“I love when parents ask me, ‘How did you get my child to eat Brussels sprouts?’”

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normal menu to make students who need a (gluten-free) diet feel more inclusive,” Martin says. “Vegetarian diets are easier to handle, and most students are able to ask for no meat options at the higher grade levels or pick something without meat.”

When Landrum started at CSG, the primary concern was accommodating glutenfree diets. Now, the focus has shifted to accommodate dairy allergies, and the school is transitioning to a fully peanut- and tree nut-free campus.

“We’re very thorough when it comes to food allergies in the community, so we take several measures to accommodate those with a food allergy,” Landrum says. “Our menus offer such a wide variety of dishes, so we always have something for everyone.”

While dietary restrictions and nutritional guidelines have gotten more complex over the years, schools across the U.S. and here in central Ohio have taken the opportunity to diversify the options for their students, providing them with numerous meal choices to satisfy their hunger.

“We focus on offering a variety of items to accommodate all palates and meet a range of dietary needs,” Landrum says. “My team, along with the CSG community, encourages the students to try new menu items, especially vegetables. I love when parents ask me, ‘How did you get my child to eat Brussels sprouts?’” CS

Lauren Serge is a contributing writer at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.

Still Going Strong

Guided by founders’ vision, the Arnold Sports Festival continues to grow and change after 35 years

By Rachel Karas

Photos courtesy of Arnold Sports Festival

NOW BRINGING UPWARDS of 15,000 athletes from more than 80 countries to Columbus each year, the Arnold Sports Festival is one of the world’s premier athletic events.

It’s come a long way from its late 1980s origins, spearheaded by central Ohio resident Jim Lorimer alongside festival namesake Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Arnold returns to Columbus March 2-5 for its 35th go ’round.

Lorimer died in November at age 96. And though Schwarzenegger has long been a household name in the U.S. and around the world, Lorimer had also made a name for himself prior to the inaugural festival in 1989. In fact, he was well known both across the country and in the world of sports even before meeting Schwarzenegger.

A huge advocate for Title IX and women’s sports, Lorimer founded the Ohio Track Club Girls Team and served as secretary and chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee for Women’s Track & Field in the 1960s. He then helped run several sporting events, including the 1970 world weightlifting championships, at a time when Schwarzenegger was leaving his mark on the sport.

After Lorimer convinced him to compete in the championships, Schwarzenegger won the Mr. Universe title in London, then flew back to Columbus to win the Mr. World title that same year.

Impressed by how well Lorimer ran the championships, Schwarzenegger told him he wanted to partner with him after he was done competing. So when Schwarzenegger completed his final competition in 1975, the two joined forces and began their decades-long partnership.

Over the years, guided by Lorimer and Schwarzenegger, the festival has grown to include an ever-increasing list of new events. Originally known as the Arnold Classic, the festival underwent a name change in 2006 to reflect its vast spectrum of sporting events.

While it originally centered on bodybuilding and strongman/strongwoman competition, the festival now hosts more than 50 sports and other attractions. These events range from arm wrestling and weightlifting to foosball and baton twirling.

On top of that, over the past 12 years, organizers have started additional festivals in South America, Africa, Australia and, most recently, the United Kingdom.

Lorimer stepped down in 2021, with Brian Powers taking over as executive director of the festival. At the time of the transition, the festival was struggling to recover after having to shut down in 2020 due to the pandemic. It has since slowly started to bring back events and competitors.

The Arnold has had quite an impact on not only the bodybuilding community, but also Columbus. According to Experience Columbus, the 2022 festival

welcomed 80,000 unique visitors, only 10,000 of whom were athletes. These visitors generated roughly $20.5 million for the local economy.

With so many people coming in, the festival fills much of the Greater Columbus Convention Center and Ohio Expo Center. In 2019, all 1.7 million square feet of the convention center were used to house booths, stages and practice spaces for the competitors.

In addition to people, the festival also brings international attention, making Columbus more appealing for other sporting events, meetings and conventions.

Those interested in seeing the full schedule or buying tickets for the four-day event can check out the organization’s website at www.arnoldsports.com. CS

Rachel Karas is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at rkaras@cityscenemediagroup.com. Jim Lorimer accomplished many things in his life outside of the world of sports. Before entering the world of bodybuilding, Lorimer attended law school at Penn State University in Carlisle, Pennsylvania before entering the FBI. He also worked for Nationwide Insurance for 37 years and had a large presence in the Worthington community. Over the course of 52 years, Lorimer served as the mayor, vice mayor and a city councilman, and earned the title of Poet Laureate for the speeches he gave at local community events.