Mendy Heaps Answers Her Critics

April 12th, 2010 · 10 Comments · Posted in kids, school food, Wellness

The story of Colorado middle school teacher Mendy Heaps and her crusade for better school food at risk of her job has reverberated around the internet. Some readers have called her a modern folk hero (a Facebook group–Support MENDY HEAPS, and teacher like her! has 358 members), while others say she recklessly pursues an unsavory agenda. After her husband fell ill with cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure,  Heaps began selling fruit and healthy snacks to the students from a “fruit cart.” She bombarded colleagues and school administrators with e-mails, urging an overhaul of the school’s food service. Finally, Heaps was forced to sign a personnel memo written by the school’s principal in which she agreed to cease and desist.  There have been so many comments about the story here and at other internet sites that I thought a follow-up interview with Ms. Heaps was warranted.

Question: Judging from the comments on this blog and elsewhere on the internet, the story about your food campaign at Elizabeth Middle School has stirred up a lot of feelings, good and bad. Any regrets?

Heaps: It certainly has stirred up a lot of feelings!  It’s hard to read some of the negative things folks have to say, but I feel very strongly I’m doing the right thing.  No regrets.

Question: Many readers fault your approach to the food issues at school, saying you seem to have acted as a kind of vigilante and very much outside the system. Do you see yourself that way? Did you ever try talking to the school principle, the officials responsible for food service, the local school board, before launching some of your activities?

Heaps: Vigilante?  Hardly!  The two main reasons I started the fruit cart were – to make a point that kids would buy healthy food if it was offered, and to fill what I saw as a need in our building.

At the very FIRST meeting I had with the principal and the food services director (there were 2 science teachers there too), the food services director insisted the kids wouldn’t buy healthy food.  I knew better because I (the 2 other teachers also) had been offering water and selling apples, peanuts, bananas and other healthy foods in my classroom for a couple of years – simply because kids were thirsty and hungry. (Why would I have offered to sell them anything that wasn’t healthy?) We have many kids who don’t eat breakfast or get hungry mid-morning, and I wanted them to be able to get something nutritious to eat, and it’s very dry in Colorado so I wanted them to have plenty of water to drink too.  Kids become distracted when they are hungry or thirsty.

AND…I can’t emphasize this enough…EVERYONE knew about the fruit cart.  At one point, I even had announcements made over the intercom before school each day telling kids to save their quarters for the fruit cart during Discover time [see below].  Parents, kids, teachers, administrators, food service people – EVERYONE knew about the fruit cart.  When they started delivering the fruit, they carried all the boxes right by the school office.  The delivery truck stopped right in front of the school every Wednesday.  

No one told me to stop until I got the memo from the principal.     

Question: One reader suggested that you might have tried organizing a parent petition for better food at the school. Did you ever consider anything like that—approaching the parents–and do you think it would work?

Heaps: I tried.  I talked to parents who I thought would be supportive but I didn’t get much support.  At parent/teacher conferences I handed out info on nutrition that had some health statistics and some stories about what other schools were doing.  I did get a lot of positive feedback from several parents.  Some of them told me they appreciated the fruit cart and others said the whole family was trying to eat better because of what their kids were learning in science and language arts, but no one stepped up to take this idea further.   

Question: Some parents claim you were shorting their children on language arts by focusing too much on food and health lessons in your classes. Could you explain in more detail how you taught food issues in your classes and how this was not in conflict with your assignment to teach language arts?

Heaps: Contrary to popular belief, there isn’t only one way to teach language arts. 

I graduated from Illinois State University in 1996.  In my college classes I learned to teach language arts within the context of another subject or topic.  I try to immerse the kids in whatever I’m teaching.  If we read a story about a homeless kid, then we research and write about homelessness.  If we read a story or novel about the Vietnam War, then we research and write about the Vietnam War.  A couple of years ago (the anniversary) my students learned all about the Little Rock Nine (and the Civil Rights Movement) when we read Warriors Don’t Cry – a memoir written by one of them (Melba Pattillo Beals). We wrote about it, watched some DVDs, did some research and writing, and completed a big project – a Black History Month Museum for the whole school.  That’s how I teach language arts.  Students learn reading skills, new vocabulary, how to write different kinds of essays, how to research…

When we do the research and writing, we work on grammar.  Kids don’t have to learn grammar from worksheets or grammar books. I do mini-lessons on grammar and parts of speech. I believe they learn grammar best when they write!  Some teachers like worksheets and grammar books.  Good for them – I don’t.  I didn’t learn to teach that way.  I’ve never received negative feedback about my teaching methods until now.  No one has ever come to me directly to complain.  If there were complaints to teachers or the principal or the school board or the superintendent, those issues were never brought to my attention.

I think students need topics to write about.  INTERESTING – RELEVANT – TIMELY – topics.  If other teachers don’t like to teach that way, that’s OK.  I don’t insist anyone teach just like me.  Students are going to have many different kinds of teachers.  We can’t all be alike!

The middle school philosophy encourages integration of subjects.  I was always looking for ways to integrate with other teachers, so when the seventh-grade science teachers approached me about teaching nutrition and body systems with them, I thought it would be great.  The principal even hired subs for us so we could plan this unit on health and nutrition together at school.  I found a teachers book called Planet Health that was full of lessons developed by the Harvard University School of Public Health. I used the lessons created for language arts.  The lessons included reading news articles, creating graphic organizers, vocabulary, keeping a food journal, writing a fable, and reading charts and graphs.  The kids seemed interested and it was a very timely topic.  I found some great DVDs to use, shared some newspaper articles I found and if I saw something on the evening news or TV I shared that too. 

To me, that’s how you teach language arts.  You read, you think, you write.  And while you are doing all that…you see grammar, you use grammar, you learn grammar.  I don’t criticize teachers who use worksheets.  But I don’t like worksheets!  If the principal or district curriculum director comes to me and tells me to use more worksheets when you teach, teach more grammar, or stop teaching language arts with other subjects, then I will.  

May I also point out that at no time during any of this has anyone ever requested to see the lesson plans I used for the unit on health and nutrition I was teaching.  I made sure all my lessons were aligned with the Colorado Reading and Writing Standards, but no one ever bothered to check with me. No parents ever came and sat in on my classes. No administrator ever came to sit in my class and watch what was going on or look at my plans. 

Also, if I was “scaring” your child, “calling them out in class,” wouldn’t you come to see me and find out what was actually going on? Isn’t this something you would at least approach the principal about until you felt it was taken care of?  If you really thought your child wasn’t learning anything, wouldn’t you come to school and see for yourself?  

There is also another seventh-grade language arts teacher.  Parents have choices.  You can request another teacher for your child if you’re not happy. Wouldn’t someone have done that if my teaching methods were so awful?  

Question: Please explain how the “fruit cart” started. Did you ever ask permission from the principal to sell fruits and snacks in the school? Are you required to have a food vendor’s license for this?

Heaps: No one ever mentioned to me that I might need a vendor’s license.  

I felt part of the reason I was so successful selling good food was because I had ONLY good choices.  I didn’t have chips or cookies or ice cream.  The kids could only buy healthy items. I wanted to show that kids WILL buy what’s good for them if that’s all that is offered.  If they are hungry and have to choose between a choco-taco and an apple they are probably going to choose the choco-taco.  BUT…if they are hungry and have to choose between an apple or a pear or a banana, then they’ll choose something good.  That’s what I wanted to show people.  I kept thinking someone would notice, but no one other than the kids and teachers seemed to care about the fruit cart.  I always felt that the principal and assistant principal thought it was a joke. They never took it seriously like I’d hoped they would.  

 Another reason I started the fruit cart was because I had so many kids from other classrooms (with their teacher’s permission) coming to my room to buy food – especially during the last class of the day which is called Discover.  Discover class is an “explore” time.  Different types of classes are offered – orchestra and jazz band and classes like Ancient Egypt, Tai Bo or some type of remediation or enrichment class.  It is a very informal class, it’s not graded, and teachers determine what they want to teach.  That’s when the fruit cart went about its business – during Discover time.  I had student volunteers take it from classroom to classroom and it also stopped in the office.

I was not secretly doing anything! Some people seem to think I was cloaked in black, running around the building, secretly going from room to room with fruit…all the while hiding from the boss.  

I suggested the cafeteria keep a window open during the day to sell fruit so I could stop doing it. But no one that had the power made that happen.  So I just kept buying fruit and putting it on the cart.

I don’t think I ever asked or got permission.  I saw what I was doing as something good.  Everyone knew kids were coming to my room for food, so I decided to take the food to them.

Question: What made you think you might be fired if you did not sign the personnel memo presented to you by the school’s principal and that the local teachers union would not protect you? Had you ever been cited for performance issues in your job prior to this?

Heaps: I have never been cited for performance issues.  My teacher observations reports have always been great.  I’m not a trouble maker.  Am I perfect?  Heck, no.  I make mistakes but I am always trying to become a better teacher.  Do all the kids adore me?  No way!  But I have never done anything to intentionally hurt a student.  I don’t think I’d still be teaching (it’s been 12 years now) if I was doing anything that harmed students. 

The last directive on the memo says something to the effect of…If you don’t sign this, you will face further disciplinary actions.  What would YOU think?   What sort of disciplinary actions do teachers face besides being fired?  Should I have asked…could you be more specific on that last directive so I can decide whether or not to sign this right now?  I thought if I didn’t sign the memo, I would be fired. 

The teachers in Elizabeth C-1 do not have a master contract with the school board.  There is no union bargaining unit (that I am aware of).  Colorado is an “employment at will” state and no one in our district seems to know exactly what might cause a teacher to be terminated.  We get tenure after three years, but I’ve never seen anything in writing to explain how much that protects us. 

Question: It’s been pointed out that the cafeteria offers a robust salad bar. At one point, you said that only students who purchase the subsidized lunch are entitled to eat from the salad bar, and that this actually is a small number of students. Is this still the case, and has the food offered at Elizabeth Middle School changed much, in your view, from what it was when you started your campaign?

Heaps: Students who opt for the deli line now get the salad bar and that’s great.  I see the kids eating some new items that don’t look too bad.  The salad bar has its good days and bad – that’s what the teachers who eat it tell me. So I don’t know if “robust” is always the best adjective.  I also don’t know how many kids actually eat a salad every day with their meal.  But it’s a salad bar and it’s there. I still see lots of mashed potatoes, corn, chicken “products,” nachos and “healthy” fries.    

I don’t know what the numbers are this year, but I still have the numbers that I collected last year when I observed in the cafeteria. My numbers showed that very few kids were eating the USDA hot lunch. Many more kids were eating from the Deli and the Grab and Go, and quite a few were bringing lunch from home. 

There is also some kind of fruit offered every day in the cafeteria this year, but I don’t think many kids eat it because they want to buy the junk food instead. We still have the Grab and Go window where they offer things like baked Cheetos, Clodhoppers, Fruit Roll-ups, packaged muffins, ice cream cups, etc.  Everything is portion and calorie controlled and that’s good, but there are better choices they could be offereing.  If you’re a kid and you get to CHOOSE between some baked Cheetos, or an Otis Spunkmeyer Chocolate Muffin, or an ice cream sandwich or an apple, what are you probably going to choose? 

What’s wrong with only having fruit and veggies and nuts and healthy food? When I sold snacks in my room, kids never complained that there weren’t any Cheetos or ice cream.  They bought what I had because they were hungry. 

I try to get my students to think about eating a 90% – 10% diet.  If you eat the best you can 90% of the time, then maybe once in a while, 10% of the time, you can goof off.  Why is it so radical to only offer good, nutritional choices at school?  We have a very good opportunity to help kids develop a taste for healthy food.  I guess because I know what’s going on in some other schools, I have high expectations for what we should be able to do.

After I received the memo, I requested an executive session with the school board because I felt like the memo was unfair (late May 2009).  At that meeting, the principal and I both explained our interpretation of the memo to the board.  As far as I was concerned, there was no real resolution except for another meeting…

In June of 2009 I met again with one of the school board members (whose term has since expired), the food services director, the principal, the district financial director, and another teacher (for support) to discuss lunches.  As a result of that meeting, it was decided that I would get to “pick” three things from the grab and go window that would not be served in 2010, and I was supposed to have a place on the next Wellness Committee that was formed.  One of the items I picked to be taken from the grab and go window reappeared  right away – Fruit Roll-ups – and I was NOT asked to be on the Wellness Committee formed just a couple of months ago. 

When the school year began in 2009, I was hopeful something would change. We had a new superintendent and I met with him to discuss the memo and voice my concerns about the lunches and the Grab and Go window.  The message I received was that the parents and kids are really our consumers and they dictate what is sold in the cafeteria. I was extremely disappointed.  After my final meeting with the superintendent, I wrote the principal a letter conceding defeat.  I was beginning to think maybe I was expecting too much.

But when the Fruit roll-ups reappeared and I was not asked to be on the Wellness Committee, I felt all my efforts were again being ignored.  I was still seeing an extraordinary amount of junk food and when I saw one of my overweight students with a lunch that was chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, goldfish crackers and corn, I was reinvigorated to bring this situation to the forefront again. 

It seems everyday we are becoming more aware of the deficiencies in our school lunch programs.  The Child Nutrition Act is up for reauthorization by Congress.  Now is the time to make positive changes. 

Question: Is there anything else you would like to say to readers?

Heaps: If I don’t do something who will?  “Mrs. Q.” [an Illinois teacher who anonymously writes the Fed Up Wit School Lunch blog] is one smart cookie (pardon the pun) to remain anonymous, but my situation doesn’t allow that.  I realize I’m opening myself up to all kinds of criticism.  A lot of people won’t understand, but maybe I’ll inspire many others to do something to help.  We will all suffer if this problem isn’t solved.  Actually we’ve been suffering!  We’ve all heard the rising statistics on health-related illnesses and obesity.  We know the problem. We know some solutions.  

I realize changing school lunches isn’t the only solution to all of our health-related problems in the United States, but as an institution of learning we should be doing what we can to educate children about making good choices that will affect them the rest of their life.   

I can’t tell you how many letters I’ve written to every person and organization I could think of.  Ed, I appreciate you telling my story when no one else seemed to care.  To you I am very grateful.  I’ve gotten emails from all over the country showing support.  That’s wonderful too. My family and friends have been awesome. All of this has made me realize how much is going on out there to change things.

NBC Nightly News had a segment one evening about a urologist who found that kids are getting kidney stones at a rate two to three times what it used to be.  He believed it was because of drinks like soda and Gatorade.  Gatorade was created for athletes who sweat under extraordinary physical exercise.  The doctor in the story said kids should only drink Gatorade if they are sweating and even then, only if they sweat for hours at a time.  Water was his choice for kids because their kidneys can’t handle all the extra additives they put in the Gatorade – that’s why it causes the kidney stones.

I had been noticing that my students were drinking a lot of Gatorade   They could buy it at lunch and many of them were drinking it all day.  I shared with them the news segment – it was probably three or four minutes at the most.  I remember saying to them – just think about this.  Do you really think Gatorade is something people who aren’t sweating should be drinking? 

I told them about Mr. Bob Heaps who had a very excruciatingly painful, middle-of-the-night kidney stone and I didn’t want any of them to have to go through THAT!

I also found out that day three of my students had already had kidney stones and two of them already had gallbladder problems!!!  THAT WAS SCARY. 

As much as I try to make my lessons unbiased, a student may misinterpret the message.  When kids take that misinterpreted message home, their parents usually call me and we talk and get it straightened out.  I doubt there is a teacher who has never had this experience.  No one ever called me to talk about the kidney stone story.

Something else I told kids was that just because you’re thin, doesn’t mean you’re healthy.  Lots of adults and parents assume because they or their kids aren’t fat…they are healthy.  I know lots of thin people with Type II Diabetes, and who have had heart attacks, and who have high blood pressure.  I think we concentrate too much on obesity – on what people and kids look like. 

Obesity is a serious problem, but just because you or your kids are thin, that doesn’t mean you are healthy or you will stay healthy if you never learn to eat right.  Many of my kids tell me…I can eat all the junk food I want and I never get fat, so it must be OK.  It’s not.  My husband…the cancer survivor and diabetic with high blood pressure…was never overweight, but obviously he was sick.  

I believe we should be concerned for the health of all children.  To those who say…My kids are healthy and well fed and get plenty of exercise at home, so I don’t think they should have to learn about health and nutrition at school…what about the kids who aren’t so lucky?  Our health teachers informed me that they have only three or four days to teach nutrition in depth in their health classes.  They were happy I was doing the unit!