School Lunch
Posted on September 29th, 2006 By ljrobinson at 2:14 pm (All)
I found this great little cartoon through Aidan Brook’s (of the United Kingdom) blog. He has an entry on “Jamie’s School Dinners” (school lunches to we Americans). It got me wondering if there is a similar program in the US trying to improve school lunches. I haven’t found one yet. Probably in the US it is a state by state endeavor. So, I tried to read the USDA standards on school lunches (which is what Michigan uses - some more progressive states have upped the standards on their own) and found it nearly impossible to navigate. And almost everything in their PDF on the regulations is worded in such a way as to not be enforcable. Statements like, “schools are encouraged to…” “It is recommended that…” “Depending on what method of…” Why have standards at all? I now feel completely justified in driving a forgotten sack lunch over to the school when my kids forget it on the counter (or bathroom floor as the case may be).
And then of course there are the alternative choices (I won’t even go into what they are an alternative to) the school insists on giving the students. Like every kind of Little Debbie snack cake you can imagine, ice cream, chips, and of course, the 2 (because one isn’t enough) Coke machines that are the first thing the middle school children encounter on their way into the lunch dungeon room. Lest I seem too harsh in my judgements, the middle school, who apparently whores out 12-15 year olds to the Coca-Cola Corporation, did get a grant to have a “healthy” snack machine in the building. The healthy snack choices are apparently high fructose corn syrup laden juices (okay, I’m assuming on this one), Combos, and mealy apples bruised on their way out of the machine. Of course, it’s no where near the lunch room which I’m sure is courtesy of the contract the school system has with the fine people at Coke (perhaps local parents should be more concerned with the contracts that the school DOES have rather than the one they don’t have with the teachers).
So, anyway, I love the cartoon. It’s clever and entertaining while being educational and the activities that the USDA offers to help educate children on nutrition pale in comparison. If anyone knows of a similar program in Michigan I’d love to hear about it.
scott said,
September 29, 2006 at 8:18 pm
Not only are the schools preparring children for the Industrial Revolution, they’re getting them off to a good start for type 2 diabetes. I say we forge the kids’ papers and have them work at McDonald’s right now. They can get their GEDs when they turn 18… right?
Barb! said,
September 30, 2006 at 6:51 pm
speaking of whoring out, purdue also sold its soul to coke…i had to go over to the school club office to get some forms signed for our callout and the lady sat there and asked us what type of refreshments we served. she wouldn’t sign the paper until she told us that we could serve drinks as long as they were drinks from coca- cola, right down to the water.
anyway, school lunches. i think most states are behind on this one. i remember in high school they promised the parents that they were going to have one healthy line out of the three lunch lines, one line would serve weight watcher type food. well, that fell through and we ended up with even more fried food to choose from. i never ate school lunch, but i think its horrible for those kids who have to because they are free lunch for example…
lacy said,
October 3, 2006 at 11:14 am
Isn’t it AWESOME that the coke machines are “provided” but they have to get a grant for the “healthy” food? There are a few “programs” out there, but they are few, far between, underfunded and underutilized.
Rebecca said,
October 3, 2006 at 5:05 pm
As far as the coke machines being “provided” - you can thank your healthy snack providers for that. Coke’s not to blame for the fact that you can basically get their machines for free if you stock them yourself - the healthy alternative people could do the same thing. They choose not to. We fought this fight in our jr/sr high school.
My kids have been eating hot lunch as long as they’ve been in school. I’ve never felt like the lunches were totally horrible. They’ve started doing carrot and celery in place of french fries and offer vegetarian meals…of course, cheese quesadillas are not always everyone’s opinion of healthy. ;)
The schools can only be blamed so much for the obesity and general malnutrition of our youth. Nevermind the shit they eat at home and the fact that most kids sit in front of a TV either watching or playing video games or IM’ing their friends.
I think the local parents should be more concerned with the lack of funding for education in general, which includes the spending on lunches. Healthy food costs more. It’s a fact. It’s why you can get Ramen noodles 8/$1.00 and red peppers are $3.99/pound. It costs more to get competent people to prepare healthy food, but try to squeeze more money out of a school budget for cooks when you can’t even pay your teachers what they’re worth or get an aide for overpopulated classrooms or additional funding for the title one program which is continually cut.
I guess I have a lot to say on the subject…
ljrobinson said,
October 3, 2006 at 8:16 pm
First of all, not only does Coke provide the Coke machines to MANY schools and show up FATHFULLY to keep them stocked, the schools get a big fat kick back in return. If the school was stocking the machine on their own they could put what they want in them.
Secondly, I would be thrilled if my kids were offered a cheese quesadilla with actual cheese on it. Perhaps your school system offers better options than mine. If my kids ate school lunch here they would essentially be eating the greasiest cheese pizza I’ve ever seen everyday. They certainly don’t have a vegetarian option and french fries are definitely still on the menu.
Third, I don’t think that I pinned blame for obese children on anyone. I personally blame the fact that high fructose corn syrup has made it’s way into EVERY even remotely processed food that we eat. I’m amazed at the amount of work it is to keep it out of my grocery cart.
Lastly, money spent on getting actual, whole, healthy food into the kids would give the system a lot of bang for their buck. Money for education seems to be based on standardized test scores and the student body’s performance on said tests. There is a known link between what a child eats and their ability to perform in school as well as their ability to behave. So, it seems it would follow that providing healthy meals would actually be seen as an investment rather than something to think of as a luxury
Speaking of luxuries, I think comparing ramen noodles to red bell peppers is an unfair analogy that overstates your point.
Rebecca said,
October 4, 2006 at 9:10 am
You’re speaking from your experience, I’m speaking from mine. We do stock our coke machine, and we stock it with lemonade and water options as well as soda. It’s also turned off for most of the day and only available to kids after school. The only kickback we see is the fact that coke, when bought by the case, does not cost 50 cents per can. It was the same when I was an instructor in Anderson - the pop machines were located in the band room. We stocked them, we kept the profits. They were open before and after school…that was it.
I agree feeding the kids better makes them smarter. But try explaining that to a corporation that doesn’t even understand that smaller class sizes in the elementary levels reduces the cost of special education expenses and reduces the drop out rate in the middle and high school levels. And I’m now proud to say that I live in the state known nation-wide as drop-out central.
The entire education system is out of whack. I listened to teachers at the PTA meeting last night who spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars of their own money for basic things for their classrooms. The laminator is out of whatever it is it needs to laminate and we can’t afford any more until December. DECEMBER. We received $168,000 for a title I program that is basically non-existent. Where is the money going? The classrooms are overpopulated and underfunded. I’ve been at this for 2 years now, fighting with the school board and state legislation. My priority is the classroom sizes and title I…your beef (pardon my pun) right now is the lunchroom. We’ll come at them from both angles and hopefully one day one of us will make a change.
ljrobinson said,
October 4, 2006 at 12:49 pm
I have a lot of opinions about where your concerns lie, and I think that your concerns are all valid. I just don’t think what kids eat should get in line behind those issues. It’s vital. It’s step one to the school solution (in my very strongly held opinion).
If I had a blog that was about education I might address those other issues. For instance, why the hell is a laminator so important anyway? What vital educational opportunity will my child miss because the school doesn’t have a working laminator? And what the hell did they do with all of that money?? (The fact that this question needs to be raised leads me to believe that throwing more money at schools is not the answer to the problem). Since my blog is mostly about our experience with raising our own food the lunch topic seemed appropriate.
My solution to the lunch problem is to send my kids to school with a lunch made at home.