IT is unbelievable that schools in this country turned to fast food offerings. When did this start happening? It was not like this before. Same at universities. Fast food concessions. Truly disgusting that in these spaces of learning healthy eating is not taught.It is cultural. School districts have allowed fast food interests to take over and abdicated their responsibility. I think now it may be too late. Generations of students and kids have already "acculturated" their food preferences and taste buds to this trashy cheap food. Same with sports. Most schools do not take physical education seriously. And 20 minutes for lunch, time to eat slowly and socialize with friends, is so counterproductive. I'm just very glad I did not go to school in these times.
32
“This is an obesity crisis,’’ she said, “and we’ve gotten rid of health classes and P.E., so we’re back to the lunch lady and the tray.” I laude any attempt to provide healthier school lunches but, if the kids eat nothing but junk at home, what do you expect. Wonder what adults would do if all they got to eat at restaurants was whole grain, low-fat, low salt, processed gook. Bet a lot of restaurants would be going out of business. There has to be a middle way but begin with getting rid of processed foods completely and add a bit of salt to make stuff edible.
16
Why low fat? Because now-discredited nutritional wisdom once said to eat low-fat? Restore the fats and add a little salt and let's see if the kids start eating.
37
When I started teaching in San Antonio 16 years ago, all meals were made from scratch in my district (there are multiple districts in San Antonio). The food was delicious and the my elementary students ate with gusto.
Fast-forward. Now in the corrupt Dallas ISD with the added new food regulations, the food is disgusting. Kids throw almost everything away. Most food is heated in a plastic bag. The bag may or may not be removed before serving the kids.
Vendors are making a killing. Kids are hungry. Give them turkey sandwiches made fresh, chips, a cookie and fruits kids like (bananas and grapes).
Fast-forward. Now in the corrupt Dallas ISD with the added new food regulations, the food is disgusting. Kids throw almost everything away. Most food is heated in a plastic bag. The bag may or may not be removed before serving the kids.
Vendors are making a killing. Kids are hungry. Give them turkey sandwiches made fresh, chips, a cookie and fruits kids like (bananas and grapes).
50
That delicious 4-course French lunch is made from real, fresh ingredients. I'm sure it costs much more to prepare in terms of labor and ingredients than what's found in American school cafeterias. The French have wisely chosen to spend their tax money on feeding school children well.
In contrast, most American school cafeterias are simply warming stations, with ovens and microwaves only used to heat up pre-made "food." There is very little real cooking going on. School systems can't afford real cooks or fresh ingredients and American taxpayers have made it clear that they are not willing to pay what would be needed to provide edible, nutritious meals to "other people's children."
In contrast, most American school cafeterias are simply warming stations, with ovens and microwaves only used to heat up pre-made "food." There is very little real cooking going on. School systems can't afford real cooks or fresh ingredients and American taxpayers have made it clear that they are not willing to pay what would be needed to provide edible, nutritious meals to "other people's children."
42
When this was implemented in 2022, spearheaded by Michelle Obama, I thought pc had gotten out of control. We even had kids in ga that had their lunch from home taken because it didn't meet the standards for healthy - peanut butter and jam, not allowed. Seriously? A parent can't decide?
Then came tweets and instagrams of pictures of these mandated government meals. Yikes. They were gross! I wouldn't eat them, why should the kids be forced to? What makes Obama think she has the right to dictate what kids eat?
Stupid. And does nothing to stop obesity. How about bringing back recess or gym? Regardless, this was another stupid over reach by liberals. Never looking at root cause, just think they know what is good for you and will make you conform. What happened to the democratic party?
Then came tweets and instagrams of pictures of these mandated government meals. Yikes. They were gross! I wouldn't eat them, why should the kids be forced to? What makes Obama think she has the right to dictate what kids eat?
Stupid. And does nothing to stop obesity. How about bringing back recess or gym? Regardless, this was another stupid over reach by liberals. Never looking at root cause, just think they know what is good for you and will make you conform. What happened to the democratic party?
17
I was once a child who trundled through a school cafeteria line every week day, so I know that most students wouldn't know a "good" school lunch if it slapped them in the face.
Children in America are taught to eat garbage by their parents. Pizza is NOT junk food...if you make it the way they make it in Sicily. Pizza with a thick crust, stuffed with generic flavor-less gooey cheese, and wrapped with bacon, IS junk food.
Although the food my parents made when I was a child (my father also cooked on the weekends) was okay, i.e., it could have been worse. But my parents grew up on farms eating canned vegetables from their parents' garden, so I literally didn't each fresh vegetables until I left home. I now love fresh and lightly-cooked asparagus and spinach. I hated what I got at home.
I didn't realize what "good" lunch was until I lived in the dorms and had to eat in the cafeteria...and started to have the smarts to start analyzing the world. Soon I was eating nothing but huge amounts of salads...because I concluded that "chicken fried unidentified" wasn't probably something I should be eating. Then I moved off campus and started to learn how to cook. Perhaps students need to start learning to cook their own lunches.
Children in America are taught to eat garbage by their parents. Pizza is NOT junk food...if you make it the way they make it in Sicily. Pizza with a thick crust, stuffed with generic flavor-less gooey cheese, and wrapped with bacon, IS junk food.
Although the food my parents made when I was a child (my father also cooked on the weekends) was okay, i.e., it could have been worse. But my parents grew up on farms eating canned vegetables from their parents' garden, so I literally didn't each fresh vegetables until I left home. I now love fresh and lightly-cooked asparagus and spinach. I hated what I got at home.
I didn't realize what "good" lunch was until I lived in the dorms and had to eat in the cafeteria...and started to have the smarts to start analyzing the world. Soon I was eating nothing but huge amounts of salads...because I concluded that "chicken fried unidentified" wasn't probably something I should be eating. Then I moved off campus and started to learn how to cook. Perhaps students need to start learning to cook their own lunches.
17
The nutrition part of education has not been abdicated by the schools. This is another area that belongs at home. This thinking is just another example of forcing the institution to do the jobs that parents won't do. Unless this changes drastically, the culture continues to suffer.
9
Just serve noddle bowls 5 days a week with the students being able to choose what protein and vegetables to add.
I always thought the folly of school lunches was, first, they tried to bring different menus every day (which is not necessarily the healthiest thing -- I believe the body likes regularity of foods, not different foods every day), and second, the meals tried to replicate some mid-century model of a 3 or 4 course plate.
The result was an overstressed kitchen and kitchen budget, and bad simulations of some idealized but impractical model of what a "meal" is supposed to look like.
Noodle bowls, in contrast, are low-preparation, fresh, and pretty much impossible to mess up,even on cheap kitchen budgets.
I always thought the folly of school lunches was, first, they tried to bring different menus every day (which is not necessarily the healthiest thing -- I believe the body likes regularity of foods, not different foods every day), and second, the meals tried to replicate some mid-century model of a 3 or 4 course plate.
The result was an overstressed kitchen and kitchen budget, and bad simulations of some idealized but impractical model of what a "meal" is supposed to look like.
Noodle bowls, in contrast, are low-preparation, fresh, and pretty much impossible to mess up,even on cheap kitchen budgets.
21
A pathetic, abject failure on the part of a Democratic administration that thinks that we can social engineer people's values through government fiat. Look really closely at this program, folks. If Democrats and other Socialists get their way, we'll ALL be eating like this...never mind the broader impact on society that these ideologues would foist upon people. Pathetic.
12
These regulations may not be perfect but they are a step in the right direction. Now congress needs to do their job and improve the regulations without gutting them. We need to recognize that reform is rarely perfect on its first pass, and you have to implement things and then work out the issues. It is short sighted to think that if a reform is 100% embraced when implemented, it is bad and we should return to the old way.
100% whole grain, extreme low fat and very low salt may go to far, but they are a great deal better than what used to be served for school lunches. I also agree that kids need time to adjust to the new lunches. It would be great if Congress would provide funding for more PE at school and require that lunch periods be a full hour too.
We have a very different experience in my household. Maybe our school district does a better job with lunches or maybe my daughter is used to healthy food. My daughter brings a homemade lunch most days and begs to buy the school lunch when they serve her favorite foods. We allow her to buy lunch only 1 or 2 days a month and she always says they are the best lunch ever.
100% whole grain, extreme low fat and very low salt may go to far, but they are a great deal better than what used to be served for school lunches. I also agree that kids need time to adjust to the new lunches. It would be great if Congress would provide funding for more PE at school and require that lunch periods be a full hour too.
We have a very different experience in my household. Maybe our school district does a better job with lunches or maybe my daughter is used to healthy food. My daughter brings a homemade lunch most days and begs to buy the school lunch when they serve her favorite foods. We allow her to buy lunch only 1 or 2 days a month and she always says they are the best lunch ever.
9
Most schools purchase pre-made food for the cafeterias. That is where the crisis is. Put real cooks into the cafeteria with fresh foods and they'll come up with solutions that the kids will eat while fulfilling nutritional guidelines. Sure whole grain donuts aren't going to work. A donut is a snack food probably best left at home. But whole grain breads and cereal do work.
Another issue mentioned here is using the cafeteria as a source of revenue. It's not. If you treat it as an expense on the books that have to be in the black, it's not going to work. The return on a student especially a healthy one is years down the road.
Another issue mentioned here is using the cafeteria as a source of revenue. It's not. If you treat it as an expense on the books that have to be in the black, it's not going to work. The return on a student especially a healthy one is years down the road.
29
If the point of this column is to illustrate how big government can run amok then I have to agree and congratulate the Ms. Murphy on a job well done. Most noteworthy is the point about cancelling phys ed and health class, but then stuffing grotesque, processed "healthy" food down their gullets. Canned peaches, a processed low-sodium/low-fat meat product and whole grain doughnuts....gross!! You go kids....straight to the trash can.
15
FYI, in Italy school is finished at lunchtime, so you can have a long lunch at home with your family. The school provides only a mid-morning snack, which is invariably tasty and "bad for you" in the vein of small pizzas or panini plus pastries. I have nephews and nieces there who've gone through chubby stages with no stress whatsoever placed on their eating habits. Eventually they seem to self-regulate and become mature lovers of food without any bingeing tendencies. What a glorious food culture.
23
Our economic system bears some blame here. If you want people to buy and eat your product you add: salt, sugar, fat, and cinnamon.
4
The obesity crisis started when nutrition gurus said it was necessary to eat low/no fat, low sodium, low calorie, low/no cholesterol diets. Then with the food pyramid and now the plate, the guidance is to eat multiple servings of fruit a day. This is not only contributing to diabetes, but it is also making our kids fat and fatter. During my time in Europe, I noticed the warning labels on fruit juices stating not to give them to children under 4 at all. Kids under 12 should only have 250 mL a day max.
Parents think they are helping their kids to be healthier when they fill them full of fruit juice, fruit "candy", and fruit served in just about any form. Parents also do not seem to know that 3 slices from a small apple is all the fruit the kid should have for the day. They also believe that a 6 yr old should scarf down a whole sandwich, a handful of veggies, a whole apple, and a 8oz or larger juice box. That's what an adult should be eating. Then in many schools, the food police insist that kids eat their whole lunch even if they are full.
Mandates and institutionally prepared food is a failure. It is time to bring back making food fresh at schools. Schools can have gardens, kids can plan menus, and they can help with the preparation and cooking. And for the sake of our kids, let them have more time to eat.
Parents think they are helping their kids to be healthier when they fill them full of fruit juice, fruit "candy", and fruit served in just about any form. Parents also do not seem to know that 3 slices from a small apple is all the fruit the kid should have for the day. They also believe that a 6 yr old should scarf down a whole sandwich, a handful of veggies, a whole apple, and a 8oz or larger juice box. That's what an adult should be eating. Then in many schools, the food police insist that kids eat their whole lunch even if they are full.
Mandates and institutionally prepared food is a failure. It is time to bring back making food fresh at schools. Schools can have gardens, kids can plan menus, and they can help with the preparation and cooking. And for the sake of our kids, let them have more time to eat.
19
Just get rid of the sugar and the kids will be all right. Schools fail by equating healthy food with salads and raw vegetables. Many tasty sauces are made with a variety of vegetables that are cooked and then pureed. A little fat won't hurt the kids, only their grandparents who are susceptible to heart disease. Why no soups? Kids love chicken-noodle soup and small bread rolls but I rarely see them at a school. Are they worried about spills? Mashed potatoes are popular and healthy if made from potatoes and milk. They need to cook food like you would see in a public cafeteria in the 1960s.
12
Food can be made tastier with salt alternatives such as some lemon juice and ginger or black pepper and onion and yogurt or buttermilk.. These are good additions to our children's midday meals which the food preparers can experiment with in their menus.
5
I am confused.
Are kids obese? Every article I read mentions it.
Are millions of kids starving? Ditto.
Are kids throwing away their lunch? This article claims they are.
How about this. Fat kids skip lunch, starving kids get free lunch and picky kids pay $10 and get what they want.
Are kids obese? Every article I read mentions it.
Are millions of kids starving? Ditto.
Are kids throwing away their lunch? This article claims they are.
How about this. Fat kids skip lunch, starving kids get free lunch and picky kids pay $10 and get what they want.
9
Eliminating fat and salt reduced flavor. Dumping white flour diminished texture and flavor. Those would be excellent methods to convince children that adding fruit and vegetables is the perfect way to ruin a meal.
16
Indeed, if a food, as healthy as it may be, if it is tasteless it will meet the rightful resistance of its consumers. This is further compounded by the fact that many children, particularly in poor families, are so used to 'tasty' junk food (its cheaper, for begin with, and a strong habit as well). As to why 'phys ed' is not available universally, and mandatory, so the kids can start exercising and burn the calories consumed, is beyond me. If ignorance is the problem, it can be ousted via education; but if is willful in spite of the evidence, it is stupid. Stupid beyond belief, reason and common sense.
14
I have a son who is a very picky eater, and he didn't want to eat anything when he first start going to school. We feed him a balanced diet at home. We try to stay on the healthier side, but we don't go overboard in prohibiting things like white bread, crackers, and occasional snacks.
It's been a while since I've been at school so I can't say I can personally relate to this crisis, but perhaps the schools maybe went a bit too far into trying to make everything super healthy. At the end of the day, children develop the bulk of their eating routine at home. Example, the stuff my son is picky with at home is the same stuff he's picky with at school. As long as the school meal has a decent proportion being moderately healthy, that's good enough. School lunch won't save the world from obesity. Family eating rituals develop a child's eating habits more than anything. However, it's nice that schools are taking steps in the right direction because the old menus were too sugary.
I think one thing most parents can relate to and agree on is that trying to get a child to eat something that they hate is near impossible. Okay, eventually with enough insistence the child may warm up to the food and eat it, but the most important thing is that the child eats and doesn't starve because that's not good either. So, there should be foods offered that can please the picky ones.
It's been a while since I've been at school so I can't say I can personally relate to this crisis, but perhaps the schools maybe went a bit too far into trying to make everything super healthy. At the end of the day, children develop the bulk of their eating routine at home. Example, the stuff my son is picky with at home is the same stuff he's picky with at school. As long as the school meal has a decent proportion being moderately healthy, that's good enough. School lunch won't save the world from obesity. Family eating rituals develop a child's eating habits more than anything. However, it's nice that schools are taking steps in the right direction because the old menus were too sugary.
I think one thing most parents can relate to and agree on is that trying to get a child to eat something that they hate is near impossible. Okay, eventually with enough insistence the child may warm up to the food and eat it, but the most important thing is that the child eats and doesn't starve because that's not good either. So, there should be foods offered that can please the picky ones.
7
Several years ago when fruits and vegetables were introduced into Philadelphia schools the kids used them as weapons. Oranges, apples and even bags of carrots were thrown and hit others in the face and head. I know I was a school nurse.
17
Make the administrators eat the same lunch as the kids.
127
I think the gist of the argument is that we need another Federal mandate and its subsequent department to monitor the original Federal mandate and its department.
This is what Plato would have identified as a third man problem.
This is what Plato would have identified as a third man problem.
14
I've eaten school lunch with my kids and their classmates and seen the lovingly (and attractively) home prepared fresh vegetables (prepared by a better parent than me) go into the trash, while the brownie gets eaten first. Unopened cartons of milk and untouched food going directly into the trash. The waste is staggering. Can we at least feed some pigs wth this stuff? On the other hand, my kids in their public school have a fresh fruit and salad bar. Every day. This is real progress.
52
At the Brooklyn charter school where I teach the lunches are both unpalatable and bizarre. On Friday I slice of mostly doughy pizza served in a plastic bag, some sliced apples also served in a plastic and ten cherry tomatoes. No attempt to use the tomatoes a basic salad of olive oil, sea salt, ground pepper and basil-something even the most inept food services assistant could produce-just ten cherry tomatoes. What child (or underpaid teacher for whom a free lunch is a great financial help) would want this? The kids throw it away, complain about being hungry an hour later, and satiate themselves on Pirate Booty at the bodega right after school. And the resulting food waste is beyond abhorrent at this rather pressing stage of global ecological crisis.
100
Charters are all about cutting costs (teachers, food quality, textbooks, libraries) so the charter operator can pocket the money.
Charters are unmonitored public money going into private pockets.
Charters are unmonitored public money going into private pockets.
2
It's institutional food, what can one expect? If it's high sodium, laced with fat and sugar, it's junk food (poison). If it's not eaten, it's garbage food.
We took one look at the menu of the local school (they try real hard), and we said "no way" and do the work at home. Then we know that the food he gets has high nutritional content. We don't care if it's assembly line food in a hospital, a school, or a chain restaurant, we just don't eat that lifetime poison., and our child won't eat it either. Nutritional habits. starts in the home
We took one look at the menu of the local school (they try real hard), and we said "no way" and do the work at home. Then we know that the food he gets has high nutritional content. We don't care if it's assembly line food in a hospital, a school, or a chain restaurant, we just don't eat that lifetime poison., and our child won't eat it either. Nutritional habits. starts in the home
7
Based on recently lunching a few times with first-graders at an inner city school using Michelle Obama's food ideas, I suggest that the two hours French kids get versus the twenty minutes American kids get (especially if that includes waiting in line) for lunch is crucial. The kids didn't hate the food. They didn't have time to eat much. (Though the couple of obese kids managed to.) Some didn't seem to be hungry yet (lunch can be served as early as 10:30 to some classes in large schools.) The portions for first-graders also seemed to be identical to the portions served eighth-graders, again leading to waste. Then, most days for months on end, the kids spent "recess" sitting in the auditorium apparently because a union didn't make playground monitors go outdoors in weather under 40 degrees and the gym was full of PE classes. But most kids in this first grade were thin.
22
While it would be nice to present a French-style lunch here, my hunch is that American children would throw that away as well, in preference of a bag of chips and a sugary drink. The main reason schools are struggling to get students to enjoy healthy food is that students still eat terribly at home, and prefer the sugary and salty processed foods their parents allow them to eat.
19
Do all the teachers and administrators eat this official stuff, and do they sit with the students, so setting the example. Nothing better than a limp steamed bean with no flavoring sauce (lemon butter, perhaps), unless it be a raw one with some snap, crackle and pop.
8
What you describe as the new healthy lunch is actually dressed up processed junk food disguised to look like actual healthy food. If it arrives at the school already prepared and needing only reheating, you can bet it's some kind of processed junk. The folks who manufacture this stuff are in it for the profit, not for some altruistic reason. Add to that the fact that few children these days get any real exercise (what we used to call playing outdoors) and viola! obesity crisis.
110
I wish I could like this comment twice.
1
If the French are not fat, and the French can eat good food, they walk places, ride bikes….hmmmm, could we take a lesson here folks? A six year phase in of changing a menu? By then you have lost a whole generation of eaters. Change the menu on the next order from the food supplier.
6
Out of the mouths of babes...
If you don't like the food, then don't buy it and/or don't eat it!
If you don't like your job, then make a plan, save some money and quit!
If you don't like the choices for president, then don't vote for any of them!
Just say, "No!"
The power of refusal is the only power most ordinary people have left and the only reason that is so is because it can never be taken away.
People need to learn how to use that power and these children are here to teach you.
If you don't like the food, then don't buy it and/or don't eat it!
If you don't like your job, then make a plan, save some money and quit!
If you don't like the choices for president, then don't vote for any of them!
Just say, "No!"
The power of refusal is the only power most ordinary people have left and the only reason that is so is because it can never be taken away.
People need to learn how to use that power and these children are here to teach you.
6
Sadly, you may have that power only until the guys with the hot pokers ask if you still want to keep your eyes, or do what they say. Most folks will keep their eyes.
2
Trust your kidney and other organs. They regulate the equilibrium of your body quite well, including the sodium level in blood and other body-fluids. The excretion of sodium is one of the main functions of your kidney. The lack of materials - as sodium - can not be compensated.
Some ions, like iron and some other materials are not excreted, here we must be cautious.
Some ions, like iron and some other materials are not excreted, here we must be cautious.
1
Another silly, costly and counter-productive debacle foisted upon the taxpayer by the great federal nanny. What is happening, of course, is that kids are leaving school starved and so are piling into McDonalds for two fatburgers as soon as the bell rings.
As usual the New York Times provides at least one instant classic sentence: "Now, thanks to C.E.P....her department is back in the black." In other words, thanks to taxpayers paying for most of it, they can manage to break even. Only an advocate "journalist" of the first could write that with a straight face.
As usual the New York Times provides at least one instant classic sentence: "Now, thanks to C.E.P....her department is back in the black." In other words, thanks to taxpayers paying for most of it, they can manage to break even. Only an advocate "journalist" of the first could write that with a straight face.
14
I have just spent 2 weeks at elementary schools. The "smell" of these prepared lunches is nauseating. 20 minutes is not long enough and the kiddo's only get PT once a week. This is why there is obesity. No time to eat or play. Kids need to "run off" energy but they are forced to sit all day. It's not the diet folks, it is the lack of exercise.
35
I don't get what this article is trying to say? So kids aren't eating healthier foods, so we should get rid of the regulation? It's not like congress is advocating full kitchens with freshly prepared lunches in inner city schools, nor are they likely to provide funding for that with the party now in control of both houses of congress. So are we suppose to chuck out more healthy food in our public schools so that districts and the food industry can make an extra buck?
I don't get it. What are you trying to say?
I don't get it. What are you trying to say?
11
I don't believe the taxpayer should pay for school lunches. More than 50% are now subsidized. That's a joke.
1
The pendulum will swing back, and with a bit of luck, kids will get an hour for lunch and play, and the food will be the meat-and-two-veg followed by cake-and-custard (or the American equivalent) cooked in the school kitchens, Hampshire UK in the 1950's. Special diets arranged for those who needed them. It was the parents task to add fresh fruit to their diet.
Lunches were cheap, but not free, Did we complain? Of course we did! but we ate them.
Lunches were cheap, but not free, Did we complain? Of course we did! but we ate them.
5
The ubiquity of food in general is a problem that goes beyond school lunches. While some children come from families where food insecurity is a reality, a large number of children come to school well-armed with a plethora of food. I have two freshman classes that meet right before lunch, and kids bring chips, trail mix, granola bars, candy bars, bags of dry cereal, and all manner of snacks and eat throughout the entire period, then go off to eat a full lunch. Often, if they stay after school for activities, they repeat the morning process by stuffing themselves with empty calories. Our culture promotes grazing and snacking as some imperative in order to make it through the day.
13
Last night for my spouse and me: salmon with capers & anchovy butter sauce; roasted kale chips (cooked with olive oil); fresh corn; white rice w/cumin; a green salad.
Our son grew up eating fresh, unprocessed food (after he outgrew the chicken nugget stage). He made his own dinner last night: penne with sardines, tomatoes, olive oil and garlic.
The "healthy" school cafeteria foods described in this article sound inedible. We need to move away from most processed foods - but not necessarily semolina pasta, and white rice, in reasonable amounts - and reject the food Taliban's many of "low fat, no dairy, no sugar." Fatty foods in small amounts are okay, and satisfying; ditto dairy, although not the articially low-fat variety. Corn syrup is bad; a bit of honey or unrefined sugar is not so bad.
Healthy eating is a learned habit. We are teaching our kids that healthy food is inedible, and that's not a good lesson.
Plus, we need to restore PE. The ancient Greeks knew that physical Ed is an indispensable part of training productive, healthy citizens. Time we learned that lesson, and stopped the false economy of cutting PE programs.
Our son grew up eating fresh, unprocessed food (after he outgrew the chicken nugget stage). He made his own dinner last night: penne with sardines, tomatoes, olive oil and garlic.
The "healthy" school cafeteria foods described in this article sound inedible. We need to move away from most processed foods - but not necessarily semolina pasta, and white rice, in reasonable amounts - and reject the food Taliban's many of "low fat, no dairy, no sugar." Fatty foods in small amounts are okay, and satisfying; ditto dairy, although not the articially low-fat variety. Corn syrup is bad; a bit of honey or unrefined sugar is not so bad.
Healthy eating is a learned habit. We are teaching our kids that healthy food is inedible, and that's not a good lesson.
Plus, we need to restore PE. The ancient Greeks knew that physical Ed is an indispensable part of training productive, healthy citizens. Time we learned that lesson, and stopped the false economy of cutting PE programs.
25
As a child, I hated vegetables and would eat them only because my mother was a member of the 'clean plate club' that led to so much obesity in this country.
I continued my 'no vegetables' rule after I left home and it lasted until I had a boyfriend who grew up next to a farm and knew how to cook fresh vegetables.
He made a dish of sautéed broccoli and garlic and urged me to just have a bite. I refused, repeating my 'I hate vegetables' mantra, but finally agreed to try 'just one bite'.
It was a revelation and I became a vegetable lover from that day on, learning to cook and roast them so that later my own young children asked for cauliflower or string beans or any other well-cooked vegetable.
I realized that the reason I hated vegetables is that my mother was a terrible cook (not just for vegetables, but for everything).
There is nothing wrong and everything right about cooking food with a strong flavor. For most vegetables, this means roasting with coating of olive oil or sautéing in olive oil, microwaving most first, so the sautéing is only a few minutes. There is a huge difference between deep frying and sautéing
When children refuse to eat something, it is always for the same reason - the food tastes terrible.
I continued my 'no vegetables' rule after I left home and it lasted until I had a boyfriend who grew up next to a farm and knew how to cook fresh vegetables.
He made a dish of sautéed broccoli and garlic and urged me to just have a bite. I refused, repeating my 'I hate vegetables' mantra, but finally agreed to try 'just one bite'.
It was a revelation and I became a vegetable lover from that day on, learning to cook and roast them so that later my own young children asked for cauliflower or string beans or any other well-cooked vegetable.
I realized that the reason I hated vegetables is that my mother was a terrible cook (not just for vegetables, but for everything).
There is nothing wrong and everything right about cooking food with a strong flavor. For most vegetables, this means roasting with coating of olive oil or sautéing in olive oil, microwaving most first, so the sautéing is only a few minutes. There is a huge difference between deep frying and sautéing
When children refuse to eat something, it is always for the same reason - the food tastes terrible.
26
Bringing a lunch from home which they could sit and eat immediately is the only way my kids could actually have eaten. By the time you reach the end of the lunch line, there is no time left to eat it. Too bad nothing to drink that way. Twenty minutes for lunch is criminal.
34
Our grandsons are attending school Finland--ages 9 and 11. There free lunches for all children are varied, healthy and edible. They have tried a lot of new things including split pea soup was much dreaded but upon eating, enjoyed. The kids serve themselves, told only to take what they will eat and required to eat all they take. Good food, non wasted. Loads of time to eat and long recess after.
39
Finland pretty much does everything right in terms of education.
In the US, only private schools come closest to Finland's mindset.
Publics are doomed because of the reformer/charter people. They're all in it for the money.
I teach public school so I could afford to send my children to private school. I am one of thousands of teachers who do this.
In the US, only private schools come closest to Finland's mindset.
Publics are doomed because of the reformer/charter people. They're all in it for the money.
I teach public school so I could afford to send my children to private school. I am one of thousands of teachers who do this.
3
Same old story--we try to run schools on the cheap (three bucks a kid for lunch? Really?), run the kids through their day faster and faster for longer and longer (20 minutes for lunch? Really?), chop recess and phys ed, and then wonder why things don't work.
37
Kids shouldn't take food they aren't going to eat. Part of this waste is attributable to poor training at home (what happened to "clean your plate"?). Another shamefully wasteful practice is making a "set" lunch. A teacher told me that the lunchroom in her school was so used to kids throwing stuff from their trays (milk, apples) into the trash before even sitting down that they set up a trash can at the end of the line. And that stuff could not be served again. Think of all the wasted water, fuel, and other resources that went into those goods. And the wasted tax dollars from hard working people.
While school lunches may be the main meal of the day for "food insecure" children, there are plenty of children who are using -- and complaining about -- the service when they could be bringing lunches from home.
While school lunches may be the main meal of the day for "food insecure" children, there are plenty of children who are using -- and complaining about -- the service when they could be bringing lunches from home.
10
It's food. It's healthy. Eat it. A lot of the world doesn't have that option.
4
How about this: if you don't like the fare that schools are serving, pack your kids a lunch at home. When the school lunch program started, it was intended for those who weren't getting, or couldn't get, meals at home. Now, it seems to be expected that schools feed their entire population. Plenty of parents whose kids are getting school lunches -- many whose kids have iphones with data plans and expensive brand name sneakers -- have the financial means to pack them a ham sandwich, a beverage and a piece of fruit (or its equivalent) on a daily basis.
Perhaps we need to get back to the idea that feeding ones children is a parental responsibility with the government picking up the slack only when a family well and truly financially unable to. Perhaps it also shouldn't extend to the entirety of a child's education, but only at times of financial distress (not unlike unemployment benefits), and is phased out as a parent's financial situation improves.
Perhaps we need to get back to the idea that feeding ones children is a parental responsibility with the government picking up the slack only when a family well and truly financially unable to. Perhaps it also shouldn't extend to the entirety of a child's education, but only at times of financial distress (not unlike unemployment benefits), and is phased out as a parent's financial situation improves.
10
I agree with you, but so many parents just don't feed their children. They are lazy or irresponsible or mentally ill or drug-addicted, but that's not the child's fault.
For many children, school is the only place they can get a meal. But now, the feds have made those meals disgusting and practically inedible. So we have thousands upon thousands of children not being fed--and not learning.
For many children, school is the only place they can get a meal. But now, the feds have made those meals disgusting and practically inedible. So we have thousands upon thousands of children not being fed--and not learning.
5
When I was in elementary school, back in the 1960's in NYC, the food was cooked on site. Yes the soup and ravioli were canned, (Campbells and Chef Boyardee) but it was the same thing we would have gotten had we gone home. We got an hour for lunch, but the meal was gobbled down so we'd have more time outside to run around!
12
I once cooked at a residential home for teenagers with mental illness. Many came in obese and had eaten only fast food, three times per day. Sure, they started out moaning that they hated the food, all prepared from scratch and every lunch and dinner included vegetables and snacks were always nutritious. I got them to eat kale! Broccoli! Cauliflower! Despite their medications and despite themselves, everyone and I mean everyone lost weight and came to crave food that was nourishing. You can't tell me that good food will be rejected without the proper guidance and diligence.
32
Eat in an urban elementary school for a week and then get back to us.
Even the pizza is cooked in plastic and tastes like plastic and is made from the cheapest, most synthetic ingredients.
You don't even want to look at the vegetables...
Even the pizza is cooked in plastic and tastes like plastic and is made from the cheapest, most synthetic ingredients.
You don't even want to look at the vegetables...
4
60 years ago, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an apple was a standard nutritious lunch, easily made from easily purchased ingredients. Bring back the lunch box!
34
I doubt that peanut butter is even permitted now. And the US government long ago (I hope) ran out of surplus cheese.
2
U.S. Schools are entirely dependent on processed "reheated" food. A return to "lunch ladies" who take pride in their meals is what's needed.
19
Disappointed the NYT publishes "analysis" pieces like this so devoid of well, analysis. If we follow Katie-O's reasoning that we should only do things at school that people do at home, I'm sure everything will work out great!
2
I hated school lunches. The school cafeteria was run by my aunt who lived next door and whose cooking I loved. I wouldn’t eat it. I’d walk home for lunch [probably to eat some of her food]. It’s a constitutional right of kid-dom to be finicky or exasperating about what even touches – much less goes into – one’s kid body. It does seem a national policy would be doomed unless it requires they serve pizza and bags of chips and ice cream with cookies. Of course, I might still have walked home to eat the pizza my aunt made at home touched by acceptable utensil instead of that stuff at school touched by dubious heaven-knows-what. I was a kid. That’s what kids do.
1
The main problem is that children lunches are developed according to dietary guidelines that have been found to benefit 50 or 60-year olds.
What benefits active and developing children is likely not the same that benefits more sedentary and slowly decaying older adults.
The other problem is that preparing good food requires either time, or money, or both. The school meals companies don't use much of either. We have been brown-bagging for our children since they started school, and for much of the same reasons, I am brown-bagging it at work.
What benefits active and developing children is likely not the same that benefits more sedentary and slowly decaying older adults.
The other problem is that preparing good food requires either time, or money, or both. The school meals companies don't use much of either. We have been brown-bagging for our children since they started school, and for much of the same reasons, I am brown-bagging it at work.
17
No one would ever go to a restaurant and order that fake Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich mess with those other dreary items, and actually pay for it and eat it. It is the same slop you get in hospitals and prisons. Eecchh.
Children are too smart to eat really really bad food.
You want children to eat their lunch meal, do what restaurants and decent home cooks do, make a nourishing tasty meal. Don't think children are going to eat garbage in under 20 minutes. Adults don't.
Children are too smart to eat really really bad food.
You want children to eat their lunch meal, do what restaurants and decent home cooks do, make a nourishing tasty meal. Don't think children are going to eat garbage in under 20 minutes. Adults don't.
26
Ever notice the deadly drab interiors of government office? Those weird smells at the post office? The inefficiency and tedium at the department of motor vehicles? If government can't even get those things right, how on earth is it supposed to successfully cater to the fickle palates of 11-year-olds?
Bag your lunches, my friends.
Bag your lunches, my friends.
10
What the guidelines reflect is the failures of government when it leans, not on real science, but the influence of pressure groups.
7
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink -- applies to gov't mandated school lunches.
Maybe we should try menu that the French serve in their schools - they sound an probably look a lot better than anything served in US schools.
I am glad I want to school prior to Free Meals, prior to this Nutrition mania, and got to eat peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches from my brown bag or bought meals at the school lunch room which always had a decent meat and salt on the table.
Considering how Salt does enhance the taste of food - even when spiced - it is a pity they lower salt intake. I suspect a lot of the meals might be more tasty if they had salt.
I think this whole Healthy-Hungry-Free kids act should be scrapped. It most of the food lands in the garbage there is no point in wasting money on this program - lets try for something edible instead. Lets find out what other countries do - after all I suspect anything would be better than what is served now.
Maybe we should try menu that the French serve in their schools - they sound an probably look a lot better than anything served in US schools.
I am glad I want to school prior to Free Meals, prior to this Nutrition mania, and got to eat peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches from my brown bag or bought meals at the school lunch room which always had a decent meat and salt on the table.
Considering how Salt does enhance the taste of food - even when spiced - it is a pity they lower salt intake. I suspect a lot of the meals might be more tasty if they had salt.
I think this whole Healthy-Hungry-Free kids act should be scrapped. It most of the food lands in the garbage there is no point in wasting money on this program - lets try for something edible instead. Lets find out what other countries do - after all I suspect anything would be better than what is served now.
4
Many school districts give food prep contracts to the lowest bidder and then you get the lowest bidder meal du jour, not yummy. Many schools do not have an effective kitchen set-up to cook on site and get prepared meals that are frozen and just put on heat trays, not yummy. Cafeterias are many times used as multi-purpose rooms that function as the school gym and auditorium as well,inhaling lunch not yummy.
We can do better.
We can do better.
7
Salt is not bad for most people, and only a tiny minority of children are adversely affected by it. There should be no salt limits at all; limiting it just causes food to taste worse and not be eaten. Fat is not bad in food, in moderation. Refined starches and sugary drinks are what make most people fat, not fat consumption. And children are less likely to get fat than adults. It's time to throw out the misguided school lunch rules and get some better, less restrictive rules.
17
No one says "scratch-made." Cracker Barrel invented that usage. "Made from scratch" is the adjective, or "I will make cookies from scratch." But not "scratch made."
School lunches were dreadful before the "healthy" requirements came in. I can only imagine how awful they are now.
School lunches were dreadful before the "healthy" requirements came in. I can only imagine how awful they are now.
7
Even though time is always an issue, bringing a lunch from home is better. Last night's leftovers, or something relatively healthy that kids can learn to put together themselves by grade 3, plus snack of fruit, cheese, and water, is a good habit that will serve them well for life. In the winter, when it might be nice to have hotter food, I still don't see many healthy, or appealing choices, more like airplane food, trucked in from somewhere and microwaved.
3
I had wonderful school meals in the 1950s to early 60s. Local ladies cooked them from relatively unprocessed ingredients (though I'm sure that many of the ingredients were canned). Yes, we had things like meatloaf and mashed potatoes ... but they started out in the kitchen as actual ground beef and actual potatoes and actual milk. And the women took pride in their cooking. And they cooked: they didn't just reheat.
26
ken h
This was true of my elementary school in the early 70s, too. The lunch ladies were good cooks, and everyone, including the teachers and staff, ate the school lunch because it was good. The government commodity foods were raw materials the cooks completely transformed.
There was nothing happening in school kitchens in the 70s that could not happen today.
This was true of my elementary school in the early 70s, too. The lunch ladies were good cooks, and everyone, including the teachers and staff, ate the school lunch because it was good. The government commodity foods were raw materials the cooks completely transformed.
There was nothing happening in school kitchens in the 70s that could not happen today.
4
Eliminations work
First step: Eliminate free lunches and hold the parents responsible for either making whatever their kids might like or paying someone else to do the same.
Second step: Eliminate school taxes paid for by those without children. If you have kids you need to pay for them and not pass that responsibility on to those who chose not to meet their basic animal needs.
Once those responsible have to pay for their choices at lot will be fixed without prejudice.
First step: Eliminate free lunches and hold the parents responsible for either making whatever their kids might like or paying someone else to do the same.
Second step: Eliminate school taxes paid for by those without children. If you have kids you need to pay for them and not pass that responsibility on to those who chose not to meet their basic animal needs.
Once those responsible have to pay for their choices at lot will be fixed without prejudice.
2
I hope michelle read this piece but I have my doubts.
9
Re: j.r:
Oh no! You do not get to blame Michelle Obama for this - she is only the messenger! She is only saying what doctors and scientists have studied, researched and found out. There is absolutely nothing wrong with her making a stand on a healthy diet and exercise for kids. The problem as well as the solution here lies with American parents. The moral of the story is that parents need to start their kids on healthy food early. The moral is that we cannot depend on schools to force feed healthy food to children after the parents have gotten them addicted to junk at home. Try cooking and eating healthy meals with wholegrains and vegetables at home yourself and include your kids in the process. Explain the reasons for your choices every step of the way. Once they get used to it and develop a taste for it this problem will be solved.
Oh no! You do not get to blame Michelle Obama for this - she is only the messenger! She is only saying what doctors and scientists have studied, researched and found out. There is absolutely nothing wrong with her making a stand on a healthy diet and exercise for kids. The problem as well as the solution here lies with American parents. The moral of the story is that parents need to start their kids on healthy food early. The moral is that we cannot depend on schools to force feed healthy food to children after the parents have gotten them addicted to junk at home. Try cooking and eating healthy meals with wholegrains and vegetables at home yourself and include your kids in the process. Explain the reasons for your choices every step of the way. Once they get used to it and develop a taste for it this problem will be solved.
3
Maybe instead of focusing on how much fat or whole grains, we should focus on the available time to eat. 20 minutes is no time at all. So any rational kid will eat what tastes good and is filling in a hurry. That means lots of salt, fat, sugar. We don't have to have 2 hours like the french, but even an hour would mean lots of time to sit around and try newer foods that might not be familiar (fresh vegetables, for example). It might also help kids to be more attentive later in the day as they would be less likely to "crash" post-prandially.
23
Doug's point about the time available for lunch is important. Eating is not just about nutrition; it is a central social activity. It's one that brings people together, facilitates conversation and learning, and adds to the school experience.
2
It seems to me that meals have become just another chore to be gotten through in as little time as possible in this country. That is true at home, school and work. Children should be given more time at lunch. It's ridiculous to only have 20 or 25 minutes to eat and get back to class.
The main problem with the obesity problem is portion size. Portions have gotten so big that's what we expect. Then we shovel it down in a short amount of time and never really enjoy. It's actually normal to get hungry between meals, but Americans don't accept that.
The main problem with the obesity problem is portion size. Portions have gotten so big that's what we expect. Then we shovel it down in a short amount of time and never really enjoy. It's actually normal to get hungry between meals, but Americans don't accept that.
21
Wait a minute. If school meal programs are planned by government bureaucrats and nutrition experts what can go wrong?
13
It seems so obvious but my 4th grade grand daughter had to point it out anyway. Even good food badly prepared is terrible. Some people are really better cooks than others, but they would expect to be paid a living wage. The American people made that harder by not collecting enough taxes from the mega wealthy to adequately fund education, including school food, and with their simplistic dietary rules to make up for the lack of funding.
35
They pay 90% of the personal income taxes. You want them to pay more? There is still way too much spend if you take 90% of their income. Maybe we should cut down on waste and unnecessary spending? Just think what we could do if we had a $18 trillion surplus? Michelle isn't as smart as she thinks - just like everyone else, including me. Kids are no dummies.
1
50% of the school budget in NYC goes to teacher's retirement payments, for which they contribute pennies on the dollar. That is where the money goes, so the schools are not 'underfunded', the money is just not spent on students.
4
Nonsense! If you can't afford to feed your kids, don't have them! Government is not responsible to feed kids at school. It's not the role of the US government. I've no problem subsidizing the poor, but I abhor the idea of feeding kids whose parents live in a nice home and drive their kids to school in high end cars. The 2012 law forbids means testing. That is wrong.
2
Maybe the parents need to be educated on how to pack a healthy lunch. This is all about money, especially the companies that are supplying food to school districts all over the U.S. It costs next to nothing to pack your child a good lunch. After feeding 3 children, now grown with good home cooked meals, they eat everything and have a great understanding of good nutrition. All in moderation, stay away from fast food and cook at home and eat together as a family. The benefits are immeasurable, both in health and family dynamics.
12
I think the real problem is lack of time. At our school, kids are supposed to eat in 20 minutes, and they put recess right after lunch to encourage the kids to eat fast. Think about it. What adult wants to exercise AFTER eating lunch? So the kids barely eat because they can't get through the lunch line fast enough, and they want to get to recess. Also, our elementary school consistently forgets to put out the vegetables, which they serve on a separate plate. The kids have to explicitly ASK for the vegetable. What 8 year old is going to do that? I bet our district is then claiming that the kids won't eat the vegetables!
16
About a week ago, I was visiting my young grandson at his elementary school for Grandparent's Day. The visit included having lunch with the child. The choices for lunch that day were a corndog or lasagna. We both chose the lasagna. (I wouldn't feed a hotdog wrapped in fried cornbread to my dog). It was inedible. It was squishy, bland and pasty, made with some mystery ingredient that certainly was not meat, more resembling red paste. The veggies were COLD,no longer even warm broccoli and cauliflower previously frozen with sliced carrot. Dessert was a packaged chocolate chip "cookie". THIS is why kids now toss their lunch in the trash. I gamely ate mine to try to encourage my grandson to do the same, but let me tell you, it was difficult. My grandson's school is supposed to be #1 in the state. I can only wonder at all the others, for if they think students can go back to class on empty stomachs and actually learn something, or after eating such swill and not becoming sick, well, it would be a miracle. School lunches were iffy when I was a kid.Now they are simply 100% inedible. Somehow, I don't think THIS is what the first lady had in mind regarding "Healthy Food."
128
Why is your grandchild not sent to school with a nutritious and pleasing PACKED lunch, then?
School is not where children learn eating habits. It doesn't matter one bit what they consume as fuel at mid-day if the home diet is good food or junk food. Allowing or even forcing schools to waste food is ridiculous and that is what is really being taught when kids are given foods they throw away instead of eat. I don't remember one thing about the meals we got in school, I know they weren't healthy but not once has my doctor attributed any of my adult ills to any meal I ate when I was ten.
48
Actually there are people advocating that we return to offering children junk food at lunch. Most of them are the parents who, themselves, eat nothing but junk food. Another group is the parents who didn't have the spines to say "No" when their children demanded a steady diet of man and cheese, pizza, and chicken nuggets as children - if they don't have the willpower to insist their children eat healthy then they aren't going to understand why the schools are telling their children they should be eating fruits and vegis.
9
I'm with you about junk food, which I avoid by not buying prepared food. But no salt, no flavor? I'd rather skip it & so would the kids.
14
For my 20 years of teaching, I watched the kids throw away their lunches and just eat the dessert. It's even worse now. I'm over 70 and ate the usual junk food all of my life, and I'm still here and feel pretty good. Nothing like watching some 'health guru' get control of the school system's cafeteria budget. Let's get back to pizza and chalupas. The fat kids come to school already fat.
15
School lunch would improve drastically if all county administrators and the school board had to eat lunch with the kids.
130
And all of Congress...
1
The problem is that Americans don't know how to serve up vegetables and fruits in tasty ways. In my experience, most "vegetarian" meals put forth by American cooking are utterly bland and tasteless -- especially when compared to the vegetable stews and curries of my South Asian upbringing. If you know your spices, it is possible to make a tasty vegetable dish whilst keeping its sodium content low (salt isn't the only seasoning out there!)
So you have to season the vegetables in order to induce and heighten their natural flavours; you have to know which vegetables pair best together, because you can't chuck it all in one dish and expect it to turn out alright. There's a delicate science to it.
Fruit tastes best when it's ripe and (especially) when it's eaten in season. When it's served properly, it needs no garnish -- perhaps a bit of cinnamon for apples, pepper for guava, but nothing more. Peaches shouldn't be sodden in sickly sweet syrup that robs it of its natural flavor. Children used to grow up delighting in the taste of fresh fruit, but now I suppose their palates have been spoilt for it. It's a shame.
So you have to season the vegetables in order to induce and heighten their natural flavours; you have to know which vegetables pair best together, because you can't chuck it all in one dish and expect it to turn out alright. There's a delicate science to it.
Fruit tastes best when it's ripe and (especially) when it's eaten in season. When it's served properly, it needs no garnish -- perhaps a bit of cinnamon for apples, pepper for guava, but nothing more. Peaches shouldn't be sodden in sickly sweet syrup that robs it of its natural flavor. Children used to grow up delighting in the taste of fresh fruit, but now I suppose their palates have been spoilt for it. It's a shame.
32
The fresh fruit of my younger days is no longer available most places. It has been bred for shipping. Plums and peaches are so hard and tasteless I don't buy them in the supermarket, but I remember how good they were.
5
Also, the fruits and vegetables have to be of good quality to start with, which I seriously doubt the provisions at most public schools are. Compare, say, the apple you get at an inner-city market to the same kind of apple at Whole Foods--they're barely recognizable as the same fruit. (I won't even drag in the farmer's market apple.) Hand a kid a mealy, tasteless Red Delicious and you've checked off the box for "fruit"--but she's not going to want to eat it, and neither would I!
2
This is absolutely true. The American idea of a vegetarian dish is some undercooked vegetables added to something bland. Indians, South Asians, Southern Europeans, and more -- we have wonderful vegetarian dishes. But these do not look as healthy, because food is cooked. In American cuisine, as they use few vegetables, they try to preserve their nutritional value by leaving them essentially uncooked. The result is that people eat them as a duty, mostly.
2
I don't think we have an understanding yet of the "why" of the obesity epidemic, let alone the best way to combat it. Look at class photos from 1960 versus 2015 and the difference in the students striking. I stayed sleek through childhood and most of my adult life having grown up drinking lots of whole milk, eating cookies after school, with a Saturday milkshake at Prince Castle. Sunday breakfast was hoska with butter, and dinner was roasted meat with dumplings drenched in rich gravy. I got driven to school long before it became the normal, and didn't take part in athletics. Dentists stayed busy filling kids' cavities. And yet we were much thinner than kids today.
Let's figure out what is really causing the obesity epidemic before we force nationwide experiments with school lunches. Some of the local innovations sound promising, like going back to kitchens that prepare from scratch, and offering a spice bar. Successful practices with school lunch should be identified, encouraged, publicized, and copied, not regulated out of existence along with the "junk" food. And I say that as a progressive.
Let's figure out what is really causing the obesity epidemic before we force nationwide experiments with school lunches. Some of the local innovations sound promising, like going back to kitchens that prepare from scratch, and offering a spice bar. Successful practices with school lunch should be identified, encouraged, publicized, and copied, not regulated out of existence along with the "junk" food. And I say that as a progressive.
21
That 'Saturday milkshake at Prince Castle' is now an every day occurrence and people think it is normal to eat three meals a day and then eat mini-meals between those meals, washed down with sugary beverages that people seem to think have no calories.
Every dinner is treated like Thanksgiving, where people do not stop eating until they are stuffed to the gills, after which they sit and watch television while munching on snacks and drinking soda.
Every dinner is treated like Thanksgiving, where people do not stop eating until they are stuffed to the gills, after which they sit and watch television while munching on snacks and drinking soda.
1
3 things seem problematic:
1. A low level of fat that deprives food of taste and is not supported by current scientific research.
2. A general lack of time probably derived from a general lack of respect for the cultural importance of food and dining (and perhaps a specific obsession with getting back to cramming even more for tests).
3. A general social desire that food cost as little as possible, typically with the consequence of being poor in quality and nutrition.
1. A low level of fat that deprives food of taste and is not supported by current scientific research.
2. A general lack of time probably derived from a general lack of respect for the cultural importance of food and dining (and perhaps a specific obsession with getting back to cramming even more for tests).
3. A general social desire that food cost as little as possible, typically with the consequence of being poor in quality and nutrition.
71
An entire op ed article with out once mentioning the fallacy and purveyors of such underlying the entire discussion.
Government by decree proponents Obama's number one believe, I say it and it shall be so, is the law of the land, as it is in most regimes in recorded history, but the same thing that made the United States of America unique also makes her intractable to do as I say dictators.
Guidelines can be a valuable and essential tool when use by knowledgeable and concerned advocates. Unfortunately in the hands of doctrinaire agenda driven, short sighted, cowardly zealots they are a tool that elicits outrage and rebellion in free human kind... silent at first until individuality and intellect find a way to vanquish the at every level slavery... First the demanded food... then the elitist government scoundrels.
Government by decree proponents Obama's number one believe, I say it and it shall be so, is the law of the land, as it is in most regimes in recorded history, but the same thing that made the United States of America unique also makes her intractable to do as I say dictators.
Guidelines can be a valuable and essential tool when use by knowledgeable and concerned advocates. Unfortunately in the hands of doctrinaire agenda driven, short sighted, cowardly zealots they are a tool that elicits outrage and rebellion in free human kind... silent at first until individuality and intellect find a way to vanquish the at every level slavery... First the demanded food... then the elitist government scoundrels.
4
I knew somehow, some way, this would be Obama's fault.
2
That's what you get, when you have a know nothing, big mouth, try tell the world how to eat or act. How about the kids get out from under their tv's, computers, phones and JUST GO OUT AND PLAY? Half the problem I think
3
For 30 years we've had that simple and ineffective message. All while school districts cut gym and fewer kids have someone at home after school to kick them out of the house. More active intervention is needed to reverse the problems
6
Nice article, but after spending 10 years as a principal the main problem is that the students are treated as a "captive audience"(which they really are). The lunch period is a tribute to soviet style management. There is no evaluation of the "cooking staff" except for the strict adherence to federal "free lunch" regulations; and health and safety. I always found it amazing that in an assessment-standards based dominated system; there is no "garbage can vs. consumption" evaluation for the taste quality of the meals; there is just no other way to say this, but most of it just taste bad! And so I don't see the war framed as healthy vs. non-healthy; I think that is a false choice that is worse than a schools menu. When the school cafeteria is seen correctly as: just a large "classroom", like the gym; and the people who cook in them are both allowed (many want to cook tastier meals but are restricted by silly regulations) to cook meals that are both tasty and healthy, things will change for the better. We must stop this terrible waste of food, and the terrible lesson it teaches our children; who throw away large amounts of food, in a world where so many of their fellow children are hungry.
111
Soviet-system indeed. And it's really just a bleak microcosm of the ideologically-based, social engineering we'll continue to get from Democrats and other Socialists if we give them more control over our lives. Huge failure of this administration, landing squarely on the shoulders of Mrs. Obama and her minions.
Kids aren't hungry for actual food because they snack and graze like sheep all day long (just like their parents taught them to do). What ever happened to three square meals per day?
7
Children's palates are trained by their parents to appreciate their fare at home. I used to point fingers at parents who didn't explore the wonderful world of fresh and tasty food that was healthy, and then I had to pack that idea away since we economically restricted and those wonderful "natural" foods that are so healthy for humans are devastating to budgets. However, we shouldn't sacrifice the health of future generations to cater to the demons of unhealthy fats, fillers, salts and sugars. Instead, we need to teach and glorify a way to economically feed both the body and soul (substitute here the word taste).
Maybe we need to encourage "Victory Gardens" for families to once again afford fresh vegetables. Reduce our portions significantly so that we savor instead of stuff. Season with herbs and spices that tease the palate instead of slavering to the god of salt. It will actually take some work, a concept that is being buried in our world of "we want what we want when we want it...and that is NOW!"
The problem is not going back to the poisons that diminish our children's lives....our problem is that we resist attitude readjustments.
Maybe we need to encourage "Victory Gardens" for families to once again afford fresh vegetables. Reduce our portions significantly so that we savor instead of stuff. Season with herbs and spices that tease the palate instead of slavering to the god of salt. It will actually take some work, a concept that is being buried in our world of "we want what we want when we want it...and that is NOW!"
The problem is not going back to the poisons that diminish our children's lives....our problem is that we resist attitude readjustments.
6
Half of the youth obesity crisis in the US pertains to diet; part of the other half pertains to the fact that kids just don't run around outside after lunch as much as they used to. Many would rather text friends or do other things on smartphones. In my youth, we couldn't wait to get outside to use the back end of a 60-minute lunch period to play kickball, football, basketball, or anything that would get us beyond the bricks and mortar of the building we spent virtually all day in.
Yesterday's kids begged to go/be/stay outside. Today's kids beg to go/be/stay inside. Unreal.
Yesterday's kids begged to go/be/stay outside. Today's kids beg to go/be/stay inside. Unreal.
145
Could be the Smartphone and I-Pad are a bigger cause of childhood obesity than the school lunch menu. I remember recess as a time of intense physical activities - like jumping rope, hop scotch, even walking. Our 1 hour recess was always a time of physical activity. Obviously this was not era of the Smartphone - and I still don't own one or want one.
3
With 20 minutes for lunch, there is hardly any time left to play kickball, football, basketball. Even if you skip lunch, you'd barely have time to kick a ball. When did the 1 hour lunch got cut down by 2/3rds? And for what reason?
2
With 20 minute lunch periods, the kids are lucky to have enough time to eat. There is no after lunch. There is just next class.
1
It's true that we have to educate kids about healthy eating, but that's not the same thing as teaching kids about nutrition. It's time to change the conversation from nutrition to habits— the behaviors that translate nutrition into action. As Karen Le Billon points out, other countries know less about nutrition than we do, but they (and their kids) eat better.
The emphasis on nutrition education has been counterproductive. Nutrition education is founded on the principle that "when we know better we do better" but the research shows that people (and that includes kids) make eating decisions for hedonistic reasons. Every time we pound home the message that we ought to eat certain foods because they are healthy, we reinforce the idea that healthy foods are necessary but undesirable. And then we serve so-called healthy foods in school that actually are undesirable. No wonder kids clamor for fast food junk.
It's time to dial down our cultural obsession with nutrition education and to ramp up our discussion about how kids actually learn to enjoy healthy food.
Dina Rose, author of It's Not About the Broccoli: Three Habits to Teach Your Kids for a Lifetime of Healthy Eating.
The emphasis on nutrition education has been counterproductive. Nutrition education is founded on the principle that "when we know better we do better" but the research shows that people (and that includes kids) make eating decisions for hedonistic reasons. Every time we pound home the message that we ought to eat certain foods because they are healthy, we reinforce the idea that healthy foods are necessary but undesirable. And then we serve so-called healthy foods in school that actually are undesirable. No wonder kids clamor for fast food junk.
It's time to dial down our cultural obsession with nutrition education and to ramp up our discussion about how kids actually learn to enjoy healthy food.
Dina Rose, author of It's Not About the Broccoli: Three Habits to Teach Your Kids for a Lifetime of Healthy Eating.
8
Good post until you turned it into a commercial.
3
Just wondering: is it actually known that children, as opposed to overweight men in their forties, have been shown to need low salt diets? And just a thought: if the kids who eat this stuff are lethargic, it could be the low salt. Without proper sodium to potassium balance - I seem to recall 2 Na to 1 K - the nerves can't fire efficiently, and the result is pure physical fatigue. And that prevents exercise. And that makes you fat. And those French kids, who can invite me to lunch any time, are probably walking not riding to and from school, and out running around for a while after eating that delicious food! Notice they get the chocolat only once a week. Bon appetit!
59
This is where a little knowledge can be dangerous. The 2:1 ratio of Na to K refers to a cellular transport process - clearly important but not easily translated to diet.
FYI fruits and veggies are K rich and have low Na content. Therefore diets rich in F and V are low Na and high K (among many other things)
FYI fruits and veggies are K rich and have low Na content. Therefore diets rich in F and V are low Na and high K (among many other things)
My school district serves a lot of prepackaged fruits and veggies that the kids love! They have little bags of baby carrots, apple wedges and roasted chick peas included in the lunches. The good thing about this is that the kids take the packages with them if they don't have time to finish. It's easier for the kitchen staff because they are already packaged. I also think that food in little packages seems more like a "snack" to the kids and that seems to make it more appealing--particularly to kids who eat a lot of junk food.
Also--I'd suggest that trash cans are often full because kids are rushed through lunch and don't have time to finish. Imagine eating that way as an adult--being told to hurry up and then to get in line before you are even finished eating. This seems to happen most often in the K - 2 lunch periods at my school.
Also--I'd suggest that trash cans are often full because kids are rushed through lunch and don't have time to finish. Imagine eating that way as an adult--being told to hurry up and then to get in line before you are even finished eating. This seems to happen most often in the K - 2 lunch periods at my school.
46
So much for using less plastic.
1
You can tell people what to eat. You can prepare it and provide it to them for free. But you can't make them eat it.
42
As the saying goes. "Taste is the dirty little secret." From the home kitchen to school cafeterias to star-spangled restaurants, the tongue rules. And while the French may eat everything, they also will admit, "To each his own tastes." (a chacun son gout). Schools can try to re-set the tongue of a five-year-old, but they'll likely have as much luck in retraining tastes as they do in imposing a second language.
5
News flash government/schools! I never got fat from the single breakfast and lunch at school, I got fat from not eating good food I wanted to eat or exercising like I do now and used to do as a child before I gained weight in middle school. There's no harm in bringing back foods we used to eat when I was in school during the early 90s-early 2000s the problem is at home not at school. If they don't want their trashcans filled why not create an area where schools can donate to shelters etc?? Save the food instead of throwing it away. These are all simple solutions instead of forcing people to get healthcare or eat healthy lower cost and give extra tax breaks to people who get healthcare like the poor etc. Why can't people think of the most commonsense solutions to easy problems???
2
Hence STOP THE WASTE AND GET BACK TO A FULL ROUNDED EDUCATION INCLUDING P.E. Classes for all Public School Kids 1st-12th grade.There is too much waste in Mrs. Obama's Agenda and it is negatively impacting our Children's waistlines and Health--IN P.E. Class you learn the basic exercises also than too many kids of today will never learn otherwise----How to do a Sit Up Jumping jacks or even lift their knees while running over dragging their feet with a cell/pod in their hands! And YEs School Meals were changed by Mrs. Obama's Agenda and her Let's Move program which led to more programs yet the kids still throw it out! So maybe these programs are Not So Healthy After All and are proving to simply be Wasteful in various respects!
IF we have no money for P.E. But for Salad Bars in a few choice schools, some thing is very wrong with how school Funds are Arranged and offered!
If we have funds for So Much TECH in schools Why not for PE? And IF We have So much money available for Football and other sports WHY NOT PE TOO!
IF we have no money for P.E. But for Salad Bars in a few choice schools, some thing is very wrong with how school Funds are Arranged and offered!
If we have funds for So Much TECH in schools Why not for PE? And IF We have So much money available for Football and other sports WHY NOT PE TOO!
I only wish the world was as simple as you see it.
1
Please pardon my ignorance, but coming from Singapore, our school cafeterias here have different stores selling a variety of foods from different cuisines. Stores are typically run by those living in the neighbourhood and they all have to abide by certain standards set by the health authorities. Just really curious why there is almost little or no competition for school lunches in the US..
9
I don't think the laws and standards are the problem. Rather the food preparation itself. My son, who is in elementary school in NY, loves the school meals. Aramark, an independent organization hired by our puplic school, does a terrific job preparing healthy, yummy lunches. When we lived in Louisisna, we were not so fortunate. The lunches there was much less healthy and much less tasty. Thrre's always going to be individual variation depending on the lunch food preparation; that doesn't mean the laws trying to keep our youth eating healthier should be discarded.
9
Let's find out where the schools are purchasing the food from. And who works up the menus. And what the financials look like - is the cafeteria a profit center? Then call in Robert Irvine of Restaurant Impossible. Now that's a reality show for prime time.
8
Most are buying from grocery warehouses, Noble Sysco US Foods And all other Food Distributors Rarely do they purchase straight off the farm if ever!!!!!!!!
First and foremost, food should taste good. Having had to eat a few cafeteria meals in schools I would have thrown it in the trash too. They don't season anything. Bland food does not arouse appetite.
14
It is ironic that the main concern of the "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act" is obesity. Obviously these kids aren't really hungry. Hungry people don't throw away food.
School's shouldn't be in the food business. Kids should bring lunch from home. A peanut butter sandwich takes two minutes to make and costs next to nothing. More important than teaching kids how to read or write, is teaching them (and their families) how to take responsibility for themselves.
School's shouldn't be in the food business. Kids should bring lunch from home. A peanut butter sandwich takes two minutes to make and costs next to nothing. More important than teaching kids how to read or write, is teaching them (and their families) how to take responsibility for themselves.
6
And if the parents can't or won't do that for whatever reason, let the kids starve, eh? It's not like being hungry could possibly affect school performance or behavior. If the first graders are to have any future at all, they should have paper routes to earn the money, go to the grocery stores themselves, and prepare their own meals. Otherwise, they're just takers and mooches, destined for a life in the luxury hammock of welfare.
3
Every high school/junior high student since the 80s hated their school lunches. What else is new?
5
Where in the Constitution does it give the Federal Guvment the right to tell our kids what to eat? This is the same bunch who can't give us an annual debt-free budget.
8
The same place in the Constitution where it says that the Federal Government is responsible for providing school lunches.
3
Listen to the children who are served these "healthier" school lunches. If something looks unappetizing & tastes awful, who is going to eat it? Go back to the old menus, modified with healthier ingredients. Take the skin off the chicken wings & serve with a less-greasy sauce. Pizza can be made with a whole-grain crust & lower-fat cheese. A sandwich with whole-grain bread would be acceptable. Give the kids a piece of chocolate cake on Fridays. Make gradual changes, not complete changes for acceptance by kids. Who in the world wants to eat green beans for lunch? Yuck.
6
I believe that the reason the french are able to serve wonderful food in their schools is because they are trying to pass on their food culture to their children, and want children to learn to eat and enjoy french food. It is their cultural heritage. My husband is from italy, and we cook traditional italian food at home. Last night my children happily ate chicken braised in white wine, homemade baguette and fresh salad for dinner, with fruit compote for dessert. My oldest child is in kindergarten this year, and does not eat the school lunches, which this week included asian chicken wraps, pulled pork sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, and lasagna rollups. She isnt familiar with these foods, and isnt an adventurous eater, and honestly i have no idea what they will be like, so i just send her with a packed lunch. Most other countries have the advantage of having a national cuisine, and what is served at home is likely similar to what the children eat in school. In the US we have never had this, and never will, but there are good foods that many of us have in common, like high quality bread, good cheese, simply cooked meats and fresh fruit, and perhaps these are what the school lunch programs should focus on.
117
THEY HAVE ALSO BANNED ALL GMO FOODS WHICH IS PRIMARILY WHAT IS ON OUR SCHOOL LUNCH MENUS AND IN THEIR FOODS!
This is what happens when we try to socially engineer tastes based on government fiat. Michelle Obama doesn't care about our (or your) gastronomical culture - she wants to dictate it by fiat. She knows better. Right?
4
We have had this, even as recently as the 20th century. No perhaps not national, but certainly regional and, moreover, there was a time when school cafeterias actually represented the local culture.
America has 400 years of history. Never is a dangerous word.
America has 400 years of history. Never is a dangerous word.
2
One stupid notion that we should put to bed is the idea that "Processed-Food" 'per se' is bad.
Food-Processors could easily produce any kind of food imaginable, but there are four factors that drive the types of food that they make
1. First, and foremost the mass consumer taste-preference is for foods with high amounts of salt, fat, & sugar. And many people have an automatic aversion to voluntarily eating anything that is supposed to be healthy. Therefore, there is a low market demand for products low in salt, fat, & sugar
And likewise we hear the reports of healthier foods from the school lunch counters ending up being rejected and thrown away
2. Large blocks of consumers are simply stupid. Supermarkets are filled with so-called "healthy-foods" that are incredibly high in salt, fat, and sugar
Those products exist, ONLY because people buy them, which they do on the incorrect notion that they actually are healthy (they're not reading basic label info)
However, if they actually were healthy, then they wouldn't be perceived as 'tasty', therefore people wouldn't buy them, and they would no longer be offered
3. Food companies don't want to make niche products that won't sell in large quantities, and they won't experiment with, and keep trying healthy foods long enough to develop a strong market following
4. Salt, fat, & sugar are all relatively cheap, which is a double economic draw.
Low-cost and tastiness, which drives consumer demand
Plus, salt is a preservative (shelflife)
Food-Processors could easily produce any kind of food imaginable, but there are four factors that drive the types of food that they make
1. First, and foremost the mass consumer taste-preference is for foods with high amounts of salt, fat, & sugar. And many people have an automatic aversion to voluntarily eating anything that is supposed to be healthy. Therefore, there is a low market demand for products low in salt, fat, & sugar
And likewise we hear the reports of healthier foods from the school lunch counters ending up being rejected and thrown away
2. Large blocks of consumers are simply stupid. Supermarkets are filled with so-called "healthy-foods" that are incredibly high in salt, fat, and sugar
Those products exist, ONLY because people buy them, which they do on the incorrect notion that they actually are healthy (they're not reading basic label info)
However, if they actually were healthy, then they wouldn't be perceived as 'tasty', therefore people wouldn't buy them, and they would no longer be offered
3. Food companies don't want to make niche products that won't sell in large quantities, and they won't experiment with, and keep trying healthy foods long enough to develop a strong market following
4. Salt, fat, & sugar are all relatively cheap, which is a double economic draw.
Low-cost and tastiness, which drives consumer demand
Plus, salt is a preservative (shelflife)
3
So do Accept GMO foods? For the Majority 99% of all processed foods are GMO Foods BUT Not Real Foods----even that meat or poultry or pork are served GMO grains---Hence the US has Sacrificed Our Health and the Health of our Children to GREED and the Monopoly of a few CORPS!
SUCH IS A FACT!!!!!!!!!
SUCH IS A FACT!!!!!!!!!
2
How sad - very sad. We have spoiled children and parents who probably cater to their every whims and desires. It's too bad that they are not shown films of starving children who would gladly eat their cast offs.
2
First off all school lunches should be free. All kids should be able to eat lunch no matter what their financial status is. I remember some of the best lunches were not the most healthy but also not the worst either. American chop suey, chili mac, and other pasta dishes were healthy and filling and the yeast rolls you could smell throughout the school. Burgers and tater tots, jello and pudding, fruit salad, great. What good is spending the money and time to make it if no one eats it. Common sense. It's up to the parents to do the rest, and make sure the kids get exercise and food for their souls. Enough with the carrot sticks and broccoli at school. Leave that for dinner.
4
Hopefully, in my next life, I'll be born French.
8
Profit.
If one doesn't understand something, look for the money factor.
I recently spoke with a Houston teacher who told me that at her school, despite requirements, children had to actually ask for vegetables in order to get served vegetables, and at the checkout register area there were snacks that were sold at a profit.
The teacher opined that this was no accident, that the kids were served less so they would buy more for-profit items.
In some districts, when one looks under the 'it's all about the children' surface, one will see that it is, actually, all about the money.
If one doesn't understand something, look for the money factor.
I recently spoke with a Houston teacher who told me that at her school, despite requirements, children had to actually ask for vegetables in order to get served vegetables, and at the checkout register area there were snacks that were sold at a profit.
The teacher opined that this was no accident, that the kids were served less so they would buy more for-profit items.
In some districts, when one looks under the 'it's all about the children' surface, one will see that it is, actually, all about the money.
144
Just because the kids don't like it, doesn't mean we should go back to McDonalds style food being served in cafeterias. Time needs to be spent teaching kids what the new food is, and why they're being given it.
America benefits from this in the long term, and that's what people need to focus on.
America benefits from this in the long term, and that's what people need to focus on.
22
Yes, they really need to be "Educated" as to why they should enjoy eating Cardboard & Lawn Clippings. What's wrong with kids these days ?
11
Nonsense. The 'new' food stinks. Kids should be able to have some salt and some fat. In moderation, both are good for you.
5
Nourishing food is not tasteless. Tasteless food will not be eaten, and therefore cannot nourish.
101
These standards seem so arbitrary. Few if any kids need a low sodium diet especially if it helps add calorie free flavor to otherwise bland food. Also, americans eat constantly. I'm sure these kids have plenty of cookies, granola bars, go-gurts and other snacks in addition to their normal meals. Get rid of the snacks and maybe they'll be hungry enough to eat what is served to them.
51
Back in my elementary school in the Canadian Prairies, we were all given a lunch hour. Students could go home to eat, go to the gym to eat their brown bag lunches, or simply go find a restaurant.
A significant proportion chose the third option. Dairy Queen was a favourite. We'd all run out of school, load up on cheeseburgers and Blizzards for $5, chow down, and run the mile back to school. The teachers were far from mortified at what we ate, and nobody was overweight.
The reason for being able to eat happily and live happily? Exercise. All students got a minimum of 30 minutes recess in addition to the lunch hour, and countless calories were burned outside playing kickball, hockey, or good old tag.
A significant proportion chose the third option. Dairy Queen was a favourite. We'd all run out of school, load up on cheeseburgers and Blizzards for $5, chow down, and run the mile back to school. The teachers were far from mortified at what we ate, and nobody was overweight.
The reason for being able to eat happily and live happily? Exercise. All students got a minimum of 30 minutes recess in addition to the lunch hour, and countless calories were burned outside playing kickball, hockey, or good old tag.
125
Yes, however, the food was different. No GMOs or high fructose corn syrup. Go to a country where the food is real food...you'll see less obesity.
11
My 7 year old always complains that she can't finish her lunch because there is never enough time. They only get about 20 minutes. Even corporate employees get a full hour of lunch. It seems like all the parents I speak to want to have longer lunch hours but I dont see that happening any time soon.
179
Excellent point. And, bear in mind that this 20 minutes includes time waiting on line, selecting a meal, passing through the pay station, and finding a place to sit. Children given 20 minutes for lunch typically get just 10 minutes to actually eat it.
180
An increasing (alarmingly increasing) number of corporate employees eat lunch at their desk -- if they can between back-to-back meetings scheduled around and over lunch hour.
I agree that 20 minutes is not enough time. But I'm sure there are those who will point out that 20 minutes is merely training for an adult life spent in a cubicle.
I agree that 20 minutes is not enough time. But I'm sure there are those who will point out that 20 minutes is merely training for an adult life spent in a cubicle.
15
This is absolutely right, and anyone who has visited the school cafeteria to watch this crazed daily "feed" not only notices how much gets dumped but also why our children eat like pigs at home, wolfing down their food so they can get back to video or TV.
If you haven't seen firsthand, sit in on a lunch period and you'll be stunned.
If you haven't seen firsthand, sit in on a lunch period and you'll be stunned.
20
I believe NYC public school lunch is about $3/student, including subsidies and parents' out-of-pocket cost. One day I found out that my son wasn't eating school lunch at all. When I looked at the menu distributed from school, it sounded pretty good, so asked why he didn't eat. He said, "The menu sounds much much better than actually is. They are so many substitutes and not really serving what's written. Sometimes cheese burgers are already gone when I tried to eat. Also chicken wings have very little meat attached, and the salad bar is dried and gross and no one is touching it." When I consider that, $3/student is rather expensive.
It seems that school lunches are healthier version of junk food. I suppose the supplier is trying to make the food as attractive as possible while following the health requirements. But even though they are supposed to be good for kids, they are prepared at some central food preparation centers, frozen, packed, and reheated or fried at schools.
I understand that it is difficult to implement different options at a big school system like NYC, but I don't think the big lunch supplier is not doing a good job. I wonder are there any alternative available, such as prepare food from scratch even just one item per meal on premises. I don't ask for organic or farm to table option. Just make the food edible.
It seems that school lunches are healthier version of junk food. I suppose the supplier is trying to make the food as attractive as possible while following the health requirements. But even though they are supposed to be good for kids, they are prepared at some central food preparation centers, frozen, packed, and reheated or fried at schools.
I understand that it is difficult to implement different options at a big school system like NYC, but I don't think the big lunch supplier is not doing a good job. I wonder are there any alternative available, such as prepare food from scratch even just one item per meal on premises. I don't ask for organic or farm to table option. Just make the food edible.
78
Farm to table in the schools? Are you kiddingly? Just brown bag it.
4
When administrative expenses are deducted, school nutrition directors often have less than a dollar to work with per student meal. Given that, I think what they accomplish is miraculous. I'm a pretty savvy shopper and efficient cook, but I couldn't do it.
3
Might a part of the problem be that the national school lunch program allots a pittance toward meals (roughly $2 for lunch) and the per-meal cost hasn't risen appreciably in decades? We've possibly improved the processed junk that we were serving our kids, but it's still processed junk. Considering the alarming costs of obesity in this country, we'd do well to look at how short sighted our naton's priorities are when it comes to our kids' nutrition.
47
Both fat and sodium add to food flavor and have been almost entirely exonerated as harmful. Excess sodium is simply released in urine. The French have the highest fat intake as a % of total calories and the lowest rate of obesity and heart disease. The problem with greasy pizza is not the grease or the salt it's the crust. But the bigger and insurmountable problem is that kid's preferences are already formed as the article says. They want the same junk food at school that they eat at home.
54
"Food and nutrition directors at school districts nationwide say that their trash cans are overflowing while their cash register receipts are diminishing as children either toss out the healthier meals or opt to brown-bag it."
I would like to see some evidence that "trash cans are overflowing." Also, if children are bringing lunches from home at greater frequency, that's a good thing. But I would also like to see some evidence.
It may be true that kids "hate" school lunches, but it is also may be true that the school lunch ladies don't like the federal government planning their menus. Are kids really throwing those healthy lunches out at a great rate than the old lunches?
It's worth studying.
I would like to see some evidence that "trash cans are overflowing." Also, if children are bringing lunches from home at greater frequency, that's a good thing. But I would also like to see some evidence.
It may be true that kids "hate" school lunches, but it is also may be true that the school lunch ladies don't like the federal government planning their menus. Are kids really throwing those healthy lunches out at a great rate than the old lunches?
It's worth studying.
38
You want evidence? check out #thanksmichelleobama
Seeing is believing.
Seeing is believing.
2
Formally-executed and documented plate waste studies tend to support the overflowing trash can story. This is actually a pretty easy issue to document and some low cost national studies would likely help clarify these kinds of doubts, which many people have.
3
It doesn't need studying, that is ridiculous. Go to the office of the closest elementary, middle and high school. Register as a visitor, then observe all the lunch periods. Look at the trash cans. Watch to see how many go through the line and buy food, how many either don't eat or bring a lunch with them. Voila! Evidence. Anecdotal, admittedly, but evidence nonetheless. If you still feel it's "worth studying", repeat process across your county. Extrapolate. No tax or foundation money wasted on "worth studying."
1
at my afterschool childcare, cut up fresh cucumber or carrot is offered - 'Who'd like some cucumber !?' - kids come running, 'me !', serve themselves with tongs for food handling safety, and walk off munching happily
so - a little positive reinforcement, unconfusing, easy choice, peer competition, hurry or you'll miss out, real food, presented fresh, in small bite sized pieces, help yourself - and they seem to love it.
mega-corp processed mystery meat junk food - deep fried from frozen - urp - gross - disgusting - no thanks.
so - a little positive reinforcement, unconfusing, easy choice, peer competition, hurry or you'll miss out, real food, presented fresh, in small bite sized pieces, help yourself - and they seem to love it.
mega-corp processed mystery meat junk food - deep fried from frozen - urp - gross - disgusting - no thanks.
120
This is true. However, school lunch requirements are much more elaborate that this, requiring not selective choice, but "full cup serving" or the meal is disqualified; so many "colors" of vegetables per week, etc. When programs require reimbursement for all taken meals in order to make the financials work, having some meals disqualified because of a student may only want carrots and not brocolli, or only a half cup, not a full cup, is not a workable approach.
Many of the well-meaning individuals who have opinions about the school meal program have not explored or read the truly complex regulations that govern them.
Many of the well-meaning individuals who have opinions about the school meal program have not explored or read the truly complex regulations that govern them.
4
"so - a little positive reinforcement, unconfusing, easy choice, peer competition, hurry or you'll miss out, real food, presented fresh, in small bite sized pieces, help yourself - and they seem to love it."
Nothing like social conditioning at an early age, eh? That way when they grow up, if they don't like political party X or social policy Y, we can train them just like Pavlov did with his experiments. sanctioned treats, anyone?
Nothing like social conditioning at an early age, eh? That way when they grow up, if they don't like political party X or social policy Y, we can train them just like Pavlov did with his experiments. sanctioned treats, anyone?
4
The trick is to give each child their own carrot and celery sticks with their own dipping sauce. Children love having everything cut up for them and everything 'separated' and it is an easy indulgence to do so.
3
Who gets interviewed for these articles? Where exactly, in public schools, has PE been eliminated? In California, we are specifically required to teach 200 minutes of PE every two weeks.
We still serve pizza every Friday, it's supposed to be healthier than it was before. We have a salad bar, fruit and yogurt options for lunch. Children are changing what they are willing to eat. School lunches have never been perfect, lots of food has always been thrown away.
And I'm sure there are lovely people working for Detroit schools; but I'm not sure I would make them my go-to choice for innovations in school menus. Detroit has lots and lots of challenges to deal with, lunch is unlikely to be a top priority.
We still serve pizza every Friday, it's supposed to be healthier than it was before. We have a salad bar, fruit and yogurt options for lunch. Children are changing what they are willing to eat. School lunches have never been perfect, lots of food has always been thrown away.
And I'm sure there are lovely people working for Detroit schools; but I'm not sure I would make them my go-to choice for innovations in school menus. Detroit has lots and lots of challenges to deal with, lunch is unlikely to be a top priority.
74
As an ex-Detroiter and a California native-son, I am like so torn by this Detroit putdown.. I mean whatever!
3