Comments on: School Lunch, Opportunity for Change?

By: Vic

Vic — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:48:16 +0000

This is a very good idea, but when you get to major urban areas, you will run into more than just minor problems. For growing your own school garden, guess what, kids who have to go to summer school can help there, not enough kids to help? have some of the parents come down and help, as it is benefiting their kids. If such is the case, guess what, then the kids can come down and help too.
I had no idea the schools had lost the ability to cook on site, but a central cooking facility makes a lot of sense in light of the expense of individual facilities. I sure would have missed meeting the lunch ladies.
As a last thought on this, why are more kids not brown bagging it at school? I remember learning that skill as an adult, and it was not always a good thing, especially when I forgot to make something to eat the night before, and could not afford lunch the next day. Cooking I learned as a kid though, as Mom worked 2 jobs, and I got the job as chef. Can’t complain there though, as I am fair to meddling at it.
Last thought here, does this mean the class home economics no longer exists? no more the smell of cooking cake wafting down the hall in the day at school, and no more learning to cook there either? Tis a sad day indeed if such is the case.

By: Charlotte

Charlotte — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:27:48 +0000

My friend Ali over at Ethicurean has a related story too: http://www.ethicurean.com/2009/03/03/free-lunch-program-in-new-england/

And Jennifer — thanks for the link to 11D — the discussion in the comments is really interesting.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:44:47 +0000

Have you read Laura at 11D? http://11d.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/the-politics-of-food.html

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:40:24 +0000

Our district has a central kitchen which cooks food for all the schools. So while it’s true that each individual school building only has a reheating station, that station is re-heating locally-made food. That seems to me to be an excellent solution.

$5/kid is insane. You do know that a week is being cut from the end of our school year because the state is broke, right? I would rather make my son’s lunch myself & use that extra 5 bucks/day to fund his education.

By: Ed Bruske

Ed Bruske — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:58:04 +0000

I am still stewing over this debate. Last time I checked, the British were going to make cooking mandatory in their schools. Probably worth checking on that again. The “wonks” at the Internet Food Association strike me as a bit naive. I couldn’t help thinking as I read their stuff that they probably never had kids. Since I’ve been quite involved with the local schools as a volunteer, a garden builder and a school garden advocate, I have many thoughts on the subject I haven’t quite sorted through yet. But I think teaching kids to eat well (perhaps better than federal prisoners) is a more important endeavor than building a garden on the White House lawn. Just dumping surplus carbs on children hardly seems adequate.

By: maryn

maryn — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:46:46 +0000

so, Charlotte, here’s a q. re school gardens: you, like me, live in a climate where the outdoor growing season is short and pretty much coincides with kids being out o school for the summer. i can envision kids being taught how to start seed in the spring in cold frames or a greenhouse, and harvesting i the fall – but what’s your proposal for the summer when the kids are not in school? a paid school gardener? a parent volunteer? this is one of my stumbling blocks re the Edible Schoolyard – it works in a place that has a year-round growing season, but most of the country is not so fortunate, and i don’t see how to keep it going/keep kids engaged, when they are not there, without an expenditure of some additional capital, either $$ or goodwill, that the schools may not possess.

By: Mouse

Mouse — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:39:46 +0000

PS the verification words reqd in order to leave comments are becoming as obfuscated as the computer viruses that I analyse! I am begining to think they’re passing on coded messages! Or do I need new glasses?

By: Mouse

Mouse — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:38:13 +0000

Take a lesson from the French whose children sit down to three course lunches of salads and soups, meat/fish and vegetables and a little desert.
They believe that children should be taught to enjoy real food from the moment their bodies can digest it
That’s how you raise a bon viveur!

By: Patrice

Patrice — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:03:33 +0000

According to Philpott: “Starting in the Reagan era, the federal government stopped funding school kitchen equipment. From that time on, cafeterias had to finance themselves through sales of food. As a result, schools began to turn kitchens into reheating centers for stuff like prefab chicken nuggets. Once staffed by trained cooks, cafeterias became the domain of button-pushing clerks. A generation of school children was thus exposed to flavorless, nutritionally empty food. ”

I forwarded the Grist/Philpott article to the former food service director at the college where I work. She told me: “Ten years ago when I was in charge of Food Services our stove (large industrial type) went out, so we couldn’t cook. I went and bought a very nice large range from Sears for $800.00 and had it put in. Health Dept. comes along – says NO to stove. Only option – spend $16-18,000. for an industrial stove. College says NO to that. So our cooking was stopped, and all we could do from then on was deep fry, microwave and grill. Not real healthy, huh??”

By: maryn

maryn — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:49:55 +0000

Jamie Oliver, the Brit TV cook and personality, did a series called “Jamie’s School Dinners” (dinner = midday meal) a year or two ago, in which he tried to get real food back into UK schools. He cooked in the school kitchens (minimal), trying to stay within their budget, but using actual ingredients instead of processed frozen cr*p that the lunch ladies just had to heat up. He ignited a ferocious national conversation, not least because he wasn’t always successful – not only were the schools not set up for cooking, but the kids didn’t like the real food because they’d been so trained to fast food and processed stuff. I only saw a few episodes thanks to a friend who writes about food and had dubs, but they were fascinating.