In which school lunches are largely revolting
They were when I was a kid. They were when I was a teacher. I brought my lunch when I taught, and my lunch every single day of my senior year in high school was an order of fries, a slice of pound cake, a package of Reese's peanut butter cups, and a Coke. (This covers the four major food groups of high schoolers: cake, Coke, candy, and fries. There's even a pyramid...)
Anyway, school lunches in the US are appallingly, heartbreakingly bad, and criminally so when you realize that for some children, that's the best or ONLY meal of the day. But there are a few people trying to change that. Jamie Oliver--the moppet-haired British celebrity chef--is one of them. (I saw a superb news piece last year about a school that was utterly transformed when he overhauled their lunch program and got the kids eating real food. Did you know that the vast majority of school lunches are not cooked on the premises, but trucked in? Frozen. To be reheated with mixed results. Yick.)
And another brave soul has taken up the fight. Mrs. Q, a teacher from the midwest, has started Fed Up With Lunch, a blog that chronicles her adventures as she eats the school lunch every day with her students. I say she's brave because her posts could cost her her job, even though she is attempting to preserve her anonymity. I wish her the best of luck because I've read her entire blog, and she is downright heroic. It would take a far more stalwart soul than I to eat what's put on those lunch trays every day.
For those of you headed to Best Bargain Books in Centerreach, Long Island, this afternoon--see you there! (And since I'm not at home today, I am sending long-distance birthday wishes to the pups--they are one year old!)
Anyway, school lunches in the US are appallingly, heartbreakingly bad, and criminally so when you realize that for some children, that's the best or ONLY meal of the day. But there are a few people trying to change that. Jamie Oliver--the moppet-haired British celebrity chef--is one of them. (I saw a superb news piece last year about a school that was utterly transformed when he overhauled their lunch program and got the kids eating real food. Did you know that the vast majority of school lunches are not cooked on the premises, but trucked in? Frozen. To be reheated with mixed results. Yick.)
And another brave soul has taken up the fight. Mrs. Q, a teacher from the midwest, has started Fed Up With Lunch, a blog that chronicles her adventures as she eats the school lunch every day with her students. I say she's brave because her posts could cost her her job, even though she is attempting to preserve her anonymity. I wish her the best of luck because I've read her entire blog, and she is downright heroic. It would take a far more stalwart soul than I to eat what's put on those lunch trays every day.
For those of you headed to Best Bargain Books in Centerreach, Long Island, this afternoon--see you there! (And since I'm not at home today, I am sending long-distance birthday wishes to the pups--they are one year old!)
Comments
If you think school lunches
If you think school lunches are bad, you should see what our troops eat. My fiance has stories from the enlisted on his ship ate that would make school lunches sound like gourmet meals in comparison.
When I was in elementary
When I was in elementary school, our school lunches were all prepared from scratch and cooked on the premises. They were good, classic "Square Meals" and they tasted better than my own mom's cooking. For .35, we ate things like roast turkey with all the trimmings, cake and 1/2 pint of milk.But when I was in 5th grade, the kitchens and indoor cafeteria were eliminated and we got prepackaged meals that were awful and we had to eat at unshaded tables in the same area the trash dumpsters were kept. What were school officials thinking? When my kids started school, I tried one of their "school lunches" and was appalled. Tasteless, rubbery dreck. And sadly for some kids, it's the best, most nutritious meal of their day.
As a teacher who has worked
As a teacher who has worked in several school districts I couldn't agree with you more. The major issue lies in effective and economical options. I worked at a small private Catholic school where we had our own chef, she mixed some premade items with some homemade, then every Friday to really keep the kids happy we would order pizza. No one ever complained about the more healthy potions ( with the exception of one kid who told me his family went out to eat every night except for Christmas and Thanksgiving, I almost cried, but the bad food may have explained his test scores). I work in a much larger public system now and it is a stereotypical cafeteria setting, government regulations limiting soda have not cut down on the amount of candy, slushies, and ice cream kids consume, often as you said as their only source of nutrition. The sad fact is however lunches from home are seldom much better. One day as I was passing through the office the secretaries were looking through a lunch that had been found in the hall. All that was in it were prepackaged chips and sugary snacks; no protein, and certainly no fruits and vegetables (fruit snacks don't count).In February on our school website they did an online survey to assess what kids would rather se as lunch options, the results aren't out yet but I know few kids even bothered assuming the new options would just be more of the same. Anyone who cooks for a family knows that making food that is good, cheap, and healthy is a challenge. Despite experiments done in small schools like the one I worked at (we only had 250 students) no large scale change has really been attempted. Without major guidance I fear few if any school districts will take up the initiative anytime soon.