Free for All: Fixing School Food in America

[RamboLiberal]

On the animated TV series "The Simpsons," Lunchlady Doris serves the children of Springfield Elementary School ground up gym mats and shredded newspapers.

There are few targets for mockery as easy as the federal school lunch program -- the same program that under the Reagan-era U.S. Department of Agriculture classified ketchup as a vegetable. But while we're busy laughing, we haven't been paying as much attention as we should be to the actual program and its not-so-funny failures.

The program deserves credit for providing free and subsidized meals to millions of American children who would otherwise go without. In 2008, more than 31 million children participated every day.

That success, however, is curtailed by the number of children who go hungry because they cannot afford the participation fees, or because they are too ashamed to eat "poor people" food.

This new book untangles the complex web of history, bureaucracy and science that has lead to today's school lunch program.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10024/1030125-34.stm#ixzz0de3rtnwe

Sidebar:
Teacher eats, blogs
Mrs. Q, a mystery teacher in Illinois, is chronicling a year in school lunches, pictures included at http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com. Although she's only a couple of weeks into the project, already many of the concerns raised in "Free For All" are more than evident, including frozen pineapple, unpleasantly overcooked green beans and meals that at a glance look anything but healthful.

[cyberswede]

1. One solution: Farm to School

"Farm to School connects schools (K-12) and local farms with the objectives of serving healthy meals in school cafeterias, improving student nutrition, providing agriculture, health and nutrition education opportunities, and supporting local and regional farmers."

http://www.farmtoschool.org

Here's an interesting article from the Jan. 16th Des Moines Register:

Teach Iowa students the value of foods grown locally
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20101160305


I'd like to see this implemented in our school district. I know of several organic farms who could participate.

[MineralMan]

2. School lunch today is nothing like the school lunch back in the early

60's when I was eating it. At that time, the food was prepared on site, more or less from scratch, by the lunch ladies, and served from a steam table. I believe that the lunch ladies actually tasted it while cooking it.

It wasn't horrible. The meat loaf was made of mystery meat, of course, and the hamburger patties had a lot of breadcrumb filler in it. It was pretty much the meatloaf in patty form. The spaghetti with meat sauce was very good, and even better the next day as leftovers. Hot dogs were hot dogs.

It was a lot like eating at a church potluck in many ways. The food was edible, plentiful, and made that day, or the day before in the case of leftovers. There was always fresh fruit, usually whole apples, and a salad of some sort, along with bread that was baked there in the kitchen. There was usually some desert, cake or some sort of apple crisp sort of thing. Cupcakes, sometimes, again all made in the kitchen at that school.

These days, the school cafeteria is just a place to serve premade food that is heated up in its package. Some schools contract with places like Taco Bell for a meal or two a week. It's just fast food, and not good fast food either. Think of the old Banquet brand TV Dinners (still available) and you're close. Think of airline meals when airlines were serving meals in coach. The most common question would be: WFT is this? Think of the worst hospital cafeteria you've ever eaten from. Pretty yucky, not very healthful, and normally only about half-eaten.

I would have preferred carrying a bag lunch, but my Mom was a cashier in the cafeteria, so it was the cafeteria every day.

[Democrat_in_Houston]

3. I can still remember when the "lunch ladies" made yeast rolls from scratch

It was so hard to pay attention if your classroom was anywhere near the cafeteria! LOL

We gobbled our food and ran outside to play.

Now, the kids are treated as bad as prisoners (sit still, be quiet, no one can play until everyone is finished, line up inside, walk in line outside...) and the food is probably worse than prison food. UGH

[MineralMan]

4. This blog has photos and info on school lunches in several

countries. I found it fascinating.

http://whatsforschoollunch.blogspot.com/