Food
Issues:
School Lunch Reform
Overview
An increasing number of
parents, educators, elected officials
and interested citizens in the USA, United
Kingdom and other economically developed
nations are concerned with rising obesity
rates among children, teens and the adult
population.
Read
more about obesity here.
Reforming school lunches
is one of the many solutions being discussed.
School lunch reformers are looking to
re-create relationships with food that
existed a half century or so in the USA,
lasting longer in parts of Europe and
still found in various societies around
the world. These largely bygone food traditions
involved: eating locally produced fresh
seasonal ingredients, families vegetable
gardening, cooking and dining together.
This illustration shows what parents and
educators were concerned about with regard
to children's diets in 1922 when this
cartoon was published in the pamphlet
Diet for the School Child
by Lucy Gillett.
Here's some advice from the author:
"The child is the adult
of tomorrow. The kind of food a child
has today determines to a considerable
extent the fitness of the future citizen.
Those who direct the feeding of the child
have a responsibility which cannot be
overlooked. Good food habits should start
today. Tomorrow may be too late."
To get a glimpse of how
it used to be a half century ago: read
this 50's childhood food recollection.
Edible Schoolyard founder and Chef Alice
Waters also grew up in the 50's. She
is one of the most effective and articulate
advocates for re-connecting children with
their food. Read
her comments on the subject.
If you want to skip to what you
can do to get involved immediately, click
here.
Or
you can continue reading here for more
background on the subject, followed by
a series of questions and links that will
extend the conversation for you in many
directions.
We focus more here on the USA, since American
food technology, fast food chain restaurants,
heavily advertised soda and snack products---all
the ingredients that have combined to
create a new form of pop cultural entertainment,eating,
have influenced much of the rest of the
world.
It was in America, after all, that food
technicians first froze French fries for
mass consumption; invented cola sodas;
grew surpluses of corn that provided the
cheap sugar syrups that are so pervasive.
American marketing teams created "happy
meals," playgrounds in restaurants,
pizza arcade game parlors and much more.
As a result Americans have
faced the consequences of these innovations
longer than the rest of the world. As
nations around the world turn more to
American-style convenience dining and
snacking, their obesity rates are rising
as well.
Just as Americans were the
first to take measures to curb the growing
health consequences of smoking, they are
taking the lead in coming to grips with
their nutritional health crisis.
One key contributing factor
involves the US government's efforts to
feed the nation's poor children. (Often
providing an outlet for food surpluses,
but that is another issue.)
US government assistance provides free
breakfasts and lunches to children of
low income families, thus contributing
58% of the recommended daily allowance
of calories. That leaves 42% of the daily
allowance of calories to be consumed outside
of school, an amount more than covered
by one "supersized" hamburger
and a soda, in the words of researcher
Ron Haskins.
Critics of the school lunch
programs include Douglas Besharov of the
American Enterprise Institute who makes
the claim, "We're still feeding the
poor as if they're starving," referring
to the original purpose of the legislation.
Here is one possible aspect
of the problem which is difficult to verify:
families receiving food assistance then
spend the money saved on not having to
buy breakfast or lunch for their children
on fast food dinners as well as heavily
advertised snacks and sweets. In their
defense, many inner city neighborhoods
do not have any supermarkets nearby, nor
do they have many safe playgrounds. So
the playgrounds and cheap, tasty, fun
meals found in chains like McDonalds are
inexpensive and the restaurants are valuable
safe play space alternatives to otherwise
hostile environments.
More well-off surburban-dwelling
Americans have more money than time. Both
parents increasingly work and commute
longer distances each day. Their children
buy lunch at school and have busy after
school sports schedules. The reunited
family grabs dinner from the drive-up
on the way home. Everyone is too tired
or rushed to cook and eat at home.
And since food preferences and dining
habits begin to take hold in early childhood,
Americans increasingly have underdeveloped
taste buds and limited experiences with
fresh ingredients cooked carefully and
served attractively.
The nation's schools and
government authorities overseeing lunch
programs are providing more alternatives
that meet dietary standards and are moving
away from fat and sugar ladened offerings.
Ron Haskins concludes, "more than
80% of elementary schools and 90% of high
schools offered food choices that would
meet guidelines for fat and saturated
fat intake if students selected the right
foods to eat. But while you can lead students
to good food, you can't make them eat
it. Pizza and doughnut-loving adults will
understand: Foods that are low in fat
and sugar often just taste lousy. Schools
must walk a fine line between serving
foods that are low in fat and sugar but
boring, and foods that are high in fat
and sugar but attractive to student palates."
So, we return to
the work of the school lunch reformers.
They feel the one sure way to get kids
to like unfamiliar foods and make healthier
food choices during and after school is
to "imprint" on them at the
earliest age possible, different experiences
with food.
These different experiences with
food all include instilling "ownership"
in the foods they eat in the following
ways:
--by establishing schoolyard and neighborhood
gardens in which kids participate in growing
fruits and vegetables;
--by allowing kids to cook and serve food
to one another;
--by dining in attractive quiet settings
in which the pleasures of the food is
matched with the conversation and atmosphere;
--by presenting lively, interactive programs
and lessons integrated into the curriculum
about food which include letting students
see and sample different ingredients.
Click
here to find out how Japanese elementary
students study, grow and cook a different
food plant each year.
Click
here to learn about The FOOD Museum's
food awareness programs.
See the links and books below to learn
more about various initiatives and reform
efforts.
Here are
links to school lunch patterns in other
nations:
Here
are some questions for discussion purposes.
Is
there an actual obesity crisis in America
and other developed nations around the
world?
What
are the politics of obesity? Who stands
to gain, who loses?
If there is an obesity problem in America
and elsewhere in the world, what are the
causes? Who is to blame?
Kids? Parents? Schools? Television &
video games? Advertisers? Snack, soda
and fast food industries? Governments?
Our fast food life style? Well-intentioned
but no longer needed programs to feed
the hungry?
Which
of these are more likely and practical
solutions?
Is it just a matter of personal responsibility?
People have to learn to make informed
food choices?
Provide healthier, fresher more attractive
foods in schools with no other choices?
Eliminate vending machines in schools
that offer sugary sodas and fatty, salty
snacks?
The
Dutch model: eliminate school lunch rooms,
require students to eat at their desks
in the classroom with lunches they bring
from home? Have teachers oversee lunch
bag contents to discourage unnourishing
items?
The
Korean model: have students dine at their
desks which are moved to form a big circle
sharing the contents of bagged lunches
prepared at home?
The
Japanese model: have students dine at
their desks on cooked lunches prepared
in a central kitchen and served by fellow
students?
Allowing
students to go home for lunch, as they
do in parts of Switzerland and Spain?
(In Brazil and other nations, school ends
mid day and many students eat lunch at
home.)
Check out these websites to learn more about
this issue.
Obesity
Problem
Are
We Killing Our Children?
The Childhood Obesity Epidemic in America:
Part I
by Antoinette Bruno and Amy Tarr
A
Nation at Risk: Obesity in America
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
ABC/Time
Magazine Obesity Summit agenda &
Summary
Obesity
Links from National Institutes of
Health & National Library of Medicine
Report
on Childhood Obesity Situation in UK
Report
on the global spread of obesity.
School Lunch Reform: theory and practice
Slow
Food, Slow Schools: Transforming Education
through a School Lunch Curriculum
by Alice Waters
Thinking
Outside the Lunchbox: This ongoing
series of essays, part of the Rethinking
School Lunch program, features leading
thinkers, educators and policy makers
addressing connections between the interdependence
of human and ecological communities and
a safe, fresh, and nourishing food supply.
Rethinking
School Lunch uses a systems approach
to address the crisis in childhood obesity,
provide nutrition education, and teach
ecological knowledge. CEL spent five years
researching the 10 interrelated dimensions.
The
School Lunch Initiative
School Lunch in
the News
School
Lunch News This is a compilation with
updates of news articles concerning the
issue of school lunches.
More
School Lunch News
Politics of School
Lunch
The
School Lunch Lobby by Ron Haskins
This article discusses the politics and
billions of dollars connected with school
lunch policy....and how the various powerful
lobby groups interact.
Food
industry fights back on obesity claims:
nonprofit coalition advocates personal
responsibility, not more regulation
Government & Medical Groups
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Promotes Healthy School Lunches with Second
Annual Awards
School
Lunch is for Everybody: A common sense
list of suggestions for School Lunch professionals
from Louisiana Department of Education
Division of Nutrition Assistance
National
School Lunch Program: USDA's Food
& Nutrition Service
National
School Lunch Week October 10-14, 2005
California
Food Policy Advocates
No
Junk Food Organization
Food
Studies Institute
Solutions
A
Model That Works
The Childhood Obesity Epidemic in America:
Part 2
by Amy Tarr and Pia daSilva
About
Healthy School Lunches: tips for parents
and good links
Slow
Food in Schools Slow Food in Schools
is a unique national program of garden
to table projects with children that cultivates
the senses and teaches an ecological approach
to food. Following our mission, Slow Food
USA is committed to awakening a child
to the enjoyment and health benefits of
quality foods and the principles of land
stewardship through the Slow Food in Schools
program. A growing program comprising
more than 20 garden to table projects
across the country, Slow Food in Schools
helps children develop an appreciation
for real, wholesome food and an understanding
of sustainable food practices.
The
Edible Schoolyard
School's lunch program educates young
palates by Cynthia Liu
School
Foods Tool Kit: A guide to Improving School
Foods & Beverages
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Action
for Healthy Kids
Citizens for Healthy Options in Children's
Education (CHOICE)
Other websites of interest
Consumer
Reports Tests School Lunches This
is a colorful site that shows how students
participated in sending samples of their
school lunches to the lab for nutritional
analysis. The results are listed and there's
an interactive game.
Lunchbox
History Exhibit from Whole Pop Magazine
Online. This features a gallery of 20th
century lunch box styles, and twenty writers
share their lunchbox memories.
School Lunch: a Global Perspective
School dinners (lunches) around the world
BBC News takes a look at what pupils in
a selection of other countries are eating
during their lunch breaks. This includes
many insights on school lunch experiences
from BBC listeners worldwide.
Take
a look at these two school lunch menus,
both for the week of March 24-28, 2003.
The menu on the left [full version] is
from a school in the town of Montigny
le Bretonneux, just southwest of Paris;
the menu on the right [full version] comes
from a school in Pittsford, New York.
Yes,
our school meals deserve to be junked
by Judith Woods
In his riveting television series, UK
chef Jamie Oliver has thrown a glaring
spotlight on the appalling state of school
dinners in Britain. But how do they compare
with the food served up to pupils in other
countries around the world?
Our
story: How we rescued school dinners
Laura Illsley and Pam Shipperbottom took
over organising school dinners after the
kitchen closed at Lethbridge Primary in
Swindon. One of their main aims was to
introduce healthy and organic food.
A
School Lunch For The World's Children
by George McGovern , former Democratic
presidential candidate, is US ambassador
to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization
in Rome.
Read these books to find out more....
Paradox
of Plenty: A Social History of Eating
in Modern America, Revised Edition
(California Studies in Food and Culture)
by Harvey Levenstein
Fast
Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American
Meal
by Eric Schlosser
Food
Politics: How the Food Industry Influences
Nutrition and Health (California Studies
in Food and Culture, 3)
by Marion Nestle
Don't
Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing
of America
by Morgan Spurlock This book contains
a chapter about school lunches and a list
of sources on the subject.
Fat
Land : How Americans Became the Fattest
People in the World
by Greg Critser
Fed
Up!: Winning The War Against Childhood
Obesity
by Susan, M.D. Okie, Susan Okie
Food
Fight : The Inside Story of the Food Industry,
America's Obesity Crisis, and What We
Can Do About It by Kelly D. Brownell,
Katherine Battle Horgen
Fat
Girl : A True Story by Judith Moore
Teenage
Waistland: A Former Fat Kid Weighs In
on Living Large, Losing Weight, and How
Parents Can (and Can't) Help by Abby
Ellin
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