Copied below is a month's worth of menus from an elementary school, recently passed along to me by a reader. I count pizza or a manifestation of pizza 5 times out of 13 school days (I include Pizza Dippers and Mozzarella sticks), burgers twice, and fried chicken (popcorn chicken and nuggets) twice. The only food on this list that could even plausibly be made fresh and healthy are the tacos (and I am certain that they are neither) and the bagels (the jury's out).
[UPDATE: For a comparison, here is a random public school menu from France I dug up. It reads like a restaurant. The point to note here is that even though the French menu is incredible, it also doesn't require the full bore Edible Schoolyard approach, however laudable that is. This is a menu that can be assembled in a reasonable form for a reasonable expense anywhere in America, and if the parents don't like it, they can pack the kids' own lunch with crap if they prefer. Here's another menu, equally good and healthful, from a different public school. I suspect that if I searched for a week, I wouldn't find a single french menu, even in the poorest most depressed banlieu, that would have food nearly as terrible as that at my reader's school.]
Each meal costs $1.85. Kids can double their portion of these terrible foods for a mere $.75, with a quarter surcharge for Popcorn Chicken (apparently some sort of premium product). Note that this is a wealthy district.
The point to me made here are obvious, and the comments retreaded so many times I wonder whether it is worth my effort on this little kazoo of a blog.
First, this food is terrible.
Second, I don't know that it's (all) the school system's fault - the wonks tell me that this wretchedness has something to do with federal funding levels.
Third, of course there's room for kids to enjoy burgers and fries and all that. But once a week, twice a week at most, is reasonable. Not every single day, not every single option. I understand the impulse not to be paternalistic, and I am as libertarian as anyone on matters of personal choice. But there is room to be paternalistic with little kids - they are the people for whom paternalism was made, because they don't know better, and will almost always reach for the fast and efficient shot of fat and calories and sugar. Even if there are also sandwiches, as I am assured they are, most kids will simply not order them when presented with the option of hot, fat laden, food.
* On this I have special experience. As a child I became addicted to these shots of fat, through the vehicle of doughnuts. I am getting married to someone who was never given such things, or only afforded them once in a blue moon at a friend's house. The difference in the quantity and types of food urges we have when things go off the rails makes me think that there is some basis to what I'm saying.
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Grilled Cheese or Rib Patty (i.e., a McRib?)
Pizza Dippers (i.e., bread sticks with tomato sauce)
Hamburger, Hot Dog or Chicken Pattie (with fries)
Cheese Pizza
Popcorn Chicken
Soft or Hard Tacos
Bagel Day
Burgers
Mini Pizzas
Nuggets
Mozzarella Sticks
Cheese Pizza
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1 comment:
My cure-all has always been to raise kids on ethnic food as soon as they're off breast milk. My mom and aunt would mash curry and rice into something we could eat before we even had all our teeth. It's more labor-intensive than Gerber's, but it's cheaper and means everyone grows up eating the same food, which includes vegetables and lean protein, so there's less of a problem introducing the kid to solids. (Somehow it didn't altogether take with my little sister, or perhaps took too hard; for years she'd refuse to eat anything except hot pickle on either waffles or rice.)
The trouble with the American menu is that it's what kids eat in fast food restaurants. It's "outside food," as my mom would say of anything she hadn't cooked. The French menu is what an adult would eat at home.
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