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TechnoratiRethinking School Lunch
Just as the scales beneath the feet of our nation's children are reaching a tipping point, so too is the social movement of providing local, organic foods for America's schoolchildren. This is welcome news to Berkeley chef and culinary revolutionary Alice Waters and others who have long-promoted the health and lifestyle benefits of consuming whole, organic, locally grown and produced foods.Change is afoot in many public school districts around the country; one of the most promising programs is the Berkeley Unified School District, which has undergone a complete overhaul of its school lunches under the leadership of the "Renegade Lunch Lady," chef Ann Cooper. With much-needed supplemental funding from Waters' Chez Panisse Foundation, Cooper has set herself to the task of providing healthy, delicious food consistent with Berkeley's progressive Wellness Policy, to schoolchildren. Her work isn't easy. And sadly, Cooper has to fight the federal government every day to achieve her goal.
Cooper knows that under her tutelage kids will clamor for freshly roasted red potatoes over high fat, processed Tater Tots, but first she has to get them on their plates. Before she can do that, she has to purchase fresh red potatoes. But the federal government makes it easy to purchase the processed potatoes and nearly impossible to purchase the fresh potatoes through the National School Lunch Program.
The nation's schoolchildren are fed, in large part, by the over-produced agricultural commodities that are promised a market by the Farm Bill. The Department of Agriculture's commodities policy, which will be revisited by Congress this year when it passes the new Farm Bill, puts the USDA in a conflict of interest between agribusiness and promoting the good health of U.S. schoolchildren.
The USDA buys hundreds of millions of pounds of excess beef, pork, milk and other high-fat meat and dairy products to bolster or normalize dropping prices. It then turns around and dumps those raw commodities into the National School Lunch Program, which creates a shopping list from which Cooper may select her ingredients.
According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity, by 2010 nearly half of the children in North America will be overweight or obese.
Although medical journals are full of evidence of the health benefits of near-vegetarian meals, the vast majority of public schools offer meals based on meat and dairy products because meat and dairy are the most over-produced commodities and, in turn, the most readily available ingredients.
The National School Lunch Program was enacted by Congress in 1946, with an explicitly stated, dual policy: "to safeguard the health and well-being of the nation's schoolchildren" and "encourage the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities and other foods." Today, the USDA acts as a broker between farmers and school kitchens. As agribusiness and mega-farms have increasingly taken over a larger share of the agricultural market, the beneficiaries of commodities subsidies are not the family farmers that the Farm Bill originally intended. Instead, big business, with its powerful pocketbook, has bought the USDA, to the detriment of the nation's schoolchildren.
Processing commodities intensifies the conflicts of interest within the USDA. Through the National Processing Agreement, designed to reduce paperwork and costs, the USDA holds agreements with agribusiness to turn commodities into processed foods that can be easily heated in school kitchens, because most lack stoves for actual cooking. A full two-thirds of the listed commodities being processed are meat and dairy. The remaining third covers everything from oil and fruit (in the same proportion) and flour and vegetables. The only vegetable listed with any specificity is the potato, and the few fruits on the list are being processed with flour and shortening to become high fat muffins and fruit pastries. Of course the most popular processed food on school lunch menus is high fat pizza.
The National School Lunch Program should be treated like a healthy part of our overall educational system, and to that end, Congress should give children an independent broker that runs no risk of bowing to the powerful agribusiness lobby. Chefs such as Ann Cooper need a voice within an appropriate agency, such as the departments of Health and Human Services or Education, which puts the health and well-being of children first. Recognizing in the pending Farm Bill that the National School Lunch Program is not an agricultural program, nor an appropriate dumping ground for a glut of unhealthy commodities, would be a decent first step.
Pasta with greens and feta cheese
4 servings
This quick and easy pasta dish is both flavorful and flexible. Instead of spinach, greens could include arugula, watercress, or endive. For a more substantial meal, add roasted or grilled squash, eggplant, or peppers. It's easy to send to school, too, because pasta holds up well to dressings and moisture, and it tastes great at room temperature.
Salt
2/3 pound penne pasta
1 cup diced yellow onion (1 medium)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups washed and chopped fresh spinach
1/4 cup water
2 1/4 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain and set aside.
2. In large saute pan, saute the onions in the oil until lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes taking care not to burn. Add the spinach and the water, then cover the skillet and cook for 3 more minutes. When the spinach has wilted, add the pasta and toss to heat through.
3. Add the lemon and pepper and toss again. Top with feta cheese and serve.
Nutrition facts
Serving size: About 5.5 ounces
Amount per serving:
Calories: 391
Calories from fat: 107 (27 percent of total calories)
Amy Dillard is an assistant professor of law at the University of Baltimore at work on an article about USDA commodities dumping. Lisa Holmes is co-author with Chef Ann Cooper of "Lunch Lessons" (Collins, 2006), a recent winner of an ICPA Cookbook Award. For more recipes, go to: www.lunchlessons.org/ html_v2/recipes.html
© 2007 The San Francisco Chronicle
10 Comments so far
Show AllThere is so much misinformation out there about the commodity program it is just disgusting. "Professional" researchers take the snippets of information that they have about the program and distort it to meet their slant. This article is riddled with gross errors. Why don't you get your facts straight so you can stop spreading distortion about the programs?
The Commodity Program hasn't used surplus as it's main source of food for the schools for at least 30 years. Commodity foods are a planned purchase every year. Schools have the choice of what they want from the commodity offerings or can have bulk commodity diverted to a processor to make finished nutritionally sound end products.
School Nutrition Professionals are highly motivated to serve reduced fat, reduced sodium, transfat free products and a variety of fruit and vegetable offerings. Their focus drives the products that these manufacturers are creating to meet their demand.
When schools have bulk commodities diverted to processors, they have MORE control of the nutritional profile of what is served. Many of the processors are offering reduced fat, low fat, low sodium, whole grain and low sugar products because the child nutrition professionals are demanding it.
Just because the majority of commodities that were ordered last year were cheese and meat doesn't mean that's all that schools are serving kids! It comes down to purchasing decisions. Schools are going to buy protein items along with the spectrum of other foods they use in their menu offerings, anyways but they can get their protein offerings cheaper from USDA than if they purchase it. So, yet, again, another distortion..
Can school gardens help children learn the benefit of healthy food choices? Absolutely! Can nutrition education fully integrated into the classroom improve the possibility of them improving their eating and lifestyle choices? Most certainly!
School Lunch and the Commodity Program are not the big bad demons here. We both know this is a deeper problem... It's a cultural issue. We need to change eating & lifestyle changes as a culture to truly impact the change we desire.
There are so many school districts around the country who are doing tremendous things through their wellness plans and menu review to improve the nutritional profile of their offerings, very similar to what Ann Cooper is doing. They're just not quite so obnoxious about it. Has Berkley met the Healthy School Challenge? Are they a "Gold" district? If not, why not? Afraid they would be "conforming" to the system? Berkley is receiving reimbursement for the meals they serve and are receiving commodities, too. Why is she bashing the same institution that is financially supporting her? If she wants to see system change, she could get a lot more mileage through collaboration. If she wants to spread her message, why doesn't she sign up to do education sessions at School Nutrition Associations' Annual National Conference? She's no angel... She couldn't even analyse the nutritional profile of her menus last fall because she didn't even have standardized recipies...
Is she doing some good things with her kids? Yes. But you can get a lot more with honey than you can with vinegar... Collaboration can go a long way and can effect change more effectively...
So next time you decide to write an article about the NSLP or the Commodity program, do your homework better, will you? You're program ignorance is just appauling.
I think educating kids about where their food comes from would go a long way toward changing their eating habits. Most kids are compassionate and wouldn't be so crazy about eating hamburgers if they knew the meat comes from factory farms. Additionally, they are very environmentally conscious, so would very likely be supportive of eating organically. I've heard of programs where kids take part in growing organic produce that are very successful.
It's all about education and what better place than schools to implement it?
You can bet, those same gov. foods dumped on the schools also have a bunch of gross, unecessary additives, including corn syrup, though, have you noticed- since the biofuels boom, we are starting to see a shift away from corn syrup back to sugar (check your pop labels, they now list both). We have a new kind of "cornspiracy" going down now with the biofuels- just recently, the US forced MX to accept into their country corn syrup from the US, in exchange for allowing MX sugar into the US. At that time I said, "Watch, no more sugar-only in the pop there, and the candy will have lots more corn syrup." My sons live in MX. The son in Yucatan told me they had a new baby food in MX right after that transpired, and it's advertised as supposedly so great for baby- and yet it has corn syrup as one of the ingredients, and yes, the pop and candy have more and more corn syrup. Crazy, ain't it? I didn't expect they'd dump their toxic corn syrup into the mouths of babes, and with such speed.
Corn syrup is a totally unnatural substance, requires complex chemical processing to manufacture, and our bodies can't digest it properly, which is why we all got so fat the past 25 years- it's in almost everything. Nobody needs this crap in their bodies. We don't need it in gov. commodities, and we certainly don't need it in our childrens' school lunches- rememember that old SNL commercial spoof, where they were advertising, "Swill"? That's what corn syrup reminds me of. (Barf).
There's a little school up in NE, WA that tries to feed the kids healthy, natural foods, and organic and locally grown whenever possible (which helps support their own communities!). This poor school has limited funds, but they care enough to at least try to do what's right for the kids, and you can see the difference in students that have that extra little bit of care invested in them. In fact, staff at this little school years ago discussed with me that maybe my son was having a reaction to certain food colorings, because he was always in such a daze, going back to school after Halloween, Easter- at first I balked at the suggestion, but paid attention after that and soon realized they were right on about that.
I think one thing they definitely need to do is not only make school lunches healthier but also better tasting and more appetizing. I remember my public school lunches. It was a shame what slop they would feed us kids. And then they'd wonder why half of what they served went untouched or why so many kids would rather eat junk food. They used to treat us like farm animals when it came to food. I can remember skipping lunch and pigging out when I came home just because I couldn't stomach school food.
The extent of this tragedy has not been fully grasped in this article.
Virtually none realize the enormous health issues involved in feeding any animal, and that includes the human animal, a diet primarily comprised of naturally inappropriate foods.
Humans are herbivores. What we have understood culturally about the necessity of animal proteins is absolutely false. So too, are our completely erroneous understandings of B12 and calcium sources and requirements.
To get up to speed quickly, I recommend this short video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05zhL1YUd8Q and
The home of the Herbivore Awareness Project, http://www.allinharmony.com
And http://www.notmilk.com.
What we allow our children to be fed is our responsibility. And the first step to assuming this responsibility is to emerge from the culturally inscribed web of unhealthy illusion. Humans are herbivore. Let's not be afraid of the truth. And then, let's get busy providing the right foods for our children's health.
Do you people really think that kids have to be "programmed" via advertising to hate vegetables and love "junk" food? Really? Do you think that before the advent of television in the 1950's that candy and hamburgers were nonexistant and everyone ate squash and a "near-vegetarian diet"? Are you kidding me?
And before you flame, I myself eat no red meat and am a flexitarian, aka "near vegetarian". I'm also older with mature tastes, and can tell you for certain that if you'd tried to feed me squash when I was a kid you'd have ended up wearing it.
There are plenty of ways to improve the health of meals without changing the basic tastes and appeal to juvenile appetites while still cutting fat and calories. Things like soy-based oils, low fat cheeses, lean meats. Trying to force teenagers to eat feta cheese and squash, however, is a battle you'll never win, advertising or no advertising. Stop the wishful thinking and get some practical ideas.
Parents need to start eating healthy themselves before they can hope to influence their kids. If we keep grabbing Greasy Mac on the way home because it's easier- WE are are partof the problem. If we could all stop buying fast food, the health care companies would panic because we might not need them.
TC
The marketing of food to kids is one of the most exploitative, insidious, and ruthless aspects of corporate capitalism. They go after kids at the youngest age they can, filling Saturday morning tv with endless commercials for the latest synthetic sugar-filled crap. Kids don't have a chance, especially when you combine saturation marketing with peer pressure that results from so many kids wanting what they have been sold through advertising. Of course their "preference" for pizza reflects this. This is a perfect example of "free choice" in the market as a masquerade for the brainwashing and propagandizing of specific food products for the benefit of agribusiness. Health, environment, animal welfare be damned.
Here is a group readers might interested in regarding kids and food and gardening, etc. Called Veggieu in Milan Ohio is helping kids make the right choices regarding food. 419-499-7500
Also, the Culinary vegetable institute is located nearby which provides a unique setting for forward thinking chefs.
Perhaps, with kids learning more about food choice they can exert their influence with the school districts to begin offering healthy choices.
kitty_tc, I don't think it's true that kids "naturally" like some foods and hate others. I think a lot of what people think of as "good" is culturally conditioned. I base that on the fact that the variety of foods that people eat throughout the world is truly amazing. I also think that there is a strong emotional component to food that makes changing dietary habits really a tough challenge. Suffice it to say that the average american kid's diet is pretty unhealthy and it will take a lot of concerted effort on the part of parents and schools to offer healthy alternatives for school lunch programs.