The thread about the reality TV show Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution over in Cafe Society has started to become more of a debate on the quality of school lunches in the United States. Some like devilsknew think that Jamie is being alarmist and propagandizing a situation that really isn’t all that terrible to begin with, and that his solution (which involves not necessarily cutting calories, but removing processed foods in favor of real cooked meats and veggies) isn’t really going to fix anything at all.
Obviously many others think that there is a problem, but are stymied on how to fix it. Watching Jamie contend with the morass of federal legislation on how to get a subsidized meal (and almost always get it wrong), seeing that a cup and a quarter of french fries count as a veggie but seven different vegetables in a stir-fry won’t count if it doesn’t hit that cup-and-a-quarter mark, watching elementary school kids who can’t recognize a tomato or a potato in its natural form but who are happy to eat their sugary cereal floating in strawberry-flavored milk, or dip their mechanically-separated chicken nuggets into dipping sauces where the first ingredient is high-fructose corn syrup, I can’t help but think that we’re totally screwed, possibly beyond fixing. The various farm lobbies have so much more power over legislation than the actual people who are being slowly killed by the food they’re being served (and in free lunch districts, essentially being force-fed), so I can’t see getting this done through Washington. So is there a problem? And if so, how do we fix it?
I don’t think it is some kind of conspiracy going on here. It is a budget problem. Schools have to feed one meal a day generally so they hire the minimum number of lunch ladies to do that and give them the bare minimum resources to do it with. The ladies serve what they can but don’t have the time or money to prepare much other than canned, processed foods. To help the school budget, they (the school) put in vending machines. The machines give the kids what they want to eat (Red Bull and Pork rinds) and they provide money to the school to help pay for the lunch room. A double win! Kids figure (when they think of it at all) that the school wouldn’t be serving Red Bull and Pork rinds if they weren’t good for you, so eat up.
Not much has changed except for the vending machines. When I went to school in the 19 coughmumbles they were just beginning to debate vending machines. The school lunches were all but inedible back then IMO and, based on what I see in my kids cafeteria, the food has improved quite a bit over the years.
My wife has been in hysterics over that freaking show ever since it aired. My son has now been toting lunches every day of the week (he used to do so only once or twice).
Fixing the issue would mean first the government admitting that they have no fucking clue (we all know how fast that will be forthcoming)
I’ve seen a few episodes of the show, and applaud Oliver for creating meals that are not just healthy, but just as importantly, appetizing. I would have no problem eating a lot of what he’s made so far.
One of the big problems with the lunches when I was in school (1980s and 90s) was that the meals were both unhealthy and unappealing - soggy pizza with the texture of a doormat, burgers that tasted like shredded up tires, spaghetti drenched in overly sweet sauce. And don’t even get me started on their lame attempt at multiculturalism - burritos that looked like someone had literally taken a dump in them, and taco salads swimming in grease.
I ate the nachos pretty much every day, because that was one of the few things that wouldn’t make me retch.
As difficult as the lunch ladies have been on the Jamie Oliver show, I do sympathize with them on this. Yeah, making meals from scratch everyday is great, and is probably something they actually wouldn’t mind doing. But they’re probably understaffed as it is, and let’s face it, buying fresh ingredients everyday can get pricey.
Part of the problem, too, is that kids are very conservative eaters. They like to eat foods that they know, and they really REALLY like to spend most of their lunchtime visiting with their friends and playing with their food. So if you give them a choice of fresh foods that are unfamiliar, or highly processed foods that are familiar, most of them are going to pick the crap food because they know it. And they’d really rather concentrate on acting silly. It doesn’t matter what you serve, they’re going to throw away most of it–and I remember THAT from the Dark Ages when I was in school. Remember how they used to shake your milk carton to make sure that you hadn’t hidden food in it?
There’s a really excellent post on eGullet from a former Director of Food Services about the realities of the National School Lunch Program and the various forces at play. I’d highly recommend anyone who wants to join the debate to read up on it for background.
The chicken nuggets on the show were not mechanically separated. Even though the show seemed to suggest that they were, Jamie mentioned this in a brief aside. I think this was one of the more disingenuous portions of the series so far.
This is exactly why my mom always figured even a 30-second PB&J was a vast improvement over whatever the school was serving. By the time we were in middle school, we were packing our own lunches. I don’t understand why so many parents are willing to let their kids eat that crap, and unless you’re getting subsidized or free lunch, it ain’t cheap, either.
Yet another example of a well ran government program…(or program ran amok)
I still fondly recall the lunches that were prepared at the high school I attended in the NE corner of Tennessee back in the late 60s. Mostly comfort food goodness that was prepared that morning, including fresh baked rolls.
I have two very distinct memories of school lunches. The first were in elementary school where we had no vending machines and 2 choices for lunch. You got pizza or a hamburger one day, the next day you got spaghetti or shepherd’s pie, etc. When I got to middle school there were 3 vending machines and 4 lunch options each day. One of those was a salad bar but no one ever really used that option unless the other things were just horrible. This was very similar to high school except instead of 3 vending machines we had 10. In elementary school people who didn’t want what was served in the hot lunch line brought a bag lunch. In middle school and high school they shoveled that money into vending machines and ate chips and soda that day. After I graduated I came back to visit a couple of people and saw that they let Taco Bell set up a stand in the cafeteria and sell burritos 3 days a week. By the time I have kids in school they will just be hooked up to crisco dispensers for lunch.
I recently came across a high school year book from 1964. In one photo there was a 7-Up vending machine that also dispensed orange and grape soda, in bottle form. I only bring it up because I was surprised that a school could have a vending machine back then. Of course, when I was in high school in the 1990s we had vending machines.
I thought Supersize Me had some interesting information about school lunches in the United States. I usually got into the hamburger and french fry line when I was in grade school. The “hot lunches,” as the stuff like lasagna, chicken fried steak, etc. were called just didn’t taste very good. Actually, I liked the chicken friend steak.
Mass production food does tend to be less expensive and keeps longer
Individual schools may be limited in what they can do based on the nutritional guidelines, particular sales contracts, and mandated suppliers, of their parent governing bodies (city, county, state, federal)
Nutritional ideas may be based on outdated science, or ideas that aren’t scientific at all, or are just too simple of guidelines (a certain amount of anything from each broad “food group”)
I live in NY, and my high school had an interesting experiment in 1990-1992 (it may have continued after I graduated) - they switched over entirely to food from Subway. I’m not sure if ultimately this was a good or bad choice, but it was exciting to see that it was possible to experimentally introduce a radically different school lunch menu without the universe exploding. And to be honest, it sure tasted a lot better, and while technically ‘fast’ food, Subway is a lot healthier than most other big chain take out.
The cost issue is probably something that can only be helped by large contracts at the state or federal level.
The nutritional guidelines definitely need to be addressed. Pretending that “meat, bread, fruits and vegetables” are sufficient guidelines is ridiculous.
There should be three main guildelines:
Food category (the current pyramid tries to address this) - either by nutrition type (vitamin, mineral, protein, carb, fiber, aminos, etc) or by food type (fruit, vegetable, grain, etc), or both.
Nutritional density - obviously 1/4 lb of spinach is going to have much more nutrients in it than 1/4 lb of potato even though they are both ‘vegetables’.
Harm reduction- avoiding foods that are bad for other reasons, such as having preservatives or pesticides, being overly processed, having simple sugars with a lack of fiber, etc.
I think the books “Food Rules” and “Eat to Live” give really good information on both what food is good for you, and what kind of food to avoid.
Interestingly, after I came up with those three guidelines, I was looking at the website for the author of the Eat to Live book and see that he has three similar but slightly different guidelines:
That’s exactly what I did in HS. Often I wouldn’t even do that; I’d just go to the library (senior year I spend most of my lunchs working on our yearbook in the office). The main reason why I took home ec classes was because we got to eat the food we cooked in school. Even if we didn’t have enough time in class itself (every other day was a double period) we could show up during lunch and eat.
The big problem is people just don’t understand food = fuel.
That is all it is. You don’t need to eat vegetables at all. Sure you get vitamins and roughage from them, but you can get it from a pill too. The problem starts when instead of eating a carrot you eat potato chips. For that matter the problem starts when instead of eating a potato you eat potato chips.
People have a mindset veggies = good. So they take fatty dressings and sauces and pour it over celery. Well guess what? You’re veggie is no longer healthy.
Eating definately has changed since I was a kid. The biggest differnces are the amount of pop consumed and the availability of fast food. This isn’t to say you can’t drink Coke and eat McDonalds. You can if you want. You just have to limit the amount
If you give kids no choice and let them buy food they will simply save their money, skip lunch and eat a few hours later in the afternoon. You don’t have to eat at noon. You get used to it very quickly.
Well, yes and no. Multivitamins are at best neutral for your average joe and can become harmful if you’re actually trying to eat a balanced diet and take a multivitamin. Pretty much if you’re not pregnant or elderly, your best bet is to try to eat as healthfully as you can. And potatoes are much closer to a starch than a vegetable frankly. Drenching celery in ranch is not great but the nutritional value of the celery is still there, you’re just imbibing more calories than you should. I’d rather see kids eating healthy foods with dressing and once they’re used to vegetables we can work on eliminating the ranch.
Another point that Markxxx missed is that veggies are bulk. Fill up your gut with carrots (even carrots dipped in ranch dressing!) and chances are, you’re going to eat less of everything else on your plate.
I’ve had great success with my own diet not by removing or restricting food, but by adding vegetables. It’s hard to eat a cup or two of veggies THEN have too much meat/bread/starch/dessert.