Another way to find money for changes, Schreiber suggests, is getting volunteers into the school kitchens to eliminate labor costs. Schreiber says the garden model is a good one because it gets kids involved in learning more about agriculture. Sometimes very simple changes, such as placing bowls of fruits and vegetables on the lunchroom tables while children are waiting for their meas, can have positive effects when it comes to combating unhealthy school lunches, says Lisa Bennett, Communications Director for the Center for Ecoliteracy.
While still problematic, unhealthy school lunches and childhood obesity situations are getting attention and Bennett says there is some positive change happening. January 22, Learn more about our programs. Get Brochure. Reviewed: July 20, Is school food really that bad for kids? But if the alternative is that some kids will eat little or nothing during the day, perhaps the typical school food offerings are acceptable, to a point.
Traditional Public School Lunch Periods Previous generations of students did not receive hot food lunch options.
In fact, public schools offered no food to students. Instead, kids went home for lunch, presumably living in surrounding communities within walking distance.
Or, if they commuted, they were assigned to a classroom or home room where they ate a packed lunch brought from home. Occasionally, a parent or relative would drop off a hot sandwich or thermos of soup, but most students packed sandwiches, fruit, raw veggies, and maybe some cookies or a piece of cake.
Water was the beverage of the day, and could be carried in a bottle, jug, plastic container, or simply drunk from the school yard pump or indoor drinking fountain. There were few corner stores or diners where students could go for lunch before , and even if there was an eatery nearby, few students had enough pocket money to be able to afford to buy lunch every day.
School Lunch Programs During the s, 50s and 60s, as American society became more urban with greater numbers of people living in the cities and more large schools being built to accommodate students therein, some schools began offering occasional hot food, like hot dogs and sloppy Joes.
These dishes could be ordered in advance for about 10 or 15 cents per sandwich, on special days, but not necessarily daily. Milk could be purchased for 5 cents, and children were encouraged to bring fresh fruit and vegetables or a portable dessert from home to round out the luncheon.
Some local churches sponsored weekly soup days for nearby schoolchildren, with homemade soup available for a small price. Soda shops appeared where students with money from parents could buy a snack after school to supplement packed lunches.
As more new schools were built according to a progressive education plan, the buildings were equipped with cafeterias to ensure that students remaining on the premises for a full day of instruction could have access to freshly-prepared, nourishing food at reasonable cost. Nutritional quality varies widely from district to district, but according to the USDA a typical school lunch far exceeds the recommended milligrams of sodium; some districts, in fact, serve lunches with more than 1, milligrams.
The USDA also reports that less than a third of schools stay below the recommended standard for fat content in their meals. Nuggets are only one example of how schools rely on too many foods that are heavily processed and high in sugar, sodium, and chemicals. The problem isn't simply that kids are eating unhealthy foods for lunch. The cafeteria's offerings also give a seal of approval: "Kids associate school with education; therefore they get the wrong impression that these kinds of foods are healthy," says Dr.
And we're not just talking about the stuff on the hot-lunch menu. Provided through the National School Lunch Program NSLP to children who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches and breakfasts and also offered to students who can pay full price , it meets the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
That's where any kid can buy anything from cake to pizza or brand-name junk food. These heavily marketed choices are essentially unregulated. Hard candy and gum are not allowed to be sold but chocolate bars are, for example. That disconnect shocked Lolli Leeson, a wellness educator and parent, when she volunteered in her kids' lunchroom in Marble-head, Massachusetts. We take it for granted that these are the foods that kids want to eat. But most experts disagree.
Sam Kass, Mrs. Obama's food-initiative coordinator, has been spending a lot of time visiting schools and hosting children at the White House garden as part of Mrs. Obama's Let's Move! The food kids eat for lunch around the world is evidence that what we think of as kid-friendly is more nurture than nature.
In France, menus include beet salad, pumpkin soup, and veal stew. Korean students eat kimchi and stir-fried beef with carrots. In fact, the successes at Galtier Magnet School, where 80 percent of all the elementary students eat what's prepared at school, and at other districts throughout the country, prove that it is possible to serve meals that are healthy, appeal to kids' taste buds, and offer important lessons about the value of good nutrition -- instead of being based on children's whims.
At its core, the National School Lunch Program is a noble institution. Started in by President Truman to provide lunches to school-age children, the program was founded on the principle that keeping children healthy is vital to America's prosperity. But even that basic mandate has become a complicated issue. Take milk, for example: Chocolate milk, for decades a school-cafeteria staple, has double the sugar content of unflavored milk, and some school districts, including Washington, D. For example, Chicago schools serve it only on Friday.
But flavored milk's defenders can be found among the ranks of parents who fear that their children will miss out on crucial vitamin D and calcium because they won't drink the unsweetened variety. The dairy industry, naturally, is also supportive: "It's important to know that flavored milk provides the same nine essential nutrients as white milk, while contributing only 2 percent of the added sugar in a child's diet.
There are more valuable places to look if you're trying to reduce sugar, like sports drinks, sodas, and other empty-calorie beverages," says Ann Marie Krautheim, R. It's unfair to place all the blame on the schools, especially in these budget-strapped times where lunch programs are under pressure to break even. As Mrs. That's sad, but that's less than what many folks spend on a cup of coffee in the morning.
Both Dr. Nestle and Dr. Poppendieck recommend making school lunches free to all students. Doing so, they argue, will allow schools to put money spent on administering the current tiered system into improving the actual meals. With less pressure to lure paying students into the lunch line, food-service departments could concentrate on healthier foods.
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