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The Double Headed Food Monster in Schools

February 7th, 2012 Leave a comment Go to comments
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School Lunch

Photo: Mrs. Q

There are several ways for children to be fed during school hours. One is to bring home made lunch in a cute little lunchbox (cool until third grade) or a brown bag (recyclable, of course.)

The other calorie intake method is to get fed by the school. We’ll talk about this method today. The reason it a 2 headed monster is that there are actually 2 types of school food:

1. Government subsidized free/reduced lunch – serving tens of millions of children daily.

2. “Competitive Foods” – sold at full price through vending machines, or alongside the subsidized fare.

A bit more detail:

1. The subsidized lunches are under strict regulation by the USDA, which mandates the nutriton profile of every meal served. We’ve written about school lunches in the past. They’re quite horrible – both from a nutrition perspective and from a flavor profile – it’s all prepackaged, processed poop (pardon our French). But that’s what you get on a shoestring budget. If you don’t believe us, you can read the diary of Mrs. Q (a teacher who took photos of school lunch every single day last year).

Slowly but surely, improvements are being made in school lunches. Recently the USDA, together with First Lady Michelle Obama, announced new and improved nutrition standards that include more fruits and vegetables, less calories, sodium reduction, and healthier milk. Yay!

Unfortunately some of the nutrition definitions are a bit, shall we say, loose. How else could pizza constitute a full serving of vegetable?

2. Competitive foods are simply put, a loophole. They allow kids to buy junk food on campus. They allow schools to get kickbacks from the junk food companies based on the sales success. Since federal regulation is very weak, each school district or state can decide for itself, or simply not decide, what goes into the school vending machines.

In a survey of thousands of schools across the country, published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, researchers pointed out that in over half the elementary schools surveyed, junk foods are widely available. The situation is particularly dire in the southern states, wheres in the west schools tend to limit the types of snacks available for sale. On the bright side for the south, they had the highest availability of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Perhaps it’s time for Congress to reevaluate the full school food ecosystem?

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  • http://www.UrbanOrganicGardener.com Mike Lieberman

    Most definitely is time for Congress to reevaluate the school food system. While they are at might as well reevaluate the entire educational system, but that’s another discussion on another blog.

    Thank you for showing how complex the situation really is and it’s not a quick fix.

  • Holiday

    “They’re quite horrible – both from a nutrition perspective and from a flavor profile – it’s all prepackaged, processed poop (pardon our French). But that’s what you get on a shoestring budget.” 

    Wow, way to approach the topic from an extremely negative viewpoint. Some schools actually work really hard to provide decent, healthy food for their students. Can’t you give them some credit? Or at least include a qualifier in your sentence rather than making it absolute?

    Also, Mrs. Q photographed/ate her school’s lunches daily in 2010, not last year.

  • Guest

    We may possibly need to re-think our schools. Teaching and education needs to be the first priority…with students and learning being the focus of attention. Let’s wean our educational system away from the distracting role of providing day care for kids as a convenience to parents. Why are parents not packing lunches for their kids? It is much more convenient to have the school feed them and entertain them. Griping about the food and doing an over-acted foodie freak-out is an added indulgence too many parents and non-parents enjoy. In the meantime, the Chinese are teaching their kids math and science and business. Our kids will all be cleaning the homes of Chinese professionals and cutting their grass…and probably still expecting free meals…and probably still griping about them.

    Maybe we don’t need to “reevaluate the full school ecosystem” so much as we simply need to grow up, buckle down to learning and get cafeterias and free food in perspective.

  • Deborahnetto

    Why should Congress or politicians be involved in what our children eat? Really, think about that belief! Bring it all back to the local community. If we got rid of the dept of education, think of all the $ we could save in providing education on healthy eating & lifestyle, growing your own food, eating organically etc.

  • Sb

    I love your column. I value your stories, opinion, research and facts. After reading this article, I guess I just have to ask – why it is the school’s and the public’s irresponsibility to feed our children at school. I strongly feel this one of the responsibilities that we take on when we decide to birth children.

    I would like to see those funds allocated toward teaching and acquisition of proper teaching tools and technologies – equal across schools regardless of the districts financial contribution.

    I believe this thought would bring up strong comments regarding the fact that parents would not send their children to school with lunches and therefore the children suffer. I understand that children should not suffer. So I ask – doesn’t the problem lie with parents failing to be parents and fulfill their duties and requirements as a parent? 

    Why do we look to regulate what is a consequence of the main issue – Parents being responsible for the children they – chose- to – have.

    • Sb

      I apologize- I did not proof this posting. Irresponsibility, in line three, should read “responsibility”.

    • Sb

      I apologize- I did not proof this posting. Irresponsibility, in line three, should read “responsibility”.

  • Berryheartwolf

    I actually found mold on a cheeseburger at my school once.

    • Berryheartwolf

      A cafeteria cheeseburger

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  • Elizabeth

    I live in the Santa Barbara area, and my daughter’s elementary school seems to have a pretty good food program.  They only serve brown rice and whole wheat bread, they only use reduced fat cheese, each child’s lunch has a salad (sure it includes reduced fat ranch, but at least they get the veggies) and a piece of fruit, they don’t offer flavored milks…. they get pizza every Friday but it is whole wheat crust with reduced fat cheese and they do not offer a meat option, only cheese or veggie.

    I really don’t understand why all schools don’t make these types of small changes. Is it really so much more expensive or difficult to make the switch from white to brown rice? To not offer flavored milks? And as far as I know there has been no revolt or outrage that her school doesn’t offer french fries every day…..

  • LCHF

    carbs! carbs! carbs!  More people need to read “Why We Get Fat and What to Do about It” by Gary Taubes.  The bottom line is that carbs drive up insulin levels which drives fat storage.  Get these kids off the carb-wagon.  That won’t happen because carbs are the cheapest calories to purchase.