Comments on: We’re in WashPost “Outlook” Today

By: Mary A

Mary A — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:12:55 +0000

As usual, a love for good, fresh vegetables has to start at home. When my kids were little, we had a garden that they were allowed to pick and eat from: tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, greens, edible flowers (a great favorite for the shock value!) At the time, we had very little money, but I was at home to make the garden and made-from scratch meals available. Super busy households often rely on convenience foods that do a great disservice to a young palate. Keeping fresh fruits and vegetables on hand means time to shop frequently and a dedication to serve them at home as well as in the lunch bag. The economies of scale at home and in the lunchroom are antithetic to the time and attention necessary to serving authentic food. Wish I could see more families committed to cooking and serving the real thing, rather than what is cheapest and fastest.

By: margueritekelly

margueritekelly — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:13:42 +0000

Liked your story in Outlook yesterday and wanted to suggest a follow-up. Back in the 80′s, a friend of mine went into the business of making and delivering lunches to day care centers in Washington which exceeded USDA requirements and she made money, although she and her helper made everything except the mayo from scratch. Even peanut butter. Email me if you want to learn more.

By: wkspray

wkspray — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:50:02 +0000

wow, what a story. I love how the cafeteria worker adds cheese to everything and says she thinks the kids really like it. I mean, I think a little cheese added to everything would be awesome, but it’s not necessarily the best practice, is it?! My daughter (in mcps) was really excited to start middle school with it’s multitude of choices. We’ve been using mylunchmoney.com – a handy way of reloading money into the account. When I checked one day and found she was spending over $5 on lunch, she finally told us what she was getting everyday – little cupcakes, a slushee, french fries, a bottle of water, some sugar powder stuff to add to the water, some “fruit snacks”. Yuck. Kids are actually going to school 5 days a week and making these kinds of choices. Now mind you, I understand no one is forcing her, and that as parents, it’s our job to raise her to make wise food choices, but given this kind of selection??? A parent could use a little help. Why all the crap?

By: Gatsbys Gardens

Gatsbys Gardens — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:52:22 +0000

I read your article for the Washington Post, and what you are realizing has been known for years in the public school system. In the teaching department this is known as a lost cause. We have tried for years to initiate changes in the way we feed children in school, counseling parents of obese children, controlling the food served at classroom parties and making sure children bring healthy snacks for in class treats.

It has been an uphill battle to say the least. The parent organizations earn money for the school by serving junk! The children do not want to buy veggies, but they will buy pizza day, bagel day, hot dog day, bagel day, McDonald’s day, etc. Good luck unlss they make it a mandate!

By: garden

garden — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:58:14 +0000

Ingredients aside, here’s what would happen if I ate baked ziti for lunch, then sat @ a desk for several hours. I’d fall asleep. Why? Simple — too many calories, too little protein. For healthy school meals, consider a top-down approach that’s creative and flexible.
Establish 2 criteria — range of calories and % of calories from protein per meal. For K thru 6th grade lunch, hypothetically, let’s say 400-600 calories and 35% protein. Then, leave it up to menu planners to create any combination of meals to meet these criteria.
Beverages, you did a nice job ruling out flavored milk. Ditto for other drinks with sugar. So for starters, offer low-fat and/or non-fat milk and water at lunch.
Entries, hot meals are great, but they tend to be heavy(see baked ziti) and, as you highlighted, highly processed. Simplier options like low -fat soups and stews might work if kids eat them.
If they don’t, sandwiches — turkey, cheese, chicken or egg salad or peanut butter — are a great option, along with deviled eggs, turkey burgers, vegetable burritos. Getting kids to buy into more vegetables, say carrot sticks, is a tougher, though not impossible, challenge.
Fruits or treats, whatever stays within the calorie/protein criteria, are OK to complete the meal.
While no foods are banned, pizza, fries, chicken nuggets, cheese burgers or other standard fast food fare likely won’t make the cut.
In additon to tracking what’s cooked, equally impt. is what’s consumed. Document what’s eaten and what’s wasted, and modify selections accordingly. Food isn’t a free good at home or the school cafeteria.
If these or similar reasonable criteria can be met, schools could offer simple, healthy meals.
Without nutritional standards, kids will have to subsist on emtpy rhetoric.

By: susaneneely

susaneneely — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:36:32 +0000

Thank you for a great food blog. I read the feed to the Washington Post,today. I do think that a child’s breakfast and lunch are very important for good work in the school day. You make a very important point about sugar which becomes even more important when you realize that lactose,fructose,glucose and starches all end up being a high glycemic load with resultant blood sugar highs and extreme drops which result in many “symptoms”. I think that parents should be responsible for feeding their children
breakfast before they come to school and even send their lunches. I do not think it is the government’s job to feed people.

By: teachesyoungchefs

teachesyoungchefs — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:15:31 +0000

My first wages, apart from baby sitting, were earned as a student cafeteria helper in the ’60s at Kensington Junior High School. Some of the vegetables came from cans, but the lunch ladies really cooked there, too. Just before Thanksgiving one year I asked the manager, Mrs. Ramsay, what she was going to do with the carcasses of the turkeys that had been roasted. I wanted to make stock, and she sent me home with a full grocery bag. My father was embarrassed (what will people think?), but we pulled out our biggest stock pot and made the best turkey soup ever.

By: alexcarp

alexcarp — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:10:42 +0000

I haven’t read through all your posts on the school food, but I would imagine you are aware of Jamie Oliver’s project in England on this topic. He found that when you serve fresh, delicious veggies to kids, especially if they are involved in raising them (or even if they just see from whence they come), they are more apt to try and like these foods. The kids’ parents were no help at all, not even trying to feed a vegetable to the kids.
I had a few veggies I didn’t like when I was a tike, but my grandparents had a garden that my brother and I helped tend over the summers. We would eat raw veggies as we picked them! I loved kohlrabi, peas, broccoli, zucchini, strawberries, tomatoes and many more – but I have to wonder whether seeing them grown and tasting a fresh picked veggie that I helped create had something to do with it. (Frozen, mushy veggies are the worst! No wonder kids won’t eat them!)

By: AD

AD — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:59:52 +0000

Unreal. It’s incredible what some adults are prepared to do to kids because of greed, ignorance or whatever. I live in Tokyo, and know lots of rotten, narrow-minded adults ready to parasitize the younger generation as pensioners. But at least they have the common sense to feed future taxpayers proper food!