The Salad Bar Story that Wasn’t
June 16th, 2011 · 4 Comments · Posted in kids, school food
Do these beans look appetizing to you?
I had meant to end another year in school food on an up note with a report about the salad bars being installed in some D.C. schools. A few of the 128 schools in the system now have salad bars, thanks to grant programs like the one Ann Cooper was running last year in partnership with Whole Foods. That has since turned into a much more substantial effort with the White House, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and produce growers called Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools.
I took the subway to an elementary school just a few blocks from the capitol dome expecting to take photos of a salad bar in action. But when I arrived, the salad bar was completely empty. I was told that no produce had been delivered that day. Subsequently I learned that being the last week of school, Chartwells to cut down on food waste had not ordered produce for the salad bars.
What the kids were eating instead were hamburgers and canned green beans like the ones you see in the photo above. Or perhaps I should say what they were not eating were the green beans. I often wonder whether kids in other parts of town have the same vegetable-averse lunch habits as the ones at my daughter’s school, located in a more affluent neighborhood. Maybe I should not be so gratified to learn that–yup–kids over here on Capitol Hill dislike green beans just as much as the kids in Glover Park.
I took a stroll around the cafeteria to confirm and did not see a single child eating the green beans. Too bad, since canned green beans are much more flavorful than the fresh variety. They just don’t look as sharp as beans that have been barely cooked, then “shocked” in cold water to keep them bright green–the way Julia Child might cook them.
I think of this every time the matter of the USDA’s proposed new meal guidelines come up and all those extra servings of green vegetables they call for. Will the kids eat them? Why would the kids eat them, if they’re not eating them now?
As soon as school starts up again in the fall, I’ll have a report on salad bars. Because from what I’ve seen in other school districts, salad bars do engage kids in making better meal choices–including, obviously, vegetables.
Hi Ed, I agree with you about salad bars versus “vegetables”. My 7 year old daughter is about average with her consumption of and appreciation for vegetables, but one of her favorite restaurants is Sweet Tomatoes (aka Souplantation) which basically consists of a 40 foot long salad bar. She picks and chooses healthy foods all along the line, then proceeds to eat it all! Amazing!
Nat, I have no trouble at all believing that. I’ve seen the youngest kids become totally absorbed in a salad bar. The act of choosing their own foods and composing their own meals engages them and draws them in. It may be hard to fathom, but many districts won’t allow salad bars as a potential food safety hazard. But I really think this is the way to involve kids in eating healthier foods, rather than just slapping in on their plates and expecting them to eat it.
Ed, I am struggling with the salad bar thing. I totally get the kid involvement and my children also enjoy being engaged in the process of picking and choosing what they would like to eat.
However, the more I talk to folks who make it their business to move institutional food services toward more fresh and sustainable foods, the more I wonder how feasible all those “choices” are. The more choices we give kids the more work it means for the kitchen staff and the less money we have to buy quality foods in bulk… thus, the more we need to rely on cheap, sugary, salty and trans-fatty processed foods.
In many European countries such as France, the children are all served the exact same thing. From what I have seen it is all fresh, nutritious and delicious looking. Obviously, we are not the French, nor do we aspired to be. However, the fact remains that cooking the same for everyone does help the food dollars go a lot further.
Just putting it out there for discussion!
A good question for Kate Adamick. Salad bars are essential to her teaching. Also see how Ann Cooper did it in Berkeley and Boulder. American kids are different from kids in Europe. Our food culture sucks. You can give kids a gorgeous plate of food and they won’t touch most of it, because that’s not what they eat at home–unlike France, Italy, etc. Ergo, we need to involve kids in making their own choices. It can be done. It needs to be done. But you’re right, if you just fill the salad bar with canned crap, you won’t get very far.