The National School Lunch Program

Our Nation’s School Lunch Program comes up for renewal by Congress this September and as a nation we need to pay attention.  With all of the concern about our children’s performance on standardized tests we seem to have forgotten one element to the equation that could have significant impact on their ability to perform.  Breakfast and lunch served in our nations schools has become more important than ever.  With more and more women working outside the home and our economy in its current state the National School Lunch Program has never before been poised to play such a critical role in the lives of our children.

In 1946 the National School Lunch Act was approved by the 79th Congress.  Foodtimline.net  has this to say about the origin of our current program,

The 79th Congress (1946) recognized the need. Legislation was introduced to give the program a permanent status and to authorize the necessary appropriations for it.  Following hearings on the proposed legislation, the House Committee on Agriculture Report stated, in part: “The need for a permanent legislative basis for a school lunch program, rather than operating it on a year-to-year basis, or one dependent solely on agricultural surpluses that for a child may be nutritionally unbalanced or nutritionally unattractive, has now become apparent. The expansion of the program has been hampered by lack of basic legislation. If there is an assurance of continuity over a period of years, the encouragement of State contribution and participation in the school lunch program will be of great advantage in expanding the program.

The National School Lunch Act was amended several times throughout the years and has endured its fair share of bad publicity.  To be fair, much of it was justified.  What is now apparent is that the tides have turned and teachers, parents and students are working to find a better way.  Incredible strides are being made in many district to bring fresh local foods into school cafeterias.  Involving the children in the planning and preparation of food is an important part of ensuring that the kids are on board with instilling good nutrition and habits. To get involved, check out the two sites involved, and if you still have questions about how to take action, leave me a comment below and I’ll address them this week.

Also, check out the two sites below for wonderful information about how progress is being made to improve a system that the children in our country rely on.

1. One Tray = One Future. Local farms, smart schools, healthy kids. www.onetray.org

2. Feed Your Children Well http://ff.im/-7XAbd

The Impact of Sodexo

I work in a large middle school in Fairfield County, Connecticut and in large districts like the one I work in, we are contracting our lunch services to large companies. Our district currently is responsible for over 10,000 students in grades K-12 and boasts the 2nd largest high school in the state. We contract our lunch program to Sodexo, which prepares the menus and provides the food.  While making an attempt to provide the children with the healthy food we see ‘trendy’ schools providing for their students and as parents that we would desire for our own kids, I can tell you the truth as I see it.

Our school contains approximately 1,100 students that eat during three lunch ‘waves’ which last only 25-30 minutes. Of these 1100 students approximately 25% receive free or reduced lunch. I have included the CT application for free/reduced lunch so you can become aware of the income parameters.

Cafeterias are often too small and the staff not large enough to handle the amount of students that move through them during the school day.  By the time many students receive their meals they may have less than 10 minutes to eat. That alone is far from ideal. Our school lunch menu offers many choices at lunch but the truth is that the same meals are rotated and designed to be prepared quickly and efficiently.

Sub Stations, Make Your Own Pizza and a Salad Bar, Sans the Salad

Today for lunch the main choice was something called ‘Twin Turkey Hot Dogs on Wheat Buns’ (notice that it is not 100%  whole wheat and it is definitely enriched) with a choice of either baked beans or fresh fruit basket and a milk option.  In addition, there is a daily choice of a ‘Sub Station’, Salad Bar, Pizza Bar and Grill Selections.  Sounds delightful but let me enlighten you.

The ‘Sub Station’ is supposed to be reminiscent of a Subway counter service and you can actually get a fairly decent sub sandwich there if you know how to order.  Of course, the kids are allowed to order whatever they want on their sub.  Some sandwiches consist of enriched roll, pepperoni, bologna, mayo, cheese.  Often students order meat with no veggies!

The salad bar contains the prepackaged salad mix, cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, chick peas, three bean salad (all from large industrial cans packed with HFCS), cucumbers, peppers (green, red and hot), onions, tuna salad (no light mayo here), cheese and along with the requisite croutons, are pepperoni, and chicken nuggets! Guess what the kids order in their ‘salad’!  A little salad, lots of croutons, chicken nuggets and pepperoni with two packs of salad dressing please!  And of course the preferred way to eat this is to pour all the salad dressing into the plastic container, close the lid and shake it until every morsel is coated in the sugary dressing!

The pizza ‘bar’ – so funny – consists of your choice of cheese pizza or cheese pizza. Big Yum.  Grill selections include burgers, chicken patty or grilled cheese sandwiches – every day.

The cafeteria food in our school is very popular with our students and I’m sure if you’re a regular reader of this blog you can surmise why.  Each choice is loaded with sugar, fat and salt.  I’m well aware that large companies such as Sodexo are doing what they can to provide a nutritionally sound meal to our youngsters at an affordable price but the hidden cost may be so much more difficult to deal with.

I had lunch duty (scary) the other day and I’d like to take you on a brief journey.  Probably, not much has changed in the school lunch room since you were there. Students still eat packed in like sardines at long folding tables lined up in rows. Teachers meander through the cafeteria trying to maintain some sort of order while making sure that 350+ students get through the lunch lines and stay away from the vending machines until lunch has been served.

The Vending Machines

I forgot all about them, the kids love those and will do anything to spend their lunch money there instead on a hot lunch.  We have a chip and snack machine, and the very popular ice cream machine.  Who wants ‘Twin Turkey Dogs’ when that inviting neon is beckoning you to spend your money there?  As you work your way through the tables to monitor the children’s behavior you can’t help but notice a few things.  The first thing is the girth of these 10-14 year olds!  There is only one way to see how pronounced our national eating disorder is and that is to look at hundreds of kids eating lunch together.  You’ll also notice that most students are eating the cafeteria food and that very few students bring lunch from home…very few.  What a sad comment on our harried lives.

They all have generous portions in front of them but very rarely do they eat all of their food.  And those wonderful fruit cups and veggies?  Well, they end up in the trash.  As a matter of fact, I have seen kids throw out whole fruit without a bite, wrapped burgers, and sandwiches, along with unopened juice and milk boxes.  The most unbelievable thing I witnessed was a child with 75 cents on his lunch tray (styrofoam of course so it will be with us forever) throw the tray away with the change.  His pal had 50 cents on his tray and did the same.  When I approached them about their tragic mistake (silly me) they both looked at me, shrugged their shoulders and said, “It’s only change. Who cares?”  Who cares, indeed.

I have included a menu from our district along with prices so you can see for yourself how important this issue is.

Please get involved in your child’s school district and be aware of what is happening in your kids’ lunch room.  Ask them what happens, what they see, what they eat and by all means be courageous and make your child’s lunch!  My youngest son is a sophomore in high school and my husband makes his lunch every day.  He loves it.  As a student athlete his school day doesn’t end until after 5:00 and he’d much rather have something healthy and satisfying.  All it took to get him hooked was a really good Kaiser roll loaded with fresh tomatoes, lettuce, cheese (real not cheese product) and some good deli meats.  Cooking slow, even for your child’s lunch may take more effort but is always worth it.  The National School Lunch Program is important. We need to do what we can as informed citizens to bring what is available to a few districts to all districts.