Sunday, October 3, 2010

Guest Post: Junk Lunch

from northTOmom at Parenting is Political:

I've had this post sitting in my drafts file since last spring. I hadn't worked on it much, but I'd thought about it often, and I had a lot to say. I was planning to make some pointed observations about school lunches. I also hoped to raise a few seldom-asked questions about the importance schools place—or do not place—on children's health and nutrition. More specifically, I wanted to write about: why lunch periods in elementary schools have been reduced in length from an hour and a half, when I was a kid, to one hour or less today; how and why kids are rushed out of unappealing lunch rooms (overseen by authoritarian "Lunch Ladies") after 10-15 minutes; why the one lunch program that is a given in almost all Toronto District School Board schools—the Pizza Lunch fundraiser—is a junk lunch. But then I was alerted to this report from CBS on school lunches in France, and I realized that not only does it tie into my previous post on the French Paradox, but that it speaks for itself, and for me. There's nothing more to say. (Thanks to Corey Mintz for the link.)

5 comments:

  1. PsychMom says: I watched that on my lunch hour....and thought about my kid at school eating Mac and Cheese today. OMG. You're right...this clip says it all.

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  2. Thanks TOmom, "Just because they don't vote doesn't mean we can put anything in their face."


    Old but interesting new story about U.S. school lunch here.

    Note: You may not want to read proximal to eating.
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-12-08-school-lunch-standards_N.htm

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  3. Suburban Chicken Farmer,

    Thanks for the link. Very revealing--and disgusting!

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  4. I'd gladly pay $5 a day for my kid to eat that quality of food. I've been making lunch for my daughter every day and she gets some pretty unusual stuff for a 6 year old but that food is just amazing. I don't understand why we think kids will only eat chicken nuggets and pizza. My kids despise fast food.

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  5. Anonymous,

    I agree with you. I think kids like chicken nuggets and pizza because parents keep feeding that kind of junk to them. When I was young I hated hamburgers, pizza and most fast food. The reason was that my father was a gourmet cook (his hobby not profession), and he introduced us to a variety of *real* food at a very young age. I think palates are created to some extent, and I think the French also believe this, which is why they take such care with their school lunches.

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