It’s a School Lunch Renaissance… Seriously, They’re Getting Better
Of the five senses, perhaps the senses of smell and taste make the most lasting impressions. Remember
school lunches? I know I’ll never forget mine. For example, what my elementary school’s lunch ladies called “smoky links”—cocktail weenies swimming in congealed gravy—and what passed for a burrito are burned into my memory.
I grew up in an era when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), under President Regan, revised school lunch standards to allow school nutritionists to consider ketchup and other condiments like pickle relish as a portion of vegetables. Luckily, that was quickly reversed as a result of public outcry.
If you were a suffering public school cafeteria kid like me, you’ll be interested to know that things are improving for kids at lunchtime. Why? Health concerns for our children’s growing obesity problems and the public’s increasing concern about food safety has inspired politicians to take new interest in school lunches.
In fact, the USDA has begun offering politicians and their staff members taste tests of some of the top items on school lunch menus. Congressional members and staff recently feasted on chicken fajitas and sliced ham a la school cafeteria, for example.
The USDA supplies schools with meats, fruits, dairy and other food stuffs through a program that has a dual purpose—to help feed underprivileged children and also support agricultural markets. This program has improved since the days when I was a cafeteria diner. Today, the program offers a far wider selection to schools—180 different foods today compared to just 54 in 1981 (the same year as the ketchup-as-vegetable scandal and my not-so-beloved smoky links). The diversity of foods available to schools through the USDA now includes dried fruits, nuts, brown rice, legumes and unprocessed meats. In short, with these healthier options, it should be easier for school lunch ladies to craft healthy meals for kids. Getting the kids to eat them is another matter.
I grew up in an era when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), under President Regan, revised school lunch standards to allow school nutritionists to consider ketchup and other condiments like pickle relish as a portion of vegetables. Luckily, that was quickly reversed as a result of public outcry.
If you were a suffering public school cafeteria kid like me, you’ll be interested to know that things are improving for kids at lunchtime. Why? Health concerns for our children’s growing obesity problems and the public’s increasing concern about food safety has inspired politicians to take new interest in school lunches.
In fact, the USDA has begun offering politicians and their staff members taste tests of some of the top items on school lunch menus. Congressional members and staff recently feasted on chicken fajitas and sliced ham a la school cafeteria, for example.
The USDA supplies schools with meats, fruits, dairy and other food stuffs through a program that has a dual purpose—to help feed underprivileged children and also support agricultural markets. This program has improved since the days when I was a cafeteria diner. Today, the program offers a far wider selection to schools—180 different foods today compared to just 54 in 1981 (the same year as the ketchup-as-vegetable scandal and my not-so-beloved smoky links). The diversity of foods available to schools through the USDA now includes dried fruits, nuts, brown rice, legumes and unprocessed meats. In short, with these healthier options, it should be easier for school lunch ladies to craft healthy meals for kids. Getting the kids to eat them is another matter.
Another sign that we are living in a true lunch-lady renaissance is the fact that for many people these steady, measurable improvements simply aren’t good enough. For example, last year President Obama has proposed an additional $1 billion for child nutrition programs for 2010. While budget woes make this unlikely to see passage, he’s clearly identified a goal of further improving the quality of foods our kids eat.
There has also been rising pressure from the public, media and politicians to raise the safety standards for the cafeteria food our kids eat. While school lunches are far healthier than fast food on nutritional levels—providing balanced meals with fewer calories and less sodium than most fast food chains—there does seem to be some room for improvements. For example, the USDA’s school lunch program has set safety standards for pathogens in meats that are higher than minimum standards for food sold in grocery stores, but some fast food restaurants test for pathogens in uncooked ingredients more often and in some cases enforce more stringent limits on pathogens. Dan Glickman, former USDA director, directed his staff to close this gap as far back as 2000, but unfortunately, the USDA was unable to hit that mark.
Perhaps the USDA could learn a thing or two from the corporations and businessmen who run our nation’s largest and most successful fast food chains. Since the deaths of four children following an E. coli outbreak in 1993 at Jack-in-the-Box restaurants, many national fast food chains, including Jack-in-the-Box, have taken strides to improve the safety of their food by setting new tougher standards. For example, McDonald’s and Burger King test the ground beef they buy ten times more frequently than the USDA tests the ground beef they send to schools. And Jack-in-the-Box has limits on bacteria that are ten times more stringent than the USDA school lunch program.
Last year, Congressman Joe Sestak (D-PA) introduced the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2749) to close these food safety gaps, making the smoky links of the future at least as safe as a take-out burger. The legislation also suggests other improvements, such as improving the program’s response to food recalls.
For us at KeepOurFoodSafe.org, this is the ultimate good-news-better-news scenario. We laud the USDA, politicians and food safety critics for pushing forward improvements in the safety and wholesomeness of our kids lunches, and we also fully support the further improvements proposed by Obama, Sestak and other politicians. Every generation wants its children to live better than they did—may our children never be subjected to the tasteless, unhealthy food we were.
There has also been rising pressure from the public, media and politicians to raise the safety standards for the cafeteria food our kids eat. While school lunches are far healthier than fast food on nutritional levels—providing balanced meals with fewer calories and less sodium than most fast food chains—there does seem to be some room for improvements. For example, the USDA’s school lunch program has set safety standards for pathogens in meats that are higher than minimum standards for food sold in grocery stores, but some fast food restaurants test for pathogens in uncooked ingredients more often and in some cases enforce more stringent limits on pathogens. Dan Glickman, former USDA director, directed his staff to close this gap as far back as 2000, but unfortunately, the USDA was unable to hit that mark.
Perhaps the USDA could learn a thing or two from the corporations and businessmen who run our nation’s largest and most successful fast food chains. Since the deaths of four children following an E. coli outbreak in 1993 at Jack-in-the-Box restaurants, many national fast food chains, including Jack-in-the-Box, have taken strides to improve the safety of their food by setting new tougher standards. For example, McDonald’s and Burger King test the ground beef they buy ten times more frequently than the USDA tests the ground beef they send to schools. And Jack-in-the-Box has limits on bacteria that are ten times more stringent than the USDA school lunch program.
Last year, Congressman Joe Sestak (D-PA) introduced the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2749) to close these food safety gaps, making the smoky links of the future at least as safe as a take-out burger. The legislation also suggests other improvements, such as improving the program’s response to food recalls.
For us at KeepOurFoodSafe.org, this is the ultimate good-news-better-news scenario. We laud the USDA, politicians and food safety critics for pushing forward improvements in the safety and wholesomeness of our kids lunches, and we also fully support the further improvements proposed by Obama, Sestak and other politicians. Every generation wants its children to live better than they did—may our children never be subjected to the tasteless, unhealthy food we were.
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