American Kid's School Lunches

Chemical corporations like Killing Salt Chemicals and Montsanto are concerned about profit not our health. 

Why do American children eat worse than Korean children, I've been asking myself lately? I know the structure of the American food system which places profit of companies above the nutrition of children, but the question is important for me so I can look at the different angles.

Korean school food is way beyond what I at as a kid. There are often two different vegetables, a meat serving, soup, and rice. Though not everything was ideal the food was cooked by the staffed and not just dumped out of a package, heating in a pot or cooked in a microwave. There is usually an okay amount of nutritional content in the food. I sometimes eat at the cafeteria and I feel nourished. Though I am more nourished when I eat food on my terms which is organic and fresher, what Korea is doing is very good for kids.

When I was a kid in America, the food I ate was never satisfying and I was often hungry. And I was fatter as a kid because of the limited options I had then and what I didn't have now.  Just pretending that you aren't familiar with American school lunches I remember hamburger, chicken nuggets, salesbury steak and french fries, ketchup and a sugary drink. I never saw a green vegetable besides a piece of lettuce.

I feel bad for most kids today, because it's harder for to get access to higher quality food. McDonalds profits are expanding in a recession economy with children's wastelines. Statistically, 1 out of every 3 white kids born in 2000 will get diabetes, and 1 out of 2 black children.

I've been watching a Michael Pollen hosted US Berkley lecture series on food issues and was introduced to a frontline lunch lady named Ann Cooper. She reformed Berkely's School lunch system and now is working with her friends.

She explains the psychological restrictions on people's thinking and the inverse relationship between spending . Often people encounters resistance to making changes in the school's system for budgetary reasons. The school districts don't have the money. She brought forward inconvenient facts for some people. People will pay 5 dollars for a cup of coffee but the average money spent to on child's lunch is 89 cents. We need to shift our priorities.

It goes on

She is not advocated people stop buying coffee. But that the countries thinking needs to change about feeding our kids less calorie dense and more nutritious food, if we want them to succeed. She points out that the food system is making 4300 hundred calories for every person.

Changes need to be made, but it's hard work she says exasperated.

Ann Cooper calls her self a renegade tongue in cheek for suggesting training employees to cook, kitchens installed, and nourishing food. She is not interested in serving exotic food, just real food.

She gives specific examples of how hard.

"It's fine to say I want to cook a carrot, but what if you don't have a stove?"

"How do you train staff who have been serving chicken nuggets and tatter tots for 20 years?

How do I get them to put a knife in their hands and cut something without the union callling for a raise?"

"Chicken nuggets, fries, cocktail, chocolate milk, all of that the USDA loves, that- never touched by human hands. I'm a chef I want to touch them in my hands!"

She get passionate in all the right ways. She cares about serving real food. And is becoming a hero in my mind. Someone who is doing something about the system.

Check it out!



Sources:

All sources are dependent on Ann Cooper's lecture.