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Julie Bove[_2_] Julie Bove[_2_] is offline
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Default Op-ed: "The Real Problem With Lunch" (U.S. school lunches)


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More than 400 comments so far. (26 of them are NYT Picks.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/16/op...unch.html?_r=0

First paragraphs:

By BETTINA ELIAS SIEGEL JAN. 15, 2016

Houston -- There's something about comparing America's school food to the
superior meals in other countries' schools that we seem to enjoy, in a
masochistic sort of way.

The latest example is Michael Moore's new documentary, "Where to Invade
Next," which opens nationwide next month. Mr. Moore visits a village in
Normandy and finds schoolchildren eating scallops, lamb skewers and a cheese
course. He tells us, astonishingly, that the chef "spends less per lunch
than we do in our schools in the United States," and ends the segment by
showing French students and adults photos of the food served in a Boston
high school. As they pore over the pictures in puzzlement and horror, we
read subtitled comments like "Seriously, what is that?" and "Frankly, that's
not food."

That scene drew a lot of laughs, but as someone who has written about school
food for almost six years, it made me want to scream in frustration. One
might easily conclude from this segment that our students could have these
same delicious meals, cooked from scratch, if only our school districts
weren't cheap, mismanaged or somehow captive to the processed food industry.
But the problem with America's school food has little to do with the schools
themselves.

Let's start with money. The federal government provides a little over $3 per
student per lunch, and school districts receive a smaller contribution from
their state. But districts generally require their food departments to pay
their own overhead, including electricity, accounting and trash collection.
Most are left with a dollar and change for food -- and no matter what Mr.
Moore says, no one is buying scallops and lamb on that meager budget.

Contrast this with France, where meal prices are tied to family income and
wealthy parents can pay around $7 per meal. Give that sum to an American
school food services director and you may want to have tissues handy as he's
likely to break down in incredulous tears.

Then there's labor and infrastructure...

(snip)



Lenona.

---

This is a very big country. Just because some things are served in one
school district, doesn't mean all of them are that way. The one that gets
me is circulating on FB where it shows cups of raw fruits and vegetables and
demands to know why our school kids can't be served that. Well they can!
And they are. At least here. My daughter rarely ever bought a full lunch
since we moved here, but she did buy the fruits and vegetables and sometimes
the popcorn.