By GEHRY OATEY
Each day I walk into the school cafeteria to check in with my students on their own turf. There is one scene that repeats itself without fail each lunch—fried beef on a stick is served (or some such artificially preserved nastiness), the kids turn up their noses, and fights ensue over the good fruit and string cheese.
Mmm. Grilled cheese in a bag.
100% of our students are eligible for the free lunch that arrives with the SYSCO trucks each morning. 100% are also required by law to stand in line and receive the daily offering—at least one of each item. No shocker here to anyone who works in a school, but half of this goes directly to the garbage. Some of it is discarded after a couple of bites, but many students don’t even take that risk—they take the required food item and instantly throw it away.
For a more comprehensive look at my school’s cafeteria food, visit my class’s blog: http://510eatswell.blogspot.com/
Tellingly, I rarely see any teachers eating the school lunch. Seems strange that this needs to be said, but if it’s not good enough for us, why do we give it to our students? This isn’t just about a stale peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it’s about social justice. Check Article 25 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food…”
It’s also about learning. Every afternoon, I have a handful of students who complain of a stomach ache or a headache. My first question to them is “Did you eat today?” and the reply, nine times out of ten, is something to the effect of “I had juice but I didn’t want to eat the food ‘cause it was nasty.” My response is always to politely agree with them because, yeah, that food is nasty.
For the next ninety minutes, it’s my job to convince this malnourished kid (who, by the way, has orange fingers from a bag of Cheetos being passed around surreptitiously) to sit still and be an active participant for an afternoon of middle school prison training. The message is transparent for them—a prepackaged Styrofoam diet, uniforms, security guards walking the hallways, and surveillance cameras at all corners of the school—where else can you go to find these elements? Well, maybe at McDonalds.
So this is the current situation. But before you throw your hands up in despair, there are solutions. In my next post, I will break down some ways that I think schools can free themselves of their systemic addiction to processed industrial food. And for those students in my afternoon class today: You better hope those Cheetos hold you over until dinner.
12 Comments
April 1, 2009 at 5:29 am
They won’t… and the kid will be too hungry by the afternoon to avoid the blood sugar crash. Unless there’s more sugar!
The food issue is a ridiculously low priority for a lot of schools. I find that many students don’t even get enough time for lunch. 25 minutes to run 100 yards -to fight for a place in line – to maybe get a choice of meals – to swallow the food before it’s off – to run back -to line up in another line. It’s much quicker and easier to get something from the vending machines in back; like an ice cream bar!
Great post Gehry. I totally agree there is a disconnect. Educate us my man!
April 1, 2009 at 6:20 am
[...] Teacher, Revised put an intriguing blog post on The Schoolyard Foodie: Why our kids are fighting over fruitHere’s a quick excerptJump to CommentsBy GEHRY OATEY Each day I walk into the school cafeteria to check in with my students on their own turf. There is one scene that repeats itself without fail each lunch—fried beef on a stick is served (or some such artificially preserved nastiness), the kids turn up their noses, and fights ensue over the good fruit and string cheese.Mmm. Grilled cheese in a bag.100% of our students are eligible for the free lunch that arrives with the SYSCO trucks each morning. 100% are also requi [...]
April 1, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Hey, Mark Bittman, the real food guru, just twittered your post! Check it out here:
http://twitter.com/bittman/statuses/1430895497
April 1, 2009 at 1:44 pm
As a teacher, you have a lot of power to influence for the good. My experience is that often, the nutrition program folks feel very isolated from other parts of the school staff. Your school district is required, since 2006, to have a wellness committee. Who are the members, and where are they in regards to this issue? Are you a member of the committee? Can you become one? You have good thoughts. Can you find a way to take action within your district? Have you spoken to the director of your nutrition program? What an opportunity to teach the children how to engage and bring about measurable change in their social environment – not to mention what they will learn about better food choices and lifelong habits.
April 2, 2009 at 2:26 am
a yes to all of the above questions-I think you will like to read post #2…thanks for your comments…gehry
April 1, 2009 at 2:08 pm
[...] 1, 2009 Mark Bittman tweeted this great link this morning regarding school lunches. I completely agree with the Gehry Oatey’s post, especially this line: Tellingly, I rarely [...]
April 1, 2009 at 5:23 pm
mark bittman tweeted you!
great post gehry. i am interested to hear about ways schools can provide healthier lunch alternatives and i like your comment about teachers not wanting to eat what the students are expected to eat. it doesn’t make any sense! we need to empower kids to eat healthy and to think about where food comes from.
go gehry!
April 1, 2009 at 5:57 pm
I couldn’t empathize with your students more. I came out of San Francisco public schools myself and I always begged my mom to make my lunch for me. Thankfully, she usually did (more reasons why I love my mom). On the days she didn’t, however, I was stuck with soggy corndogs or not-so-generous portions of Mystery Meat Special–in other words, I wasn’t having lunch that day. I was lucky that my parents had the time and money to make my lunches for me, but most of my peers didn’t, and most of them didn’t eat lunch because the choices were so bad. So, essentially, we starve our kids and then expect them to do well in school on an empty stomach. Does that seem right to you?
April 1, 2009 at 8:35 pm
This is an ongoing problem at most schools. Until the inherent reasons are eliminated nothing much can be done. Involve your students in the decision making process – called ‘buy-in’ – they need to be heard so their ideas can be heard by them and others. It is easy to complain, but to come up with good ideas is another story. Perhaps you have just touched the tip of the ice berg.
I need to think more on this.
June 4, 2009 at 5:58 pm
For the next ninety minutes, it’s my job to convince this malnourished kid (who, by the way, has orange fingers from a bag of Cheetos being passed around surreptitiously) to sit still and be an active participant for an afternoon of middle school prison training.
Yet another reason to homeschool my kids. they get healthy meals on a daily basis and garbage like Cheetos rarely.
July 15, 2009 at 3:48 pm
[...] percent eat school lunch on any given day. Nor is New York unusual in this regard; as far away as Oakland, “nasty” seems to be the word of choice (emphasized, of course, by “hella,” as things often [...]
July 21, 2009 at 3:11 pm
This is one of many reason I homeschool. I used to teach science in a public high school and I can concur with the other teachers about the hideous nature of the school lunch. Our schools took microwaves away from the students because they apparently couldn’t be trusted to keep them clean. Luckily, the teachers had their own, but I barely had time to inhale my packed lunch in 26 minutes and U only had a few teachers competing fir the microwave across the hall from my room!
There’s also this tricky 30 minute kidney issue that requires students to pee 30 minutes into the class after lunch because their kidneys have just cycled whatever they consumed at lunch. Except that most teachers won’t give a restroom pass, so kids don’t drink at lunch rather than risk an accident or urinary tract infection. Of course, MRI research shows that a dehydrated brain doesn’t function as well as a properly hydrated one, do this is one more reason our kids can’t concentrate in class.
In contrast to the institutional lunch, consider this: my kids eat scrambled eggs and milk for breakfast, fresh fruit for a snack, PB&J on homemade whole wheat or smoked salmon or leftovers for lunch, a homemade legume-based dip and blue corn chips for a second snack. And they have free access to water and the bathroom.