Kids Cuisine http://kidscuisine.net Cooking for Kids, Cooking with Kids. Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:14:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 en A New School Lunch? http://kidscuisine.net/2009/02/06/a-new-school-lunch/ http://kidscuisine.net/2009/02/06/a-new-school-lunch/#comments Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:06:46 +0000 Melissa Helquist Healthy Eating The Lunchbox News http://kidscuisine.net/2009/02/06/a-new-school-lunch/ lunch.jpgMy first experience with school lunch was a concoction called the flying saucer: bologna topped with a scoop of instant mashed potatoes and smothered with yellow processed cheese. Yum! At the time, I was beside myself with joy. That first taste of processed goodness was like an introduction to the world outside my home, of the life that my older brother and sisters had been living without me.

It didn’t take me long to realize that school lunch was an unfortunate affair.  I resorted to the only palatable options I could find in the lunch line, usually French fries and cookies.

Because of its reliance on surplus, subsidized commodity crops, the National School Lunch Program is heavy on high-fructose corn syrup and additives and low on fresh fruits and vegetables. And unfortunately kids who rely on school lunch programs the most may not have access to these fresh foods at home either.

Sam Kass, new White House Assistant Chef, has criticized NSLP and he seems committed to local, green eating. You can read some of his thoughts about the current state of School Lunch on Tara Parker-Pope’s NY Times blog. I’m not sure how much influence a White House Assistant Chef has on the USDA, but perhaps he’ll be able to get a conversation started.

For more reading on school lunch, consider:

Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children, by Ann Cooper

School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America’s Favorite Welfare Program, by Susan Levine

]]> http://kidscuisine.net/2009/02/06/a-new-school-lunch/feed/