Article published August 18, 2009
In search of the best for school lunch
It's time to think of school lunches, whether students buy the noon meal at school or carry it from home.
If buying lunch is your child's routine, what's on the menu? Slow Food USAs Time for Lunch Campaign will involve a National Eat-In on Labor Day Sept. 7. People will gather with their neighbors for public potlucks with the goal of telling Congress, "It's time to provide our children with real food at school." Nutritious "real food" rather than overly processed fast food is the goal.
In Toledo, Slow Food Maumee Valley's Michael Leizerman is coordinating the local event, which will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Sept. 7 at Ward Pavilion, Wildwood Metropark, 4830 West Central Ave. Bring a dish to share plus your own tableware. For information, e-mail michael@leizerman.com. There are 217 such events planned around the country.
This fall, Congress will be debating how to update the Child Nutrition Act, the law that determines what kind of food kids eat at school. They could give schools the resources to serve real food, according to the campaign.
Currently, $2.57 per student for lunch is federally funded, according to Mr. Leizerman. The campaign hopes to boost it to more than $3 per student lunch to cover the cost of real food.
"We want to make sure parents go back to school boards to have them use the money [for lunches]," he said.Members of Slow Food are proponents of schools buying locally grown foods for lunches when they are available and more affordable.
This event will draw attention to Congress renewing the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act, which expires Sept. 30 and has been extended six months to a year. It also will get grassroots support for parents, teachers, community leaders, kids, and neighbors to work together to bring better food to local schools.
Once funding is in place, there are two other components for schools to accomplish this goal, in my experience.
Take note that buying local ingredients and real food means having school kitchens with the equipment to cook with, such as stoves, ovens, countertops, and work space rather than freezers and microwaves. The noble goal of real food doesn't happen overnight. It takes time to implement.
Once there is fresh food and equipment, schools need to hire a few more people to cook the food. It may require long-term implementation or a gradual phasing in of real food.
For folks who say kids won't eat vegetables and "real food," it would be interesting to know if those children have been offered those refreshing foods. Instead of "out of sight, out of mind," keep fruits and vegetables in sight and you and your children will be more likely to eat them.
The national movement for better school lunch menus may explain why so many students take their lunch. Back-to-school means lots of preparation, busy schedules, and hungry kids to feed. Here are some tips for the lunch box:
• Prepare creative sandwiches such as turkey and apple roll-ups or sub sandwiches on a special roll or pita pockets for easy handling.
• Take your children to the supermarket and let them choose a fruit and a vegetable they like or would like to try both in their lunch and at home, such as shredded lettuce and tomatoes on sandwiches; sliced carrots or finely chopped cauliflower in soup; sauteed peppers and zucchini in pasta sauce, or red peppers and caramelized onion on homemade pizza, a lunch box treat.
• Let kids munch on snow peas, baby carrots, bananas, apples, and oranges. Enjoy the summer bounty of grapes, watermelon, peaches, and plums.
Kathie Smith is The Blade's food editor.
Contact her at:
food@theblade.com
or 419-724-6155.
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