ARGH. Let me be all Andy Rooney for a moment.

[gfrancie]

This article about a proposed ban on junkfood in public schools was interesting.

Really this discussion goes beyond the whole topic of worries about obesity and touches on something really significant. There are people who think that this shouldn't be done because often the sale of candy bars, sodas and so on help fund school programs, activities and sports. The fact of the matter is that education is so underfunded and under-valued in this country by the government (and really tax-payers as well) that parents and educators are often having to risk the long-term health of their children to provide something for their kids.
Yes people have free-will and can choose to avoid eating this stuff but when a child's authority figures (like their educators) are selling them this stuff and encouraging them to buy; how exactly are some going to learn to make educated choices about nutrition? Some kids learn it at home but not everyone does.

Also it is a well-known fact that what public schools have to spend when it comes to providing lunch is not a lot. Again we under-fund the future of all of our kids. The government can't/won't spend the money to provide healthful food. They don't have to eat organic salads picked by Alice Waters but typically many schools buy what is cheap and often that means some so-so meat, a lot of starch/filler and some vegetables. If people are truly concerned and want to do something about the long-term health of kids, it means putting forth the cash.

There was something else that was intriguing at the end of the article. The school cafeteria manager mentioned how kids didn't like the whole wheat pizza at first but after awhile they accepted it. THIS is very very important in the whole conversation about getting kids to eat healthy. Nearly any parent who knows a thing or two about getting kids to eat know that if you just say, "this is what we are eating" it usually takes a kid about five or six tries for them to accept what is being given (if they aren't so keen on it at first.) There are always critics who say, "oh they won't eat it, they will only have this." Yes there are picky eaters (and really that is a whole other conversation) but when it comes to getting a good portion of the population to eat -you just serve what is truly the best thing for them and if they balk you say, "well that's tough." People shouldn't let kids dictate the situation to that degree. Of course I believe in letting kids have imput and helping at home when it comes to the creation of a meal but I am also not going to let Senor Onion live on a diet of waffles and jaffa cakes every day just because he likes it.

Pardon... my soapbox is getting a little shiny.

Comments

is there room up on that soap box for me?

[sahara-harp.livejournal.com]

..and don't even get me started on the fucking girl scout cookies.

There are so many other things that kids WANT that could be sold in place of the crap they push. Hell, if they sold GOOD sweets instead of the junk I might be more likely to buy it. Anyway, not your point, I know, just a personal pet peeve. I don't want lousy chocolate bars and I don't want overpriced wrapping paper. I don't buy the stuff but I do write a check anyway.

As for omg little precious won't eat anything but chicken nuggets or fish fingers or whatever, that is almost as boring as omg well MY little precious enjoys hummus and raw broccoli as an afternoon snack so nyah.

Frankly, and here maybe I get a little closer to your point, what goes on at school nutritionwise is not all that important to me. Yeah, the school lunches are atrocious. Yeah all the kids are trading candy and such after school. But for two meals a day *I* know what my kid is eating, and I know that it is good for her, tasty, and fresh. You can't control every moment of your child's life forever, and part of raising kids is demonstrating to them what real food is. So I wouldn't worry too much about the school cafeteria selling bad food, I'd be more in support of education of the mommies and daddies who send half-empty cans of frosting for dessert in their children's lunchboxes (true story).

Re: is there room up on that soap box for me?

[emmabovary.livejournal.com]

Your final paragraph is quite relevant. It doesn't matter that there exists a billion junk food sources out there. There exists a billion drug sources out there too. What matters is what YOU teach/model/serve your kids in your own home and how you treat food in the grand scheme of things. That will give them the smarts to eat healthfully/not become a smack addict/work ethically....etc etc etc.

Re: is there room up on that soap box for me?

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

You can't control every moment of course but when there are kids who rely on a school for two meals a day (and in some cases those are their only meals) and the job of teaching kids about recognizing what real food is/isn't and so on ends up falling upon the schools. And I have a lot of sympathy for schools because they are working with very constrained budgets. (especially the schools that sometimes have to buy meat that is often on the same grade level as what is sold to pet food factories)

I remember kids in my class who would come to school with cans of frosting in their lunch. hee. One girl was eating it with twizzlers!

But yeah, it definitely lame that kids are shilling some crappy goods all in the name of stuff for school.

Re: is there room up on that soap box for me?

[sahara-harp.livejournal.com]

I guess that's what I'm saying. Worry less about what the school cafeteria is serving and more about what is being served at home. Figure that shit out.

Re: is there room up on that soap box for me?

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

I know that one issue in high density urban populations is the lack of real grocery stores. And when you are relying on public tranportation it becomes this giant mess to find the time/means to get to those stores and then haul it all home.
If you live in rural areas -just a plain lack of availibity and again transportation.

Sub-standard infrastructure is a bitch.

[my-ophelia.livejournal.com]

All I have to say is I agree, but now I want Jaffa cakes!

[thiscantbesoy.livejournal.com]

Super Duper Unrelated:

OK so you know your husband's website? His [username].org one?

Occasionally I've referred to/revisited the shots he took of our wedding in Nov 2005. Just now I was uploading some to FB.

Does he have those shots of our wedding available in bigger sizes? Just wondering. :) His were some of the best photos of me + Code Red! :)

[reenigne.livejournal.com]

I'll have a dig around today and see what I can find.

[reenigne.livejournal.com]

Okay, I've put all the originals from that occasion in http://www.reenigne.org/photos/2005/5/allbig.zip . It's about 42Mb. Let me know when you've downloaded it and I'll take it offline again.

Yay

[thiscantbesoy.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! You're awesome. I'm done downloading. :)

[land-girl.livejournal.com]

I could have written this and I don't even live in the USA! Things here seem to be improving here, thakfully.

[stevieannie.livejournal.com]

Amen. Oh Amen.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

It's worse living in a state with a high retirement population, in terms of getting voters to reallocate tax dollars toward education. Never mind that the little buggers might someday be the doctors, lawyers, etc. serving them, ain't no way old people are going to support OTHER people's kids.

And yeah - my own mother brought nothing but whole wheat bread and nonfat milk into my childhood home, and I've done the same with my own. It's gotten to where white bread tastes gummy to me, and even 2% like drinking heavy cream. And my own daughter doesn't much notice. So it can be taught.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

I have never quite understood that mentality. "fuck'em, why should I invest." Of course you don't dare point out that most of these retirees have enjoyed the benefits of many government programs over their lifetimes.

[oxymoron67.livejournal.com]

We needd to care about this because, for many children, the school lunch is the best/only meal they eat. (Which is why some schools also have breakfast programs.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

Yes!
I grew up with that. The vast majority of kids in my school were eligible for free/reduced breakfast/lunch and most took advantage of it.
Coco-puffs for breakfast!

[wolfchilde.livejournal.com]

If only it stopped at graduation. For some reason (I blame the corn syndicate) poor choices in food are both easier to obtain and cheaper. It took some adjustment and the advent of Trader Joe's before I began to eat anywhere near healthfully. Even still, I sometimes cringe at how much more it costs to make my own dishes, where I know full well what is going into my body, than buying some frozen mystery food.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

A lot of it has to do with what you are taught at home and how it is applied to daily living.

[ms-pooka.livejournal.com]

wasn't it in supersize me that they went to the school that was growing its own organic produce? that was pretty awesome. which reminds me, i need to watch the doc finally put out by two angry moms.

i like to remind myself that junk food hasn't always been around and kids didn't starve to death, but ate things like vegetables all the time. i agree it's all about what you're presenting to them.

[cutebutpsycho99.livejournal.com]

It's funny. I remember as a kid, junk food like this was a rare occurrence because it was out of our price range and now it's really cheap and easily available. I wonder if it's a change in society where people really don't know how to cook or know how their food is processed anymore.

I do agree that school food programs do need to change -- for many kids, this is the only meals they get in a day and it should have more nutrition than mystery frozen whatever bits. But also as parents, we do have to show kids what to eat. Little Tybalt will not die if you force him to eat a couple carrots, or if he goes on a hunger strike for a day or two.

Like everything, it's a complicated issue where proposed solutions end up pissing off someone somewhere.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

My mom was an administrator at a private school for many years. One of the things she tried to do was get a salad bar in the cafeteria. She was almost successful in this until two things became clear: (1) kids throw salad bar ingredients, and (2) they really wanted their junk food and if the school didn't provide, mom and dad would just have to send them with bag lunches. So that didn't work out.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

Sad there was a lack of support upon the part of parents.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

In a nutshell, that's the major problem with this. There is no parent buy-in to the idea. And it seems to be even worse with the charter school kids she works with now, who are lower income.

[epiphany.livejournal.com]

I walked 20 miles each way to school in the snow for a candy bar and WE LIKED IT THAT WAY! ;-)

Can I climb up, too?

[serorobele.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. Many of the problems that schools are running into now days is that kids aren't being taught basic life lessons at home. We have to continue character education into high school (teaching about honesty, hard work, compassion, friendship, responsibility) because they do not get it from parents. Same with eating healthy. It's true that one meal of "Corny Corn Dogs" or "Super Cheesy Nachos" isn't going to kill anyone but if we (schools) are having to take up the slack where parents aren't stepping in, it becomes a big deal.