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  • From: bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Alice Waters school lunches free lunches Big ag
  • Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:24:38 -0800 (PST)

Most on this list probably are familiar with Alice Waters. I'm not posting
this because of the 'free lunch" part or the bail-out part, etc. What she
and her co-author say about the nutritional value of school lunches and the
profitability for big ag in sending the school system "junk" is the reason I
am posting this from this am NYT

------------------------------------------------------------------------


No Lunch Left Behind


By ALICE WATERS and

KATRINA HERON

Published: February 19, 2009
Berkeley, Calif.

Alice Waters

THIS new era of government bailouts and widespread concern over wasteful
spending offers an opportunity to take a hard look at the National School
Lunch Program. Launched in 1946 as a public safety net, it has turned out to
be a poor investment. It should be redesigned to make our children healthier.

Under the program, the United States Department of Agriculture gives public
schools cash for every meal they serve — $2.57 for a free lunch, $2.17 for a
reduced-price lunch and 24 cents for a paid lunch. In 2007, the program cost
around $9 billion, a figure widely acknowledged as inadequate to cover food
costs. But what most people don’t realize is that very little of this money
even goes toward food. Schools have to use it to pay for everything from
custodial services to heating in the cafeteria.

On top of these reimbursements, schools are entitled to receive commodity
foods that are valued at a little over 20 cents per meal. The long list of
options includes high-fat, low-grade meats and cheeses and processed foods
like chicken nuggets and pizza. Many of the items selected are ready to be
thawed, heated or just unwrapped — a necessity for schools without kitchens.
Schools also get periodic, additional “bonus” commodities from the U.S.D.A.,
which pays good money for what are essentially leftovers from big American
food producers.

When school districts allow fast-food snacks in the lunchroom they provoke
widespread ire, and rightfully so. But food distributed by the National
School Lunch Program contains some of the same ingredients found in fast
food, and the resulting meals routinely fail to meet basic nutritional
standards. Yet this is how the government continues to “help” feed millions
of American schoolchildren, a great many of them from low-income households.

Some Americans are demanding better. Parent advocacy groups like Better
School Food have rejected the National School Lunch Program and have turned
instead to local farmers for fresh alternatives. Amid steep budgetary
challenges, these community-supported coalitions are demonstrating that
schools can be the masters of their own menus. Schools here in Berkeley, for
example, continue to use U.S.D.A. commodities, but cook food from scratch and
have added organic fruits and vegetables from area farms. They have cut costs
by adopting more efficient accounting software and smart-bulk policies (like
choosing milk dispensers over individual cartons), and by working with
farmers to identify crops that they can grow in volume and sell for
reasonable prices.

Many nutrition experts believe that it is possible to fix the National School
Lunch Program by throwing a little more money at it. But without healthy food
(and cooks and kitchens to prepare it), increased financing will only create
a larger junk-food distribution system. We need to scrap the current system
and start from scratch. Washington needs to give schools enough money to cook
and serve unprocessed foods that are produced without pesticides or chemical
fertilizers. When possible, these foods should be locally grown.

How much would it cost to feed 30 million American schoolchildren a wholesome
meal? It could be done for about $5 per child, or roughly $27 billion a year,
plus a one-time investment in real kitchens. Yes, that sounds expensive. But
a healthy school lunch program would bring long-term savings and benefits in
the areas of hunger, children’s health and dietary habits, food safety
(contaminated peanuts have recently found their way into school lunches),
environmental preservation and energy conservation.

The Agriculture Department will have to do its part, by making good on its
fledgling commitment to back environmentally sound farming practices and by
realizing a separate program to deliver food, especially fresh fruits and
vegetables, from farms to schools. It will also need to provide adequate
support for kitchens and healthy meal planning. Congress has an opportunity
to accomplish some of these goals when it takes up the Child Nutrition and
Women Infants and Children Reauthorization Act, which is set to expire in
September.

But the Department of Education should take some initiative, too. After all,
eating well requires education. We can teach students to choose good food and
to understand how their choices affect their health and the environment. The
new school lunch program should be partly financed by the Department of
Education, and Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, should oversee it.
Vice President Joseph Biden should also come to the table by making school
lunch a priority of his White House Task Force on Middle Class Working
Families.

Every public school child in America deserves a healthful and delicious lunch
that is prepared with fresh ingredients. Cash-strapped parents should be able
to rely on the government to contribute to their children’s physical
well-being, not to the continued spread of youth obesity, Type 2 diabetes and
other diet-related problems. Let’s prove that there is such a thing as a
good, free lunch.

Alice Waters is the president of The Chez Panisse Foundation. Katrina Heron
is a director of the foundation and a co-producer of civileats.com.









  • [Homestead] Alice Waters school lunches free lunches Big ag, bobf, 02/20/2009

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