Eat-Ins: Getting ‘Real Food’ into School Lunches

Tracy Sutton
Regional Editor

EPHRATA, Pa. — On Labor Day weekend, Slow Food USA hosted nationwide “Eat-Ins” — potlucks and networking events where concerned folks got together to rally for school lunch reform and to raise awareness of upcoming hearings and voting on the Child Nutrition Act.

Slow Food USA spokesperson Brian Sinderson said the nationwide school lunch awareness-raising event went very well and surpassed its goals — achieving more than 300 Eat-Ins across 50 states, with thousands of petition signatures that Slow Food USA intends to present to Congress later this month.

Of the more than 20,000 people who attended the Eat-Ins, some were legislators and food policymakers, others were more hands-on, holding cooking demonstrations for school kids. Slow Food USA president Josh Viertel described the event as “a picnic, a potluck and a virtual march on Washington . . . A day when America shares food it believes in and demands real food for our children.”

So what exactly is wrong with the Tater Tots from the school lunchroom cafeteria anyway?

A lot, if you ask several concerned parent organizations, medical groups and Slow Food USA who are lobbying Congress right now to improve school lunches as the Child Nutrition Act comes up for reauthorization the end of this month.

The Child Nutrition Act is a federal law that governs the National School Lunch Program, which sets the standard for the food that more than 30 million children eat every school day.

Critics say the program, which began in 1946 with the laudable goal of providing school children with a nutritious lunch and ensuring a safety net for low-income children, is failing its mission. The American Dietetic Association (ADA), in a series of studies last February, assessed the American school lunch as far too fatty, sugary and salty — and helping to contribute to a childhood obesity epidemic.

According to the ADA journal, obesity rates in recent years have more than doubled among infants and toddlers aged 2 to 5, quadrupled in children aged 6 to 11 and more than tripled among adolescents aged 12 to 19.

School lunches aren’t helping American youth eat nutritiously. And if the lunches are less than healthy, critics say, what’s in the vending machines is worse. They charge U.S. businesses with profiteering at the expense of children’s health. Slow Food USA’s Viertel said, “It’s time to stop letting vending machine and fast-food companies sneak under the radar of national dietary guidelines.”

How did school lunches get to this point? We stopped cooking, says Alice Waters, famous chef and crusader for school lunch reform. In an editorial in the New York Times earlier this year, she pointed out that we now have school meals that cannot be cooked, but rather must be “thawed, heated or just unwrapped.” Many schools are simply not built or equipped with kitchens. As a result children are fed pre-packaged, high-fat, low-grade meats and cheeses and processed foods like chicken nuggets and pizza.

Other critics point to the use of donated surplus agricultural commodities that result from government subsidies. Foods full of high-fructose corn syrup, for example, are (because of government subsidies) cheaper. It’s created the bureaucratic dynamic of supporting agri-business (who produce large-scale, prepackaged foods) at the expense of healthy, nutritious school lunches.

Though many parents and teachers want fresh fruits and vegetables served at their kid’s schools, these fresh foods make up only a very small portion of the overall school food program. One potential solution would be to allow local farmers and small farms to sell to their regional schools. Slow Food USA supports direct farm-to-school initiatives, among others, as part of the sought-after reform.

Sinderson said he is optimistic about reform, but that it will “require ongoing effort.” But Sinderson and others concede that agitating for healthy school lunches is a struggle. U.S. marketers spend 10 billion dollars a year advertising junk food to children, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. By comparison, less than 1 billion dollars over four years in the recent Farm Bill goes to promote the public consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Anne Quinn Corr, an instructor in Nutritional Sciences at Penn State, was one of the Slow Food organizers for the Eat-In at State College, Pa. and described the day as “very positive.” Corr said while only a dozen people turned up for their Eat-In, she was encouraged by the passion of the participants. “I felt (like we were) at Ground Zero,” she said. Nutrition students networked with elementary school food directors at the State College event to get local farm-to-school programs off the ground, she said, and “people connected.”

Corr thinks reform will only happen when people meet at the grassroots like this. “Change is going to have to happen over lunch trays.”

Slow Food USA’s Proposal
The Slow Food USA platform for school lunch reform includes the following:
1. “An investment in children’s health.” It calls on Congress to give schools one more dollar per day for each child’s lunch.
2. “Protection against foods that put children at risk.” Junk food must be removed from school property, including junk food vending machines. Support the proposed legislation of Rep. Woolsey’s and Sen. Harkin’s Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act of 2009.
3. Teach children healthy habits that will last through life by funding grants for innovative farm-to-school programs and for school gardens. Support Congress in guaranteeing $50 million of mandatory funding for farm-to-school programs.
4. Give the schools financial incentives to buy local, which creates jobs in the community, supports local farmers and instills pride in local products. By shortening the distance food travels — from farm to table — it also saves energy resources and ensures school foods are as fresh and healthy as possible.
5. Create green jobs with a School Lunch Corps that trains unemployed and underemployed Americans to be the teachers, farmers, cooks and nutrition educators.

To sign the Slow Food USA petition go to www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/campaign/time_for_lunch. To learn more visit www.slowfoodusa.org.