School Food…

Posted on November 23, 2007 
Filed Under Conscious Parenting, Health & Wellness, Weight Loss

It has often been said that an army runs on its stomach.  This is very true; and it applies to most of the civilized world — not just the military.  Unfortunately, quality is often sacrificed — necessarily so — for quantity.  Most institutions responsible for feeding large numbers of people have been the subject of "bad food" jokes for this very reason.  School food, Hospital food, Army mess-hall food, Cafeteria food, Prison food, and other institutional-food, has forever been the brunt of bad-food jokes and the inspiration for funny songs; we’ve all heard and told these jokes.

When I think of institutional food, I think of the person behind the stainless steel serving station and glass sneeze-guard wearing a hairnet and dumping spoons full of "mystery meat" onto a tray — always with that sickening "splat!"  Now, however, kids have a completely different experience; and, technically, school food is much worse for children than it has ever been.  The establishment has no other choice but to make excuses; but no matter how much money they have to spend per child, things can be better — because they used to be better.  The major changes in the food our kids are eating in school has been at the supply-level.  Human needs haven’t changed; but food has, and the cafeteria staff is doing their best to serve whatever they are given to serve — they aren’t out shopping for groceries while the kids are at recess.

When people complain about school food, they typically complain to the people on the front lines — the people responsible for serving the food, but not for establishing the system in which they work.  Those decisions are not made in the school cafeteria; they are made by very powerful people in government and the food industry.  And these decisions are not made in the best interest of the kids; they are made just like every other BUSINESS decision — based on what makes the most money for the least cost.  Our kids are getting poisoned; and within a couple years, it is estimated that half of America’s kids will be obese.  Hello!  This isn’t right.  It’s the way it is; but it isn’t right — and we need another change in the way we are feeding our kids.  We are not taking care of the children and their health until they have learned beneficial behaviors; we are "feeding" them to the system that is feeding them — and telling them what and when to eat.

Parents are also responsible for the declining state of their children’s health and the quality of the things their kids are eating.  Parents buy the groceries, but many don’t keep up with what their kids are shoveling into their faces; and they don’t keep up with what the schools are doing for their kids 40+hours/week.  Of course, when their child comes home from school complaining, many parents will pick-up the phone, or go to the school, demanding something be done to protect their child’s constitutional right to do whatever they want; and, as a result, cafeteria workers can no longer "tell kids what to put on their tray, or not put on their tray."  So, at school, the food is bought from the lowest bidder and a small amount of money is stretched to buy a large amount of food.  In case that doesn’t mean anything to you, what I am saying is that our kids are eating a bunch of processed food products that are making them sick, obese, and distracted — and the cafeteria staff is helpless because they don’t buy the food, and parents have tied their hands in the area of helping kids learn how to make good food choices.

Parents give little thought to what goes on in school — especially food-wise.  When our child was in 4th-grade, Jennifer and I went to eat lunch with him at school.  When we arrived, he had already filled his tray according to cafeteria policy.  On his tray he had:  A chocolate milk; jell-o; a cup of ice cream; pudding; and a cookie.  This is when we asked and were told that they couldn’t tell kids what to eat at school.  When I was in school, they didn’t tell me what to eat, either; but they were the ones who put the food on my tray — and trust me it wasn’t all processed sugar products.  What kid would choose any vegetable over what ours had on his tray?  A kid who was "raised right?"  The schools ARE raising our kids and shaping their food choices, habits, beliefs, and ideas.  And, honestly, most parents and school employees are completely in the dark about what is really good to eat and what isn’t.  That’s why the majority of Americans are overweight or obese.  That’s another fact.

To make matters worse, schools now have soda machines and candy machines in the halls!  What the #&!@?  It would seem that this needs no further discussion; but — HELLO AGAIN! — they are IN THE SCHOOLS!  And, they were put there by an adult — not a bunch of teenaged sugar-addicts.  Now, there are only two reasons for such a thing:  1.) Complete and total ignorance in thinking that they are doing a service to our kids by offering them the choice of a quick, non-nutritious bite of junk food and a sugar high which is proven to reduce their ability to learn new information or recall previously-learned material; or, 2.) MONEY. 

I doubt the person who came up with the idea of putting snack machines in school was a responsible adult without a financial agenda.  It sounds like the kind of thing a kid would do; but they don’t make those decisions either.  No, the idea to put snack machines in schools is completely a financial one; both in conception and application.  No healthy, intelligent person — with children of their own — would put candy and soda machines in a school building.  This isn’t to say that the people who did are bad; they were taught whatever they were taught — and they want whatever they want in life.  What I am saying is that, at some point, something important was omitted from these folks’ "programming;" and that omission is not only going to cost them in some way, but it is now adversely affecting many, many innocent children.

What is most important is the well-being of our children.  If you haven’t heard the saying, "You are what you eat," you need to think about what that means:  Garbage in — garbage out.  This country is going to have to rely more and more on technology in the future because, in the interest of quick, easy money, we are destroying our children and their ability to thrive in any world that doesn’t spit sugar at them for a dollar.  And, by the way, there will never be enough technology to replace the true quality of life that we are throwing away for a mouth full of sugar and a pocket full of cash.

This may sound a bit like activism; but I assure you it is not.  Our child is almost through with school; and he has seen for himself the benefit of drinking lots of water and trying to eat right in a world where that is more and more difficult.  We have survived the school system with a child who is still educable and healthy; but others haven’t been, and won’t be, so fortunate if more attention and thought isn’t put into what is truly in the best interest of all the children.  They all deserve to eat healthy  food — even though our way of doing business in this country is making healthy food harder and harder to come by.  If you have school-aged children, all you can do is open your eyes and start thinking about what is being put into them — food, television, video games, i-pods, cell phones, computers (which means pornography and the desire to buy more technology…), and a bunch of other stuff that doesn’t make our kids better people — but just costs them (or us) money — and changes the kinds of thoughts they think about themselves and others.  Bless you all; and Good Luck in what seems to be a very uncertain future for many of our children.  But remember:  You can always create any reality you choose.  The choice is always yours.

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