American kids are screwed!

[Vanquisher]

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-14845...-to-shame.html

No wonder our kids are getting fatter! This makes me want to move to France. Why can we not do this, even a tiny bit?

I mean, I get that it's not "practical." I get that this would be expensive, but shit!! This is patent bullshit. Our kids deserve this too. We've got it wrong here.

[spotty_dog]

I'm sure you saw the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution thing a couple of years ago. He worked it out to get fresh ingredients and real food into American cafeterias, at lower cost and the same amount of prep time as the pre-fab reheated-from-frozen stuff. So, proof of concept, it can totally be done. Unfortunately I think the momentum from that stalled. On the other hand, our local schools are still taking it and running with it. Our Farm-to-School program looks like it will be put into practice this year.

[JaneDoe]

I don't think the one and in some cases two meals a day kids get at school is a major factor in the obesity epidemic among American kids. I think what they eat at home and a sedentary lifestyle are bigger factors.

If schools switched to lunch menu similar to the French there would be so much backlash from parents because their kids wouldn't eat that kind of food. American kids and parents are so accustom to a high fat amd processed food diet

Despite the above, I agree with you that schools should adopt healthier lunch menus featuring local, fresh options. I think there is an effort to make lunch menus healthier, but they still have a way to go.

[spotty_dog]

For those who are concerned:

School Food Toolkit from Jamie Oliver http://www.jamieoliver.com/us/founda...on/school-food

Farm to School Getting Started guide http://www.farmtoschool.org/get-started

Programs across the country http://www.fns.usda.gov/farmtoschool/census/

[MrsC]

That's impressive! My sister's high school class (in Ireland) started a campaign to get healthier food in the cafeteria and succeeded. If people didn't like it, they brought their own lunch. The majority of parents were in favor of it.
But yes, it has to happen at home too. DS isn't quite at the stage where he gets a kids meal in a restaurant but I always look at the menu. I was shocked to see salad as an option in one restaurant recently.

[Vanquisher]

It's not only the food, though. It's the amount of exercise! They've taken away virtually all recess here. It's ridiculous.

[spotty_dog]

Yeah, I think DS is going down to just one recess this year for second grade. We're all bummed about that. I'm hoping to start walking them to school and/or having them bike though. We could probably leave at about the time they usually catch the bus and still get there on time.

[metroguy]

it's never going to happen. first it would take too long. sounds like they have 1.5 hr lunches with the way it's setup. also, i doubt any of the american let along a kid will eat that kind of food.

[Vanquisher]

My kids would love that food!

[ballibeg]

Very political subject as we found out! Many reasons trotted out as to why change can't be made. It can and it should.

Dave

[Ladybug]

It would be awesome. We had a fantastica lunch at our old school. Full salad bar with two cold mixed salads, a full deli bar daily, a hot lunch, homemade soup and a three tiered fresh fruit option. Most of the kids picked pasta. Many parents would be upset about what their kids were eating. We tried to teach healthy choices at school (eat a rainbow programs) and encouraged parents to talk with their kids about their independent food choices. Teachers didn't want to take away the pasta because they were afraid the kids would eat nothing and crash in the afternoons. Some kids made great choices, but most didn't.

The other issue was the 20 minute lunch. Kids would over eat, shoving it in, because they were afraid of running out of time. Their stomachs didn't even have time to register it was full. Nobody wanted a longer school day either though.

I'm hoping it works to have the kids pack their lunches and make their choices this year. I love bento boxes and have book with recipes and ideas. They look healthy so I'm hoping the girls get into them.

We'll have less daily activity than our old school. I'm thinking about dance and swimming. It makes for a looooooong day though. We'll see.

[Vanquisher]

Thing is, when I was a kid, we had an hour for lunch. When you finished eating, you went outside for the remainder of the hour. We also had two separate 15-20 minute recess periods.

I kinda don't agree that kids won't eat if not given a pasta option in the above scenario. They will, for the most part, IMO. Also, more time needs to be spent making nutrition fun. This is a vital part to kids life education, and I think we're totally missing the boat. I bought a dragon fruit yesterday. Lexi and I will try it tonight after school. We are going to try a new fruit or veggie once a week for a while.

That's fun!! I just fundamentally disagree with the direction we are going with schooling altogether.

[Pollyanna]

I don't care so much about what lunches are served because 99% of the time we pack our kiddos lunch. I do disagree with the trend for less and less recess. Ive bitched in another thread that 2 15 minute breaks for kinders is not enough and I imagine that once the kids move up in the school they only get one of those breaks. My two high schoolers point out that they get more breaks than my kindergartener would have if we didn't pull her. Their school (private, Catholic) actually has a 20-30 minute break in the morning and serves breakfast for those interested. Then they have extra time after lunch to chill (or do homework).

The lunch room environments also kind of suck in that I find they are either super loud or quiet because teachers have threatened no recess (or other punishments) if kids talk. In AZ the kids always ate so much better when lunch was served outside. Everyone was more relaxed. Interesting side note: I used to be in charge of the lunch program at our school in AZ. The district did not have a main kitchen so lunches were brought in by restaurants. One year we managed to get the chef from Canyon Ranch to provide lunch on one of the days. The orders were only a third of what they were on the other days of the week. And this was really good, fresh, healthy food but we couldn't get the parents or the kids to bite (pun intended). We did have good offerings the other days from local restaurants and only one fast food day on Fridays. This system was shut down when the state required all schools to serve lunches with specific calories and offerings, blah, blah, blah. I can tell you that what we offered for lunch was far healthier than what is now provided once the state got involved. Even the man in charge of the food admitted that what we did before was better.

It seemed we had more activity as kids because when we got to school we could play on the playground, can't do that anymore (all part of the cya/security theater movement). You could eat lunch and when you were done go out and play. You didn't have to sit at the table for some predesignated time period. Those times alone gave us at least an hour of activity combined with more during the day.

[LynnAlicia]

I would love that food.....

[houseelf]

I feel a soap box coming on:

/I'm going to go counter cultural here and flat out state that a lot of elementary school today is just not developmentally appropriate or healthy for children. The lack of recess makes me insane. It doesn't work for my kids. The "too cold for recess" bullshit makes me crazy. The workbook pages for 5 year olds: ridic. Homework for an hour in second grade? Just wrong. This current debate asks us to consider the horrible food they serve. Gag. No wonder why they think McDonalds tastes good, comparitively it does!

In truth, I'm *over* the latest foreign child raising expose that basically opines that "We Americans suck as parents!!!". However, I am MORE than willing to engage in a dialogue about how we can radically reboot elementary education to meet the know developmental needs of our kids. Honestly, are we asleep at the wheel here? Who is happy with this scheme?

/huge rant-y soap box and tangent over