[PHNUTR-L] “Will Trade Children’s Health for Lunch Money”

[Kathrynne Holden, MS, RD]

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Chef Ann Cooper is a renegade lunch lady who works to transform 
cafeterias into culinary classrooms for students - one school lunch at a 
time. She brings you information to learn about the importance of 
changing the way America feeds its children.

« “Will Trade Children’s Health for Lunch Money”
http://www.chefann.com/blog/?p=343

‘Fluff’ Flies in Massachusetts School Lunch Debate »
June 22nd, 2006

Ann Cooper and Kate Adamick

Last week, a New York State Assembly bill designed to combat childhood 
obesity by restricting the availability of foods of no or minimal 
nutritional value in vending machines, school stores, and a la carte 
luncheon lines on school grounds or property, was held in committee, 
effectively killing the bill for the session. This news was met with 
appalling glee by many, including the New York branch of the School 
Nutrition Association (NYSSNA), – whose stated mission is to “To advance 
good nutrition for all children” – which lobbied relentlessly for the 
bill’s death.

While the bill was not perfect, its passage would have guaranteed every 
New York child a safer school food environment than currently exists 
today.  In an era in which The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has 
estimated that one in three U.S. children born in the year 2000 will 
develop Type II Diabetes by age 18, working to defeat a bill that would 
have helped remedy this epidemic is nothing less than unconscionable.
Some have argued that such legislation by the State is unnecessary in 
light of the new local wellness policies, required by federal law to be 
in place in each school district by the 2006-2007 school year.  This 
reasoning is shrewdly misleading, however, given that very few local 
wellness policies contain the measurable nutrition standards set forth 
in the defeated bill, and instead use vague terms such as “reduce” or 
“lower” when referring to permissible levels of hydrogenated oils, high 
fructose corn syrup and sodium.  Ultimately, this means that little will 
be done in school districts in which the local bureaucrats or food 
service management companies neither wish to expend the effort, nor 
incur the expense, necessary to effect meaningful change.

Do we need to go further than this bill?  Yes, absolutely! 
Schoolchildren today are often herded into crowded, deafening rooms to 
eat their meals off paper plates on Styrofoam trays with plastic 
“sporks” in less than 20 minutes – an environment in which no one would 
willingly choose to dine.  But the biggest problem with school food is 
not that the kids aren’t being served family-style meals on china 
plates.  The biggest problem is that kids are being served – and sold — 
toxic processed “foods” in an educational environment intended to 
nurture their minds and bodies.  Schools nationwide are “Drug-Free 
Zones,” yet we allow chemical-laden foods in our schools on a daily 
basis. Not until these products are removed from the school venue (which 
this bill would have gone a tremendous distance in accomplishing), can 
we focus our attention on other critical matters such as local 
procurement, preferences for organic foods and reintroduction of dining 
as a truly social experience.  As it now stands, the death of this bill 
will enable most school food service programs in New York to continuing 
killing the kids, however unintentionally.

Of course, in a system in which school food service is typically 
unfunded by the local school district and is often contracted out to 
food service management companies that profit from the sale of highly 
processed, prepackaged food products, the ardent lobbying against a bill 
that would have prohibited sales of these products to our children comes 
as no surprise.  But when adults willingly spend $4 on a morning cup of 
coffee or an afternoon bottle of beer, it’s at best shameful — if not 
abusive — to willingly sacrifice our children’s health and well-being – 
and, ultimately, years off their lives – simply in order to balance the 
school food service budget.

If those of us who call ourselves “school food advocates” – including 
the NYSSNA – are not willing to walk the talk, how will we be able to 
look our children in the eye someday when they come to us, suffering 
from Type II Diabetes and a host of other life-threatening diet-related 
illnesses, and ask us “How could you?”

When this bill is reintroduced next year, we sincerely hope that 
everyone will support it

. . . for the sake of our kids.

Kate Adamick  is a New York City-based food systems consultant 
specializing in school food reform, and the former director of New York 
City’s SchoolFood Plus Initiative.

-- 
Kathrynne Holden, MS, RD < fivestar at nutritionucanlivewith.com >
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