Even the Enchilada Mama sometimes runs out of time, ingredients, energy, or enthusiasm to home-cook. I find lunches the most difficult to coordinate. The fall-back plan normally involves leftovers, and that's fine.
Today, thanks to my state of excessive caffeination, I had plenty of energy and not enough time, so I stopped at Milio's in Middleton for a turkey sammy on wheat.
While inhaling my sub back at my desk, I clicked through a few news sites and an article in the Chicago Tribune caught my attention.
Six years ago** the principal of Little Village Academy (one of Chicago's public schools) enacted a policy banning bag lunches, requiring children to eat food provided by the school's contracted catering company. (The policy makes exceptions for children who provide a doctors' note requiring a special diet.)
According to the article, this catering company charges $2.25 per meal. Multiply that by the number of days in an average school year (180) and the principal's mandate requires parents to shell out $405 per child per school year. According to my abacus, let's see...
a carton of milk $0.25
+ one apple $0.50
+ two slices of bread $0.50 (for the good stuff)
+ two slices of turkey or a dollop each of PB&J $0.50
That means bagged lunches costs a family roughly $315 per year per child.
The principal's mandate not only takes an extra $90 out of parents' pockets, but takes away the precious lunch-making ritual between a parent and child.
As the Enchilada Mama and a food blogger, I find it disturbing that a parent, a home cook, has diminished control over the ingredients he shares with his children, the opportunity to take pride in food that comes from home, and to learn from the experience of integrating good food in our lives.
Discuss.
Eat good food and prosper.
**Yep, I'm not sure why something that happened six years ago qualifies as "news" either....
I have mixed feelings about this, because I don't think schools should have to or try to parent kids. But, I am willing to believe that most kids were bringing mostly junk, and the school lunches are more nutritious that what most kids were bringing from home. Next time you're at the grocery store, look at what the family next to you is buying... It's not pretty. This is the same principle that leads principals (see how I did that? Clever, yes?) to enforce dress codes in public schools. If you can't make sure your kids wear decent, appropriate, non-gang-related clothing to school, well then, schools have to do something to make the school day run smoothly and ensure kids have an environment in which they can learn. Even if it costs parents more.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm a parent.
By the way, love you, love your show!
Katie
Katie, when it comes to school lunches, I believe you have selective memory. Mine often constituted fries, a slice of "pizza," and a cookie the size of my head.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, your suggestion to observe what others buy at the store made a big impression. I do see that people often make really poor grocery choices, many of which are based on price and convenience. High calorie foods can be the cheapest foods. Need to fill four tummies on a limited budget? Probably going to opt for the 3/$10 frozen pizzas rather than a roasted chicken with a side of organic steamed vegetables.
Not sure I'm convinced the school lunch argument parallels the school uniform movement. Parents purchase their childrens' school uniforms, meaning the family has choices within certain parameters. "Do you want the charcoal gray sweater vest or the navy blazer?" When it comes to school lunches, the only option given to a parent is whether to pay for that food with a check or charge card. From there, the child makes choices and I guarantee you their choice isn't "Would you like an apple or an orange?" It's "Would you like an apple or this plastic-wrapped, heavily processed, year-old, 350-calorie muffin." Can't blame a child for making the wrong decision in that case.
I think you're uber clever, the prettiest sister in the world, and I LYLYS too. MUAH!
I can't believe a public school can enact a rule like this. (A private school is a different matter. They can set whatever boundaries they want.) As a parent, I would hope I would have the choice whether to pack a lunch or not.
ReplyDeleteI would bet that the school lunch program has a lot of flaws when it comes to nutrition. Sio, I also remember our pizza days. Parents don't understand how bad that stuff is for kids.
Have you seen Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution show? I watched it last night, and the school district in LA wouldn't allow him into the schools to see what they served. So he had kids bring in the food to his kitchen. They brought donuts, waffles, fruit in corn syrup, you get the picture. Not what we should be feeding our kids!!
I would be pissed if my public school said I couldn't pack a lunch for my child.
I too watched the Food Revolution the other night and it is simply disturbing the kinds of things the kids were getting at school. I may not have kids, but I am not ok with being forced to have a school feed my child. I grew up with taking a bag lunch to school every day through the 8th grade. On occasion we'd be given money for a hot lunch and when we did have hot lunch it was always something unhealthy... pizza and gooey cookies.
ReplyDelete