Ann Cooper - Making Processed School Lunches a Thing of the Past
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Think back to your school days -- what foods filled your tray? Reheated tator tots, square slices of greasy pizza, and unidentifiable meat all come to mind ... which is probably why I brown bagged it almost every day of high school.
Unfortunately, in many areas, those highly processed foods still make up the bulk of school lunches. However, according to OnEarth Magazine, at least one person is stepping up to make a big difference.
After paying her dues in the celebrity chef circuit, Ann Cooper has turned her attention to the food served in schools. And her efforts have paid off, big time. In the schools she's worked in, she's introduced real chicken, whole grains, and fresh produce to the noontime meal.
Cooper says, "High-fat, high-sugar, high-salt diets with very few fruits and vegetables and no whole grains will lead to a generation of kids who, for the first time, will die at a younger age than their parents," citing Centers for Disease Control statistics that a third of our nation's children are overweight or obese.
Additionally, she calls real lunch reform "the social justice issue of our time" because those most affected by what's offered for school lunch are minority students. "We can either pay for lifelong wellness now, or pay later for a tsunami of diabetes. And these kids can't learn if they're not well nourished."
There are a plethora of challenges. Budget, for one: Just one-third of the $2.59 per child per day allotted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture is actually spent on food (the rest goes toward administrative and staffing costs). Cafeteria workers require serious training, and in order to make fresh produce affordable, in-season fruits and veggies need to be used (and, of course, that's different in every region). Plus, many school cafeterias don't even have kitchens!
That's not stopping Cooper from taking her lessons nationwide. F3 Foundation (Food Family Farming) is a nonprofit that she'll help to launch this summer. F3 will provide a lunch box filled with tools for menu planning, student nutrition, recipes, and sourcing techniques. Additionally, she'll continue working with her for-profit consulting firm, Lunch Lessons LLC (based on her fourth book, "Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children").
What are school lunches like in your town?
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