Anyone who has taught K-12 knows that you can’t teach kids who are falling asleep in the classroom, and kids who are hungry aren’t very good students. In some of the poorest school districts, children arrive at school without breakfast and may not eat dinner every night. Being able to eat in the school cafeteria gives them the nutrition they need to survive. It’s not that our schools should become a babysitter, that’s not the point, but the realities exist.
It’s unfortunate that we spend so much time debating exactly what will be in all of these school lunch programs and what kind of nutrition will be in the meals. At one point we were supposed to have everything in the five food groups, but then it was decided that some of the things in the food groups were only there because of the excellent lobbying and research done by the industry associations that sell that type of food. That is a real problem.
There was an interesting article in the May 17, 2011 Wall Street Journal headlined “Spuds, on brink of being kicked out, starting cafeteria fight: Federal plan to limit potatoes on school menus draws supporters; greens from Entrance” by Jennifer Levitz and Betty McKay. The article said that; “Under the USDA proposal, school cafeterias would have to limit starchy vegetables such as potatoes, corn, peas and beans to a total of 1 cup per week for lunch.” If you are a farmer who grows potatoes, you probably disagree with this, and I have to say yes.
It seems to me that with all the crisis and controversy over school budgets, teacher layoffs, and the ever-present debate over standardized testing, we have more serious problems than potatoes, corn, and beans, which are pretty healthy. for the human diet. Unfortunately, some people believe that they will make children overweight. Apparently, the controversy arose because school cafeterias provided too many French fries to children, and many health nutritionists complained.
We recently discussed this in our think tank, and one of our members decided that we should call them “freedom fries,” as a joke, an imitation of the problems we had with France during the last Iraq war. However, it appears French fries will eventually be removed from these menus, and other starchy vegetables will be removed as well, with no real nutritional evidence or studies. It worries me that something like potatoes and corn, which have been the mainstay of the human diet for hundreds of generations depending on nationality, have done well for humans, and even children.
The real problem with juvenile diabetes and fat kids has more to do with lack of exercise than what they eat. Providing half a potato a day in school lunches actually makes a lot of sense, and potatoes don’t cost that much, so it would also help with the budget. Best of all, there are many ways to eat potatoes; French fries, French fries, mashed potatoes, hash browns, and even potato donuts as mentioned in the article, that is.
These are all serious problems, but perhaps we need to go back to the basics of teaching. There is nothing wrong with potatoes, and I hope you will consider all of this and think about it. If you have any feedback, research studies, or actual empirical data, I’d love to hear what you have to say, so please email me.