School Lunches
August 15th, 2007 by Vihar Sheth | Posted in Children, Education, Responsibility, Society, VegetarianismA short article by Carolyn Tuft published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch yesterday highlights the inadequacy of school lunches offered in many major cities in the U.S. I’ve reproduced the entire article here, without permission, since it would take longer to load it than read it:
St. Louis public schools have the worst nutritional value in school lunches than anywhere in the nation’s 22 largest school districts that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine studied, a report released today shows.
“If your family lives in San Diego; Fairfax, Virginia; Charlotte, North Carolina or Pinellas County, Florida, your child will find healthy vegetarian options most days of the week,” said Dulcie Ward, a dietitian for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
“But, if your home is in Atlanta; St. Louis; Omaha, Nebraska; or Anchorage, Alaska, your child may have a tough time finding healthy food.”
The group, founded in 1985, is a nonprofit health organization that promotes preventative medicine. It conducts “clinical research studies, opposes unethical human experimentation, and promotes alternatives to animal research.”
The study showed that even though the country is experiencing an outbreak in childhood obesity, school lunches still feature menus that “are packed with such unhealthy options as foot-long hot dogs and ‘Colossal Burgers,’ and are short on nutritious vegetarian dishes.”
Not good for the Lou, or a seemingly random assortment of other cities. The interesting thing about the short lists provided for good and bad cities in regards to public school lunches is that neither list fits a particular stereotype or demographic. That ridiculous amounts of preventable medical expenses are related to all the fat people shaking the ground in this country is no secret. It stands to reason then that nipping the problem in the bud would make sense, and that a more concerted effort would be made to offer healthy food to children at a young enough age that would enable some positive habit-forming. Clearly not the case. Vegetarianism aside, offering cheap food school lunches high in calories and fat and low in nutrition can not continue. Society is ignorantly planting seeds that will without a doubt grow into disproportionately high resource consuming citizens. We’ve already planted so many bad seeds that have grown into ideas, people, and institutions take their toll on this country’s infrastructure, systems and population.
Why do we continue to turn our backs on the future of this country? Bad food for kids leads to unhealthy kids with bad habits and more problems than they deserve. Allow them to function in a failing healthcare system and you get all of the ingredients for a giant freakin’ mess. The mind boggles.
An aside: The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a swell organization! I don’t know if I’ve ever come across them but I’m glad I finally did. Good people, good mission. Go common sense!
