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Chair: Dave Obey (D-WI)
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Chair: P Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
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Public School Lunches in New York City Tabloid Today

by: Eddie C

Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 09:12:17 AM PST

( - promoted by JayinPortland)

Listed in one Daily News link this morning as School lunches get a big, fat "F" on health today's story Survey: School lunches, full of processed foods, still get failing health;

The health-crazed Bloomberg administration often touts how it has overhauled school lunches and slashed calories - but critics charge the standard cafeteria fare is still far from healthy.

The photo in today's paper that is captioned as looking "more like McDonald's than Whole Foods" actually makes McDonald's look good.

That is actually a New York City school lunch recently served at PS 42.

In a city that once portrayed installing Snapple dispensers as a health conscious move for the children of New York City, there are often stories about Bloomberg improving lunch programs but...

Eddie C :: Public School Lunches in New York City Tabloid Today

A Daily News survey found lunchrooms routinely serve highly processed foods such as mozzarella sticks and pizza, which critics charge are loaded with preservatives and other unhealthy ingredients.

In spite of all the parents concern and food often being the dominant topic at public meetings, the story shows how much of a priority teaching children proper nutrition is at the government level.

"It's more window dressing than real change," said nutritionist Susan Rubin, founder of the Westchester-based advocacy group Better School Food. "Just cutting the calories and fat doesn't make this processed food healthy."

The almost healthy sounding "toasted cheese sandwich on oat bread" is actually a frozen sandwich that contains more than 30 ingredients. Even pizza, that is so often served. How simple can pizza be?

One pizza option has more than 25 different ingredients, including azodicarbonamide, which is used as a bleach for foods or a defoaming agent in plastics, and datem and sodium stearoyl lactylate, two food additives for blending the ingredients together.

The rest of the story explains how Bloomberg's war on sodium is not being fought in public schools, how slow the promised elimination of high-fructose corn syrup is going and how the promised school cafeteria improvments turned out to be "little more than lettuce and pickles" at one high school "salad bar."

But it is not all city government and Bloomberg cannot be expected to reach into his own pocket. At the end of the story a New York City official has his say. Eric Goldstein, the head of food and transportation for the city Department of Education after defending the good reforms by the Bloomberg administration, gets to the heart of the matter.

Still, Goldstein acknowledged more work needs to be done - including cutting high-fructose corn syrup and finding less- processed cheese sandwiches. But he said the city is doing the best it can with what amounts to $1 of federal funding per meal.
"The school food world is a different world. It's not Whole Foods," he said.

Why not? When should children embrace whole food? I guess when they are all grown up and paying their own way. Then they can change bad habits installed by the poor food they grew up with.

Seriously "$1 of federal funding per meal" in New York City. I know that school P.S. 42 where the lunch photo came from. It is right next door to a White Castle. That meal would cost $4.00 in that infamous fast food drive-thru and if a student walked a few doors down to a decent luncheonette something nutritious would cost $8.00. But students are expected to learn something on "$1 of federal funding per meal."

Tags: School lunches, Food, New York City, NYC, (All Tags)

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Public School Lunches in New York City Tabloid Today | 11 comments

Greetings from New York (4.00 / 2)

Take a look at the famous Little Red Lighthouse.

You know I'm going to sneak a photo in somehow. It's what I do.

by: Eddie C @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 11:25:01 AM CST

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Ouch... (4.00 / 2)

Even my lunches in Jersey public schools twenty years ago didn't look that bad!

I thought we were supposed to be making some progress these days?

Interesting ingredient lists, eh? And the "grilled cheese" is even served in the hot plastic bag?!

Amazing to see the waste in that picture, too. Is that styrofoam? And then the wrapped, disposable single-use plastic utensils (knife and 'spork', I assume?). Multiply that 180 days a year times how many kids in NYC public schools? 1.2 million or so? Just in one city's public school system?

by: JayinPortland @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 11:31:55 AM CST

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You know I didn't have school lunch (4.00 / 2)

I predate school lunch programs. I was a latch key kid when most households had stay at home moms. My mom gave me $1.00 a day to go find lunch. It was 1961 and I got the same amount from Dear Old Mom as the Federal Government gives today.

Now that the good work of liberals has gotten school lunch into schools that dollar seems so cruel to me. Granted I had 35¢ left over for an after school "Spaldeen" but the cost of food has gone up by at least a factor of twelve since my childhood.

And yes Styrofoam trays and plastic forks are still not on the NYC recycle program.

by: Eddie C @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 11:48:17 AM CST

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Not all of our school lunches are (4.00 / 2)

the same. There was a recent story on a Queens (I think) school that cooks for the kids. Serves more fresh food and the menu is geared towards the ethnicity of the school including vegetarian meals. It was a photo spread in the NYT. I may have even posted a link here.

And we do have an Edible Schoolyard planned for next school year. That may just kick some a**es into gear ;)

by: nycstray @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 12:39:18 PM CST

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Exception that proves the rule... (4.00 / 2)

Exactly, and let's hope pieces like this continue to remind us of the differences between the good pilot programs you've mentioned, and the rest of the crap the vast majority of kids in the same city still have to eat on a daily basis.

by: JayinPortland @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 13:08:48 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Now that is something I did have in the 1960's (4.00 / 2)

In P.S. 56 there was an "Edible Schoolyard" with vegetables and ornamental plants cared for by students.

It was abandoned in the late 60's and was just a big rectangular void behind a twelve foot fence.

In the 1980's the fence was removed so teachers would have a place to park their cars. In the 1990's the memory of that garden along with the handball, basketball courts and a huge play area were demolished to make way for a school annex.

Now P.S. 56 has no school yard to speak of. Just enough room for students to line up outside the school and a place for the garbage truck to make pick ups at an enormous dumpster.

Something seems skewed about those priorities. Especially in a neighborhood that is as depressed as the one where I grew up. Real estate prices are so low in the Norwood section of the Bronx that they could have placed that annex elsewhere and still offered children the children of P.S. 56 a place for a little exercise.

by: Eddie C @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 13:22:00 PM CST

[ Parent ]

The link to that story on the "school that cooks for the kids." (4.00 / 1)

Nice positive piece, Schools' Toughest Test: Cooking points towards some progress.

by: Eddie C @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 15:57:14 PM CST

[ Parent ]

looks like whoever made that lunch thinks ketchup (4.00 / 3)

is still a vegetable

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

by: Jill Richardson @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 13:34:50 PM CST

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There may be... (4.00 / 2)

...a pickle slice under the bun?

Heh.

by: JayinPortland @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 13:41:54 PM CST

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Eric Goldstein (4.00 / 1)

the head of food and transportation

Seems a peculiar agglomeration of functions in one person, if the city is serious about improving school meals. Might the school food program deserve its own director? Is Goldstein qualified? I don't know anything about him, maybe he's excellent for the job.

The Daily News article doesn't mention the role of commercial food service companies, if any. Is NYC school nutrition an in-house project, or is it mostly contracted out?

by: count @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 19:09:27 PM CST

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Yucch! (4.00 / 2)

I cannot believe the schools think that's a real lunch.

by: sbgypsy @ Tue Feb 02, 2010 at 12:27:02 PM CST

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Public School Lunches in New York City Tabloid Today | 11 comments