Here's a horrifying statistic: "more than 80 percent of the nation’s districts cook fewer than half their entrees from scratch, according to a 2009 survey by the School Nutrition Association."
What this means is that, for the most part, kids are eating frozen bulk food that has been warmed up.
I say "for the most part" because there are some school cooks out there doing some awesome work. One of them is the focus of the New York Times article "School's Toughest Test: Cooking." Sharon Barlatier is the manager of one of New York's largest middle school schools and cafeterias and she uses the schools kitchen equipment to make dishes, like curry, from scratch for her students:
"Her job is to entice nearly 2,000 students at the height of adolescent squirreliness to eat a good lunch. Because many of her students at Middle School 137 come from families with Indian roots, curry is one of her secret weapons. The spice mix garam masala might improve its firepower.
She has to make curry from a limited list of ingredients approved by the Department of Education: frozen pre-roasted commodity chicken parts, jarred chopped garlic and a generic curry powder.
Fresh chicken might improve it, but there isn’t a speck of raw meat allowed in New York City school cafeterias. It poses too much of a food-handling challenge.
So Mrs. Barlatier will settle for a little garam, even though Mr. Collazo will have to go out of his way to put it on the list."
I love stories of people doing a lot with a little. Even though her ingredients are severely limited, it is great that Mrs. Barlatier is still going that extra mile to make healthy food that her students will want to eat. We have spent a lot of time looking at the school lunch system here on TakePart. Read one of our previous stories and learn more! + What's in a School Lunch? The Good Graph + One Tray, One Future: Making School Lunch Healthier(Video) + Attend a Labor Day "Eat-In" To Improve School Lunch: Reminder + Two Angry Moms: Fighting for Healthier School Lunches + Uncovering the Secret Life of School Lunches *photo from timlewisnm's flickr account (CC)
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