If the current state of our nation’s food system makes you a bit queasy, you’re lucky you didn’t attend the presentation by Ann Cooper as part of this year’s Pallet to Palate event. But then again, attendance should have been required for anyone who has some misgivings about our food, especially what we’re feeding our kids.
The self-described “former white tablecloth celebrity chef” now billed as the “Renegade Lunch Lady,” Cooper has completely overhauled the school lunch program of the Berkley School System. When she arrived just three years ago, the main tools of the kitchen were “box cutters and can crushers.” Because of the Byzantine federal and state methods of funding (or, as Cooper would argue, not funding) school lunch programs, it was considered cheaper to serve processed, pre-packaged stuff to kids. All the “cooks” had to do was open the boxes, microwave the “food,” and serve it – still in the packaging!
Under Cooper’s reign – and believe me, it’s probably easier to agree with this diminutive firebrand than not – the main kitchen now actually prepares fresh food for distribution to the individual schools, all of which also offer salad bars. Daily menus for the entire year are distributed at the beginning of the school year, and most grade level’s curriculum also includes gardening and/or nutrition.
Cooper lays the blame for the derailment of healthy school lunch programs at various feet, most notably at those who aggressively market “non-nutrient foods,” and who drain precious funding away from schools. While Altria (formerly known as Phillip Morris) gets 10 cents from every food dollar, farmers get only 9 cents, if they’re lucky; in an age where untold billions are going to the defense budget, Cooper notes that a typical school lunch budget provides only $1 per child per day, and that has to include staff costs as well.
Why should we care? According to Cooper’s statistics …
40-45% of the children born in 2000 will – WILL – become insulin dependent.
The current generation of kids is the first in our lifetime to have a shorter projected lifespan than their parents, and the life expectancy gap between rich and poor is at 20% and growing.
and, what can we expect from a society that has 2.1 million prisoners and 1.9 million farmers?
