Even the most staunch veggie-hating kids can usually be persuaded to nosh on carrots and ranch. It turns out, though, that the old standby is becoming boring to kids and the battle over school nutrition is getting trickier, according to an NPR article I just read. School lunch officials have found that kids are continuing to throw away their “healthier” school lunches, in favor of not eating at all.
In an attempt to spice up an old classic, DC Central Kitchen {“a nonprofit group that delivers meals to eight schools in Washington”} decided to create new, and hopefully kid friendly carrot recipes and then let the kids sample the different varieties and vote for their favorite. Their hopes were to both broaden the kids’ pallets and to give them some sort of ownership over their food choices. They made Asian inspired cooked carrots, herbed roasted carrots, and a carrot mash. The kids sampled, voted, and starting this December, they will see the winner, Asian glazed carrots on their lunch menu.
I totally applaud the organization for trying to make the veggies more palatable–and even more, I am super duper happy that we are offering healthier lunches in schools, instead of crappity crap {because “that’s all the kids will eat”}. Most of all, though, I cringed at the thought of the sheer amount of food waste resulting in school lunches being thrown out each day.
I would love to see a world where the kids were offered nothing processed, whole food recipes at school. I know they don’t love it now–because it isn’t ramped-up with salt, sugar and bad fats, but eventually, their taste buds would come around…if they get hungry enough, right? Plus, sometimes I think kids hate veggies because they are over-cooked and bland, if school lunch programs were willing to try out new ways of serving them, like this school program is, maybe the kids would find “their personal flavor?”
What do you think, am I living in fantasy world…should we all hold hands and sing Kumbaya?
~Mavis
sara says
I would love to see a gifts for gardners post!
sara says
OMG!!! Gardener’s
Practical Parsimony says
My daughter asked me to get squash for her after she sampled raw, yellow squash at school. She had them with a dip, but I pointed out she would be smarter without dip. Then, she refused all dips–okay with me. She was four, so she learned to eat dip about 10 years later, and only nutritious dip.
My children hated fruit salad, but they actually like every ingredient. So, I served them little stack of ingredients on their plate–apple slices, half a banana, about 6 pecans, mound of raisins (two Tbsp) , 10 grapes. They loved it. They had raw carrots, sliced tomato, piece of cheese, 3 celery sticks, and diced chicken on that same plate. They drank unsweetened iced tea. There were two pb cookies and milk after they ate. One child (10) hated cheese. The other (8) hated tomato, so those two did not have those on their plate. The little one, only four, ate all.
If they had these at school, they would inhale their lunches. Cheese was burned at school. Things were slimy, not something they had at home. My children loved casseroles, but not those at school. My son had almost a cup of sour kraut on his plate that he always traded for two cookies.
I know it is hard to cook for a mob every 20 minutes, but the schools don’t cook. They reheat or cook something sent in a pan.
As for giving them the choice of these carrots, why cannot children learn to eat vegetables and fruits without having a special flavor? When parents give children a pb and honey dip for apples, the kids learn to never eat a food that is not altered. That is a shame.
Melissa says
I think Practical brings up a good point, schools don’t cook anymore they just reheat. The problem is cooking takes people in the kitchen. Budget cuts affect staffing and unfortunately reheating is cheaper.