Just finished this article Hunger

I wondered when our First Lady was taking funds from food stamps to fund her new nationwide school lunch program why we were tolerating going from a program that was poor (USDA Child and Adult Food Program) to one that was poorer – hers – but life got in the way, so I didn’t think much about it again until I read that not only is Mrs. Obama’s lunch program much more expensive for every child, but the amount of food has been drastically decreased and the choices are not even in the ball game for children’s palettes.

So what gives? Jumping on the “children are obese” bandwagon is not as easy as it seems…I know; I joined the Evansville Coalition and was promptly “shelved” for greener pastures when I tried to do something real and concrete for our city’s nutrition. I got the impression that we were at the Evansville Coalition to spend money not to accomplish anything. So when I read all about Mrs. Obama’s just “adding more fruits and vegetables” scheme to reduce obesity, I smiled and thought, I hope this is “shelved” as well because the project is typical of someone who has not cooked, cared, and understood the problems of feeding today’s school children.

When you ask a group of forty children, “How many of you ate at McDonald’s last night?” And nearly every hand goes up, you know you’re up against a mighty fortress…and it isn’t God.

I’ve fed children for over forty years, and successfully from what I can gather when I run into my little kids grown up years later and they still remember. I’ve trained a lot of cooks, and taught my daughters how to cook with love, care and wit. It takes two things…a brain and a heart…not one to be outdone by the other.

First thing to remember when feeding children is calories. School children MUST have enough calories to be healthy, awake, and function as students. Those calories must be desirable…healthy, available, and fun. The whole concept is a balance between what children SHOULD eat and what they WILL eat while we are counting those calories. Remember, little kids struggle with 1200 calories a day while a big strapping football player needs more like 4000 calories. The same school lunch is not going to work for every child.

Where do these calories come from? First on the food agenda is milk. Three glasses equals 300 calories. But they have to drink it, so if nothing is ever offered BUT milk, it will at last become a habit. Every year when school starts, the only children who drink their milk readily are the children coming back to the GS for a second or third go-round. None of the new children drink their milk. That shows us something quickly. The calorie base or foundation for balance and nutrition is in trouble in nearly every child. By teaching children to drink their milk, we are actually fortifying their diet with a brain food. We are re-structuring their health based on a habit of “always finishing our milk.”

Next on the agenda: grains – noodles, bread, rice, oats etc. By eliminating exclusively white flour foods, we are returning two things to a child’s diet…the idea of being satisfied at the table and adding the nutrition that comes from whole grains. Children will gravitate away from the chore of eating if the food served is perceived to be more than they can handle. The idea is to make whole grain foods something they really want to eat. By serving a double sized fun food made with whole grain in the morning, a delicious and familiar one or two at lunch and one knock ’em dead home baked one at snack, as many as five grains can be loaded on the calorie scale successfully.  That’s 500 calories…we’re getting there!

Protein: It’s hard to manage more than a fast food fantasy food with a lot of children, especially children who come from families who don’t cook. Meat is difficult for many adults, so the idea with children is to use other proteins and gradually manage to win their trust so that they eat anything you make. At the Garden School, we have a beef day, a chicken day, two meatless days when we serve cheese based, egg or fish meals, and a pork day…this allows us to both keep the budget under control while it allows the children to have the varying nutrition found in varying meats, cheeses, eggs and fish. We make all our own meals, so we design our lunches to meet the needs of the children in our care. That’s another 200 calories..

The fruits and vegetables are the easiest part of the meal plan. These are the things children grab first to eat. But they have to be first class and look good. Serving a variety is the key. One cooked veggie like sweet fresh carrots…one salad filled with extras like cheese, crunchy stuff and a great dressing! A cherry critter…a kind of cherry brown Betty…fresh grapes…raisins…melon…apples…buttered corn…fresh green beans…the list is endless, possible and doable.

When a child sits down to a child’s meal – a plate filled with really healthy, well thought out meal components, children will thrive, they won’t be hungry, and the expensive, pre-made empty calorie items they are in the habit of eating will be second on their list of wants. At the same time, they can’t sit down to a plate filled with celery and carrot sticks, mixed frozen vegetables and half an apple and find anything satisfying, fun or enough calories to be “full.”

Someone has to care, and overworked cafeteria staff, teachers, state officials, and principals are not the target here. They have other tasks to accomplish. If parents are not cooks and take children for fast food half their evenings, the habit of eating well is not going to happen. But it can start, and it can start in early childhood, in preschools, family day cares and centers. It starts small…it starts with three glasses of milk every day…it travels over to homemade and enrichment of whole grains…it sneaks a peek at two good proteins a day – even egg and cheese…and then as much quality fruit and vegetables as a child will consume.

Health is worth every penny…