I read Valerie's post about cafeteria food in Italian schools and cafeteria food in American schools and it just confirmed one of the major fears I have about moving back to the U.S. before our son is school-aged. I love the way he is learning to eat here, and I love that Italian kids tend to eat more or less like Italian adults. There is no idea that there are strictly "children's foods" (which in the U.S. are usually heavily fried junk foods) and "adult foods."
I hope Valerie doesn't mind but I'm going to steal a piece of her entry. She points out the following as some of the samplings of a recent Italian elementary school lunch menu in her area:
"1) Pasta con melanzane (with eggplant); Robiola or Stracchino cheese; Bread; Steamed carrots; Fresh seasonal fruits
2) Minestrone with mixed beans; Stuffed Zucchini (with lean meat, baked); fresh bread; Fresh seasonal fruit; Fiordilatte gelato
3) Spaghetti with white fish; Baked Sole; Spinach with a drizzle of olive oil; fresh bread; Banana.
4) Pasta e Fagioli; Frittata; Beet Greens with a drizzle of olive oil; fresh bread; Fresh Pears"
I also stole her idea and went and took a look at the school lunch menu online for my elementary school back in Ohio. Here's what kids in suburban Ohio are eating this month:
Popcorn chicken, chicken nuggets and dip, sloppy joes, double stuffed pizza, corn dogs, tacos, turkey sub sandwiches, cinnamon glazed french toast...and the list of schifezze goes on. It reads more like the menu at a fast food place or greasy spoon than like a list of foods kids should be being served at school. Granted, many American elementary school kids wouldn't eat pasta with eggplant or minestrone with beans. They expect to be served "kid foods" so the schools probably feel like that's what they have to offer to get kids to eat. But that's just sad.
*Cibo Matto was a band in New York in the mid-1990s. Anyone remember them?
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8 comments:
Don't Italian school kids go home for lunch? I thought most schools let out around 1:00 so kids could be home for lunch...
(PS- I remember Cibo Matto, or at least one song called "Baby Love Child"!)
I should send a link of these two posts to the food director at my local grade school! His junk food lunch menu is very close to that of your school and Laurie's school.
Was listening to oldies from the 60's and 70's by the 90's.
Such a difference, I know where I would like to go to school....The Italians menu is amazing...so yummy!
There was debate about this issue on Jezebel.com the other day following a post about the Kid's menu at the White House luncheon.
A few foreign Jezzies wanted to know why is there a kids menu?
I ate what my parents did and had no say in the matter. I'm not sure if a young child should be eating conchs but I did.
Seriously, I wonder where/how did this kids menu idea start?
Did you ever see that Jamie Oliver special where he went to a little school in Puglia and was stunned by how well the kids were eating? The kids also knew the names of veggies. He has a foundation that is trying to change the British school lunches.
WOW. I taught in an Italian school that served lunch and I would have loved a menu like that!! Of course they didn't eat fried food either.
Neither did the kids at the school in Santa FE, NM I worked at for 1 month.
My son is 4 and has lunch at school - his menu is very much like the one you posted - always sounds delicious! He also knows the names of most fruit and vegetables. My only gripe is that they always use plastic plates - and gets through hundreds of them every day. By contrast my aunt works in a British primary school where the food is all heavily processed and served directly onto moulded plastic trays - like in prison! And then we wonder why kids don't have any table manners... don't know what veggies are which....
Romerican,
I think kids who go to school six days (including Saturday) go home for lunch. But I think a lot of schools are moving more toward a five-day week, including having kids stay to eat lunch. At least the schools in my area are.
Gil,
These food directors probably have good intentions but are fighting an uphill battle. I think kids expect to be given "kid foods"
Anne,
Yes, it does sound balanced and yummy. I remember our school lunches as being disgusting. Greasy pizza and french fries. And I liked (like) pizza and french fries but these were even inedible.
NYC,
I did see that Jamie Oliver special. I wonder what ever happened with that? I think he too was fighting an uphill battle. And I remember that the schools only had so many cents to spend on each student for lunch, which is why they tended toward cheap frozen stuff. Jamie's menus were pretty pricey.
J. Doe,
I think the fried crap is probably much more prevalent in the Midwest...
Cath,
Bravo to your son knowing the names of fruits and veggies. It's a good thing. I remember a New York Times Magazine article about a school somewhere in the U.S. that tried to introduce fresh fruit and veggies and the kids were disgusted by a peach. A peach! They said it was "too fuzzy" and wouldn't eat it.
Italy gave me the precious gift of good eating habits. As an au pair I came to Bologna with babyfat, was comfort-eating between meals, and guzzling diet coke.
Pre Italy, I used to go jogging and then stop at the 711 for an enormous cup of diet pepsi to rehydrate.
Then I came to Italy. Couldn't find the junk food I was used to,there was no diet coke to be found, and on 90,000 Lira a week couldn't afford to snack.
Voila, a year later 10 kilos lighter.
And I learned to cook!
Last summer, a very tubby Italo-American 8 y.o. came to visit the rellies in the old country and reportedly couldn't use a knife and fork!
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