School Lunch 2.0 LEFT A TORTILLA TOPS THE LUNCH TRAY AT JACOBY CREEK SCHOOL.
Menus are changing, even before new federal rules kick in Story and photos by Jada Calypso Brotman
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BLACK BEAN SOUP SIMMERS AT TRINIDAD ELEMENTARY.
EVER-POPULAR, PIZZA MAKES AN APPEARANCE AT FERNDALE ELEMENTARY.
t Jacoby Creek School in Arcata, billows of steam cloud the plastic food guards that protect the tables of hot food, duplicating the winter fog that mists the cafeteria windows. The smells of ketchup, vegetable soup and yesterday’s lasagna mingle with the odors of rubber balls and kid sweat from the game of kickball that finished a scant 10 minutes ago. The giggles and hoots of children echo off the high ceilings, dimming momentarily when the authoritative, deep voices of lunch aides and teachers suggest line-forming and lunch-appropriate behavior. It’s time for lunch. School cafeteria lunch. For anyone who went to school decades ago, the experience has changed remarkably little in some ways. Despite a world that has endured budget cuts, cell phone apps, and No Child Left Behind, school lunch looks, sounds and smells a lot like it did in 1985. Or even 1965. As adult visitors we may be taller and bigger, but we still have to wait in line and not push. There are fewer New Kids on the Block lunchboxes, but the sound of Humboldt
12 NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2012 • northcoastjournal.com
rain drumming on a gym-turned-cafeteria roof is eternal. And yet, something is different. The lunch ladies are far less frightening than they seemed when we were younger; maybe they have gotten nicer. The sheet cake with loads of artificial vanilla frosting, so fondly remembered from fifth grade, is not on the menu any more. In fact, a lot of the items served even 10 years ago have vanished or been altered. No bright orange nachos, no chocolate chip cookies, no fried corn chips, no mysterious sugary orange drink. Desserts are rare and wholesome (think watermelon). Breakfast is expanded now, and all the schools we visited recently serve it. Far from generic Pop Tarts, breakfast includes fresh baked breads, five-grain cereals and fruit. Cooking methods have been changed; bye-bye, deep fry! Even the corn dogs are baked. It’s hard not to breathe a tiny (although culinarily appalled) sigh of nostalgia at the fading of so much childhood sugar, grease and empty calories. But today’s kids don’t wonder where the pudding went; they were never offered it in the first place.
Probably for the best (sigh of longing for whipped topping). … As adults, many of us have discovered that less-processed foods, grown closer to our kitchens, taste better than all those garbage calories. And with childhood obesity rampant, far from worrying about our kids getting enough calories, we’re concerned with them getting healthy and nutritious meals. In Humboldt, the County Office of Education recently scored a grant from the St. Joseph Health System Foundation to host a series of healthier cooking classes for local cafeteria staff. Nationally, Michelle Obama, highest-profile proponent of changing the way kids are fed in public schools, has made healthy eating her cause celebre. From growing vegetables in the White House garden to championing 2010’s Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (which mandated updated nutrition legislation), she has reason to celebrate in 2012; this year saw the USDA release its final version of the new healthier standards, after two years of national feedback. No longer does ketchup count as a vegetable! There are other, more substantial dif-