Kitchen Crusades

Brace yourselves. I am once again going to focus on a part of the story that is not the main point. Bear with me.

Howard County Schools let us taste new lunch options. Here’s what we thought. Christina Tkacik, Baltimore Banner

You may be aware that HCPSS is in the process of upgrading their food offerings. The school system is partnering with the Horizon Foundation and the Healthier Choices Coalition (a local advocacy group) to bring fresher, healthier, and more diverse menu items to the school lunch program. They held a community taste test event Thursday night at Guilford Park High School. There will be another such event in Columbia in the Spring.

Ms. Tkacik is a food reporter for the Baltimore Banner and before that she held a similar post at the Baltimore Sun. It must be quite a mental shift to taste lunchroom food when you are more used to the intricacies of fine dining. She is a good sport.

One of the things that struck me was that any changes the school system makes must conform to the fact that our kitchens are not actually set up to cook fresh food from start to finish. We can add and upgrade options for fresh raw foods such as fruits, salads, and raw vegetables. But you can just put any rosy imaginings of farm to table entrees right out of your head because even if we could procure the ingredients, we couldn’t prepare them on site.

What we have are essentially warming facilities for frozen, prepackaged products. I’m sure there’s a variety to chose from within the school lunch nutritional guidelines. But it’s still reheated commercial food. There’s a long story in the history of school lunch in the U.S. that explains how we got to where we are today. For one thing, once the Federal government stopped paying for kitchen equipment, school districts shifted to preparing food centrally and delivering it to schools to be warmed up.

And then many simply shifted to using prepared foods. Real, fully-equipped cooking kitchens in schools are largely obsolete.

Can we hope to significantly change children’s school lunch experience if we cannot actually cook and serve fresh food for them? Is this a change which cannot be undone? Does it matter?

As an aside, I’m glad there was a mention of the whole grain pizza in the article. It may be healthier, but my pizza-loving kid was unable to get it down once they made the change and it took away one of the few things worth looking forward to.

What’s your take on school lunch?

Village Green/Town² Comments

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Today in Local HoCo: two local craft fairs today for your holiday shopping pleasure.

Historic Oakland Holiday Craft Market, 10 am - 3 pm

Long Reach Craft and Vendor Fair, LRHS, 10 am - 3 pm

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