Several readers were kind enough to share this story with me, knowing it would be right up TLT’s alley.
The Associated Press and other outlets report that five elementary school cafeterias in San Antonio, TX will soon be using high-tech cameras to monitor both what students put on their lunch trays and how much of the food is left over when they return their trays to the kitchen. Computer software will then analyze “before” and “after” photos to determine the number of calories and the nutrients in the food consumed. Students themselves will not be photographed, but because each tray will have a special bar code, regular reports will be sent to parents to let them know what their child is – or is not – eating at school each day.
After taking a few seconds to wrap my mind around technology that can analyze calories and nutrients from photos of food (!) I decided I’m all for Big Brother in the lunch room.
To my mind, anything that gives parents more information about what goes on there can only be to the good. Indeed, until I started writing TLT, I rarely visited my kids’ cafeteria and when I finally started coming by, my eyes were opened not just to the quality of the food, but also to the eating habits of the students. For example, a concerned lunch room monitor reported to me that some kindergartners were regularly eating nothing but an a la carte ice cream sandwich for lunch, leading to a near-certain crash in the afternoon. I’ve repeatedly seen kids take vegetable side dishes, even though they’re not required to do so under “offer vs. serve,” then throw them in the trash untouched. And I’ve seen some kids so busy gabbing with friends that they barely touch their lunch at all.
According to the AP report:
Researchers hope parents will change eating habits at home once they see what their kids are choosing in schools. The data also will be used to study what foods children are likely to choose and how much of if they’re eating.
But I think the effects could be even broader. Parents, especially those who work full time, may be seeing their children’s food — both the menu choices and its appearance — for the first time. And depending on what they see, they may be pleased or they may be galvanized to bring about needed change.
The program will cost $2 million and will be funded by a USDA grant for four years. If I learn more about the data collected from the program, I’ll of course share it here.
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Lisa Suriano says
This is so interesting!!! It really would give busy parents an opportunity to learn about what is going on in their child’s cafeteria, for better or worse. If there are positive efforts being made, they will have the tools to help support and encourage them with their kids. If the situation is in need of help, it might just be the catalyst to get more parents motivated and involved in making changes.
Bri says
I really never thought I’d be in favor of something like this, but Hip Hip Hooray! Seriously. One of my biggest pet peeves about having to work outside the home is that, even though I pack my boys’ lunches, I know they are still receiving snacks and treats at school that I didn’t pack, authorize, or know about at ALL in many cases. Not having a clear picture of their daily intake can be frustrating when it comes to determining desserts and special snacks at home. I can only imagine how much more challenging it can be as they get older and are eating school lunches, with no teacher reporting back about how much was consumed or making sure to send home the containers from home lunches so Mom and Dad can see what actually went into the kids’ stomachs. While the tray technology certainly won’t help with things like classroom treats, it will give parents a much-need look at their kids’ dietary days, without the convenient filter of kid “omissions” and “revisions.” 🙂
Michelle (What's Cooking with Kids) says
Bri – I can totally relate. I can’t stand all of the food that is distributed to our kids without our consent. Yesterday I picked up my son from school and he was eating an ice cream bar. Only a few days before that, he said they served soda for cinco de mayo. We love ice cream and treats – but I prefer to have our family choose the ingredients that work best for us, and not have another parent or school make that choice for us.
Grace @eatdinner says
I agree that pictures and video will help instruct parents, but it will help add evidence for those who mistakenly think the School lunch fight is “over.” There is a long way to go to make US school lunches healthy and appealing.
Right after I saw this AP article, I saw a video on French school lunches. Talk about shocking comparison! http://www.wimp.com/schoollunches/
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Grace: I know! I once posted my own link to that same video of school lunch in France. It made me weep.
Stephanie says
First of all, Texas rates in the top 5 WORST States regarding Education and our Governor is looking to chop 4 BILLION out of the Education budget! In an ocean of 4 billion dollars, 2 million may seem a mere drop… tell that to a teacher that is loosing their job at the end of the school year! For a state that does not want to use Federal funding for schooling, this is laughable!
Secondly, how far will the “research” be used? Will it stop at informing parents on what their child is eating at school to make better choices at home? Will an insurance company deny your child coverage or place exorbitant premiums on obese children who are eating the “wrong food combinations” at school and exceeding the allotted calories for that meal?? Do we have such little faith in our children to make the right choices when we are not looking that we need to watch them and monitor them constantly? Maybe they will make a child GPS that also monitors caloric, fat, sugar and carb intake that will print out a daily sheet on your home printer so that they are fully controlled. I know, you are thinking, “REALLY?!?!, give me a break! That would never happen!” But with the rate of technology advancements, I fear that it is not that far ahead of us. Image Pres GH Bush coming out of office and seeing a scanner at the grocery store! When he went into office, they were inputting prices manually! Imagine life with a Nokia cell phone that takes pictures and that is all. Imagine life before bar-codes and what those bar-codes represent. It is a slippery slope.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Stephanie: I think lots of people feel as you do, that there’s no way to justify this expense in a time of drastic cuts to education. But keep in mind that the money is coming from two pots – state budget on the one hand, USDA on the other. Still, I take your point and it’s one I wish I’d raised myself in the post. Also, see this passionate post from the Mom in Mesquite.
Seamonkey says
I think it’s absurd. If the schools are so worried about children making bad choices why do they provide them in the first place? 2M could buy a lot of apples.
jenna Food w/ Kid Appeal says
seamonkey – schools don’t chose what kids eat. the National School Lunch program does. most local admins (principals) have little to no control over what is served in their campus. they may want students at their campus to eat carrots and not be offered a chicken sandwich everyday, but they don’t call the shots.
2M could buy a lot of apples. what if the footage revealed that 70% of those apples go in the trash uneaten, or barely nibbled? then a food service manager would know that the students in his district are largely rejecting the healthy food that is budgeted and purchased and probably need some nutrition education. perhaps the school food director would have a leg to stand on when he came to the school board and said, “i know you want me to feed these students the very best food I can on a tiny budget with no additional funds and regulations a mile deep, but the students are rejecting healthy options. i don’t know how to teach kids how to eat healthy food when they are only in the line for 3 minutes every day. I have 2 staff members who are so busy putting food out for service that they can’t interact with student, giving messages about what foods will fuel them. can the district please assist in teaching kids how to make good selections by teaching nutrition ed in the classroom?”
maybe the footage of what kids actually eat (and what gets tossed) would get more teachers, admins and food service managers to actually make some of the necessary changes that it will take for school kids to eat better.
i don’t know how it is in your campus, but in my campus there are three adult staff members to monitor 400 students eating lunch. there is one to monitor 150 students eating breakfast. when adults aren’t present to help kids learn to refuel on nourishing food before they head back to class, students eat what appeals to them. if cookies, chocolate milk, ice creams are what appeals to them and those items are always available, that’s what they eat. most 5-10 year olds don’t have the discretion to pick healthy food over unhealthier options, when both are present. they need more adults present to help make those choices. OR the school lunch programs need to get some of the unhealthier choices off the menu (chocolate milk??), so that kids only have healthy options to choose from.
teachers will have to take on teaching about food in the classroom (not in health fitness, that’s for getting kids moving), admins will need to make time for it in the day, school boards need to support nutrition education initiatives, and school food directors have to think outside the box on how to pay for more real food on tight budgets and remove some of the “kid favorite” items from the menu like chocolate milk and hot sandwiches so that some of the healthier options like white milk and fresh fruits and vegetables have a chance at going down the hatch.
would your elementary aged child go to bed on time if you weren’t supervising? would your elementary aged child do his homework on a regular basis if you weren’t supervising him? why do we expect kids to eat the right food when the wrong food is right next too it? can we do that as adults? when you go to a wedding and there is a buffet of yumminess set before you, do you choose only the healthy things and leave all the unhealthy options behind? if you have good will power because you’re a wise adult, you may be successful grabbing some of the good options and picking one or two treats as a splurge because it’s a wedding. do we really expect elementary kids to be able to do that?
Michelle (What's Cooking with Kids) says
I see where you are coming from, Jenna. But I wish the money could be put into nutrition education instead of technology. The personal interaction is key – and if kids were educated about how to make good choices and enjoy the foods served to them, they would learn some life long skills.
ps. the whole apples often remain uneaten because kids have missing teeth / wobbly teeth, braces or other issues that get in the way of biting into a whole apple! Slices are much easier for kids to manage.
jenna Food w/ Kid Appeal says
michelle – your position assumes that all the stakeholders have agreed that nutrition education on campus or in the classroom is necessary. i don’t think they have. i think the data from this study could be evidence to convince all the stakeholders that only a combination of nutrition education in the classroom and offering ONLY healthy options (no hot sandwiches and pizza w/ chocolate milk every day) will help put a dent in kids horrible eating habits and their resulting bad health.
until school boards, administrators and teachers are convinced that the problem can’t be solved with adding veggies to a crummy menu and expecting kids to choose celery sticks over chocolate milk and insisting that it’s the parents responsibility, not the schools to teach kids what to eat, then meaningful changes to student eating habits will be impossible.
Jaime says
Aren’t teachers losing their jobs left and right? Aren’t parents having to contribute for school supplies? And, haven’t art and music programs been cut because of budget issues?? If schools only offered healthful options this program would have no real use. I think dietary choices are a private family issue and not a burden of already burdened states. I think better budgets for teachers, supplies, arts and music programs is a better use of what minimal funding there is for duration related endeavors.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Jaime: Just to be clear, it’s federal dollars (USDA) being used for the cameras, whereas here in TX (and presumably elsewhere) it would be the state that is providing — or not providing – the funding for teaches, supplies, etc. But I can see your point about misplaced priorities, one that’s been made by lots of other TLT readers.
Kelly Lester says
The idea of all that effort, energy, and dollars put into technology to monitor kids and then report it makes me sad. Kids are overweight because they’re eating much larger quantities of awful foods compared to what they were eating 30 years ago. It doesn’t take a bar code or scanner to tell you that. I wish all of these companies who spend a fortune on research and technology – getting grants, bills, donations and funding for such – would channel all their efforts into simply getting better food and great nutrition programs to our kids. Then we’d really see a difference.
corrie says
{I’m posting over here a response I have on my blog…}
Here’s the thing. I do understand that research like this will help gather some much needed information about what kids are eating and what they are not eating. If the goal of this research was to determine the amount of waste in the lunch room, I would be more likely to buy into it. But, that isn’t the case. They are wanting to count the calories and hopefully encourage families to change their eating habits. Here is what I’m concerned about:
1) We already know that schools cannot afford healthy lunches. The extra six pennies per kid with the new lunch program will not go very far, especially since the program has been extended to include millions more kids. Add that to the rising cost of food, and all you get is children eating the same, if not lower quality of food.
2) We know that this school food is already being marketed as healthy to the kids and parents. Parents are told that this food is “healthy”…now they will get conflicting information stating your child is overweight because they at too much healthy food. Why would they not start with posting nutritional content and ingredients first? Caloric consumption alone, to me, is not worth spending the $2 million dollars. A true “hard evidence” would measure the ingredients, additives and physical activity. That is the evidence we need. I fear that in four years the USDA will come back and say, kids need less calories…which they do…if they aren’t moving around.
3) What happens after the four years is up? In four years, these children will have established an eating pattern and taste for this food. Parents are not going to change their eating lifestyle at home because their kids are eating “too much” healthy food at school. Getting them to “portion control” processed food does nothing in the terms of long-term healthy eating.
4) I know this sounds a bit funny….but I’m also worried that these kids will actually try to eat more and clean their plates because they know they are taking pictures! Kids are like that. 😉
I hate the thought that these kids are having to continue eating this food with no substanial change in sight. Four years is a long time in “kid years” to their bodies.
Robin (Hippo Flambe) says
Personally I don’t think the choices children make in the lunch room until we start to change the environment and time they have to eat it. My children get about 20 minutes to eat lunch, less if they take the school lunch. The cafeteria is loud with only one adult in the room most days who is barking at the children about being quiet instead of modeling how to eat. My 5 year old constantly complains that he does not have enough time to eat. As to thinking it is the students fault for choosing to socialize instead of eating, it is their only chance to talk to friends in a 6 hour day.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Robin: That issue is one I have been meaning to write about for some time now. Stay tuned! And thanks for coming by TLT.