Over on the Fed Up with School Lunch blog, I recently learned of Dayle Hayes, a Registered Dietitian in Billings, Montana who’s actively working in a variety of ways to improve the quality of nutrition for our children. One nice thing Dayle does is celebrate school lunch programs that are getting it right by posting photos of their meals on a Facebook page called “School Meals that Rock.”
Looking at the appealing, minimally processed meal shown on the Fed Up site, I assumed that the district which produced it must be charging a fairly high price for lunch and/or receiving some kind of outside financial assistance. But according to Dayle’s sources in Lolo, Montana (where the meal came from), the price of that meal for a fully paying student (see my School Lunch FAQs for more information on what that means) is $1.75. That’s the exact same price charged by my district. Furthermore, according to Dayle, the Lolo district doesn’t receive any outside funding.
Of course, the logistics of preparing meals for the students of Lolo (population 3,300 according to Wikipedia) isn’t comparable to preparing meals for the 200,000 students in Houston. And the one key piece of information I’m missing (and can’t get until Lolo’s schools are back in session) is how much of that $1.75 goes toward food. (In my own district of Houston and in many other districts nationwide, that number is around a paltry 95 cents – one dollar).
But either way, that photo does show that meals of fresh, whole foods are possible for a modest price and that students will eat something other than the tired array of standard “kid food” that my district dishes up — things like pizza, hamburgers, and the dreaded Frito Pie (if you’re not a Texan, it’s really better not to ask.)
I think I’m going to bring that photo to my next meeting with HISD Food Services. Then I’m going to sit back and let them tell me why behemoth Houston — with it’s gleaming, brand-new, $51 million central kitchen — can’t compete with little Lolo, Montana when it comes to serving up a healthful, appealing and minimally processed school lunch.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Bettina Elias Siegel