As promised, today the New York Times published my letter to the editor (reprinted below) regarding reporter Kate Murphy’s muddled and misleading Sunday Review piece, “Why Students Hate School Lunches.”
Be sure to read the other letters objecting to the Murphy piece as well, including those from American Academy of Pediatrics president Sandra Hassink and former School Nutrition Association president Katie Wilson. And you can read my more complete rebuttal of the article, previously posted on The Lunch Tray, here.
To the Editor:
Kate Murphy calls America’s recently improved school nutrition standards “coercive” and “forbidding” for banning items like “a classic baguette, semolina pasta or jasmine rice” and the “flavorful sauces that often go with them.” Is she serious?
Unlike French schoolchildren, whose four-course repast Ms. Murphy so admires, our children were not seeing a lot of baguettes and jasmine rice before school meal standards were overhauled. Instead, they were inundated with deep-fried, salty, highly caloric meals and junk-food snacks, and they could pass up the fruits and vegetables so critical to their health.
But the good news is that children have not been “wrinkling their noses” at the healthier fare. The National School Lunch program exists to serve low-income children (those receiving federal meal subsidies), and among that group, participation has actually increased.
Moreover, instead of finding cafeteria trash cans “overflowing” with healthier food, researchers at Harvard, Baylor and the University of Connecticut all found no increased plate waste attributable to the new standards.
But by ignoring that hard data and proclaiming in its headline that “students hate school lunches,” this article has provided valuable fodder to those who will seek to undermine school nutrition standards in Congress later this year. If that faction succeeds, our school meals still won’t resemble those in France, but America’s most vulnerable children will certainly be worse off.
BETTINA ELIAS SIEGEL
Houston
The writer is a school food advocate who blogs at The Lunch Tray and a member of the Houston Independent School District Nutrition Services Parent Advisory Committee. The opinions expressed are her own.
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Sally at Real Mom Nutrition says
BRAVO!!!!! Fantastic letter, Bettina. So glad they were smart enough to publish it.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Thank you, Sally!
Jessica @ Nutritioulicious says
Great letter Bettina. Congrats on it getting published!
Donna @radionutrition says
I agree that using baguettes and jasmine rice as examples of forbidden foods in the US School Lunch program was idiotic, but I don’t think you can just dismiss the issue of increased food waste either. I doubt it’s an across-the-board happy story about the impact of healthier food on waste. Anecdotes about less waste or more participation in some places are offset by stories of much lower participation leading to financial crises, as well as increased waste in other places.
Sure the French school lunch system is wonderful, but it’s never, ever, going to translate to US public schools. There are too many cultural, financial and educational barrier to that.
Aviva Goldfarb says
Bettina, thank you for being so amazing and standing up for the health of America’s kids!! You make the world a better place.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Thank you, Aviva! That is so kind of you to say.
Anne Hartley says
Bettina, Would you mind posting me (or directing me) to the studies that showed no increase in food waste? We’re getting that excuse in Florida now.
Thanks!
Anne Hartley says
Bettina, Would you mind posting (or directing me) to the studies that showed no increase in food waste? We’re getting that excuse in Florida now.
Thanks!
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Hi Anne: Here’s one recent one from UConn/Rudd Center: http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/chi.2015.0019 The press release about the study is here: http://www.rwjf.org/en/library/articles-and-news/2015/03/students-eat-more-fruit-and-throw-away-less-food-with-new-health.html I hope this helps!
Bettina Elias Siegel says
And here’s a second one, focusing just on fruit & veg waste: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335515000674