McDonald's No Longer the Devil: Part Deux

 Alarmed by what I had discovered about the "nutritional" value of my daughter's school lunch (I actually teased her about just feeding her 2 teaspoons of salt before she left in the morning so she could skip lunch altogether), I decided to contact the Feed Service Coordinator for the school district via email. I wanted to hear her take on things and the reasoning behind all the nastiness going on in the cafeteria. I also wanted to pass on some links to get some healthier ideas flowing throughout the school system, like grants to put salad bars in, fresh food and some healthier fresh recipes from the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution website. I won't bore you with the whole letter, but I would like to hit on some of the highlights of her reply.


About salad bars:
"Salad bars have been a struggle for our department in the past due to the time restraints we have to feed the students.  I will certainly look into the project salad bar grant resource you provided to see if a possible pilot location would help initiate the trend. Forest would be a great start!  We have for the past 2 years been recipients of the Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Grant from USDA which has allowed us to offer free fresh fruits and vegetables to over 15 schools in the district. http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/ffvp/ffvpdefault.htm"


A scary fact about the USDA guidelines:
"Current USDA Federal Regulations under the National School Lunch Program requires district to align their menus with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. At this time, we do NOT have specific nutrition regulations on sodium. We do, however, have guidelines on fat, saturated fat, Trans fat, protein and all the vitamins and minerals."
So, I would have to think the big question is, why DOESN'T the USDA have guidelines about sodium content? Our sodium intake is becoming so great that we are literally becoming human beef jerky. I suppose that would be awesome if you were lost in a desert and could spare an arm or two to survive. 


There was however, some small glimmer of hope in her email:
"However, I will share that all Child Nutrition programs are awaiting the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act which should move through Congress by December.  http://www.schoolnutrition.org/content.aspx?id=2402 .  This will have many nutritional updates for what school districts will be required to serve and I overwhelmingly agree that it is long overdue.  The guidelines will be based on the Institute of Medicine research and will include Sodium restrictions. http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2009/School-Meals-Building-Blocks-for-Healthy-Children.aspx . The guidelines,  if passed into Law,  will force manufacturers to make NEW & IMPROVED CN (child nutrition) products  that will have better nutrition profiles and give us the selection we need to create better menus."


She also attached their nutritional information to a 3 Bean Vegetarian Chili that they were starting to roll out, which wasn't bad with 410 mg of sodium for an 8 oz. serving, but if they would just soak the beans themselves, and make it fresh, they could fore go even having that much sodium, since it's mostly in preservatives and not in taste. Who would like to bet they have to add more salt to it to make it taste better? 


I suppose I will, for now, hold my tounge on the subject matter until I see what the outcome will be, but you can bet your ass I will be watching what happens with the Child Nutrition Act very closely. 


Here is a question for you... Is school lunches really a new thing, and if not, what did they do about it in the 50's, 60's and 70's? Did everything come premade in a boil-in bag, or a just-add-water situation or did people actually have to "cook"?