Many parents and school lunch workers will tell you that getting kids to willingly eat their vegetables is no easy feat. But Whole Foods and Chef Ann Cooper think they have a solution to the problem: salad bars in school cafeterias. Whole Foods and Cooper have already raised over
Sounds great right? Well the problem is many school districts are already saying they don’t want the salad bars because of health concerns and USDA school lunch program guidelines. Schools are afraid that the salad bars may become unsanitary with younger children who are too short for the “sneeze guard” to be effective or who may use their hands to pick up vegetables. The other concern is that because of USDA guidelines, students would have to pass a “checkpoint” ensuring that they took the required amount of fruits and vegetables from the salad bar. This would take more time out of already too short lunch periods and could require an extra lunch worker to monitor kids’ salad choices.
As far as health concerns go, any public salad bar in general is susceptible to germs. But isn’t school the place where kids are supposed to learn about life skills? And isn’t one of those skills how to be sanitary and keep our germs to ourselves? If we teach kids how to sneeze away from the salad bar (into their elbows as per swine flu protocol), wash their hands before meals, and use the utensils provided to serve themselves, then there should be no problem. And if that doesn’t work then get an adult to serve the salad bar, having kids point to the items they want.
As far as the USDA guidelines, well that’s something that needs to be revamped anyway. The USDA dictates how many proteins, vegetables, grains, etc. kids are supposed to be eating daily and they are served accordingly. But I’ve seen these guidelines at work, where the breading surrounding a corn dog was considered to be a “grain”, and watched as kids took a plate full of food, ate the meat and then tossed the vegetables in the trash. You can tell kids they have to eat their veggies, but you can’t force them to. Allowing kids to choose from a salad bar may encourage kids to eat the vegetables they already like and try those they may be unsure of (especially since they can control the amount they take). And if kids are choosing the vegetables they want to eat, they are less likely to throw them away, thus reducing food waste.
If the cost of an additional food worker (to monitor the salad bar and the amount of vegetables each student takes) is the big issue for schools then why not find volunteers (i.e. parents, nutrition students at the local university) who are willing to help out? Or reconfigure the lunch line so that workers can be more evenly spaced out? It seems worth the extra effort if it means that kids will go to class with a more balanced meal in their stomachs.
Hopefully these first salad bars will installed in the elementary and middle schools of neighborhoods where access to fresh fruit and vegetables is scarce. It’s these neighborhoods where obesity and undernourishment are the highest. If we can get kids interested in eating and trying various vegetables at an early age, they will be more likely to keep those eating habits later on in life.
Story via Grist
Image via Lodig
