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School Lunch 2.0

22.05.12

For anyone who went to school decades ago, the experience has changed remarkably little in some ways. Despite a world that has endured budget cuts, cell phone apps, and No Child Left Behind, school lunch looks, sounds and smells a lot like it did in 1985. Or even 1965. As adult visitors we may be taller and bigger, but we still have to wait in line and not push. There are fewer New Kids on the Block lunchboxes, but the sound of Humboldt rain drumming on a gym-turned-cafeteria roof is eternal.

And yet, something is different. The lunch ladies are far less frightening than they seemed when we were younger; maybe they have gotten nicer. The sheet cake with loads of artificial vanilla frosting, so fondly remembered from fifth grade, is not on the menu any more. In fact, a lot of the items served even 10 years ago have vanished or been altered. No bright orange nachos, no chocolate chip cookies, no fried corn chips, no mysterious sugary orange drink. Desserts are rare and wholesome (think watermelon). Breakfast is expanded now, and all the schools we visited recently serve it. Far from generic Pop Tarts, breakfast includes fresh baked breads, five-grain cereals and fruit. Cooking methods have been changed; bye-bye, deep fry! Even the corn dogs are baked. It’s hard not to breathe a tiny (although culinarily appalled) sigh of nostalgia at the fading of so much childhood sugar, grease and empty calories. But today’s kids don’t wonder where the pudding went; they were never offered it in the first place. Probably for the best (sigh of longing for whipped topping). …

Source: North Coast Journal