To Grill or Not To Grill

There it sat in all its mystifying glory. “What is it?” we all asked each other. After lots of poking and prodding, and absolutely no taste attempts, we all came to the conclusion that it was a sweet potato with a scoop of cottage cheese and a cherry on top. “What is this, some kind of April Fools joke? Wait, it’s only February!”

Such was the legendary tale of the totally inedible meal in the cafeteria of Mt. Pleasant Jr. High School. Problem is, dishes like that were an everyday occurrence, as day after day full trays of food went into the garbage while we hurried to the local market to buy pocketfuls of penny candies. Iowa being the breadbasket of America should probably have the greatest food in the world on its’ school menus, (and today may very well have). However, no matter how nutritious the individual items were on the plate that day, the way they were assembled was nothing short of repulsive. No one would even touch it let alone eat it!

Well it’s no surprise, but sad none-the-less, that the situation hasn’t changed as much as you might think. I now have daughters of my own in High School (where they refuse to eat at the cafeteria, and wouldn’t be caught dead bringing a sack lunch), one in Jr. High where the aforementioned habits are now forming, and one in grade school, where whatever they are given (sack lunch or school lunch) is largely ignored because they are too busy playing. I hate to think how much of this food ends up in landfills due to horrible taste, embarassement, or brevity of allowed time. I have attended lunch with all of my girls on several academic levels, and witnessed kids scraping enormous amounts of un-eaten food into the trash. We are surely missing something here. We are told that our school districts have certified nutritionists on staff, yet when queried as to why a healthy item like Hummus was not made available, our local ‘Nutritionist” said “What’s Hummus’?

As a chef, I find myself faced with many challenges. However, none are so challenging as finding healthy foods that kids will actually eat. Perhaps one of the biggest obstacles to overcome is that regardless of how healthy the meal may be at school, many kids are still eating crap at home. Granted we all lead frantic lives and have little time to prepare wholesome foods, but a little creativity and some foresight could remedy that. Parents simply must stop relying on fast food as a constant crutch. The fatty, high calorie foods they eat at home create cravings that are difficult to overcome with the one meal a day a school has.

I have turned our family into my test subjects to see what effects a healthier diet will have on their grades and concentration levels. I am trying to get them to eat a light healthy snack in-between meals, which studies have proven can stabilize blood sugars and lessen the insulin spikes. My problem now is to convince every one of my girls to suffer the slings and arrows, and take a lunch to school. I don’t see much help from the school systems as first of all so many don’t know what they are doing, and second; budgets have been cut so drastically that we may have to take what we get for a while.

In my next post, I am going to outline a concept that I have developed that I would like to see flourish across the nation. Perhaps obesity could become a bad memory, just like that Sweet Potato & Cottage Cheese. Ciao, & Bon Appetite Craiger