"C'mon Rahm! People over Profits...Feed the Children." or "When I Was Hungry You Fed Me...Lousy Processed Food."

When my daughter was four years old we took a family trip to Atlanta, partially prompted by my participation in an academic conference. While I was away presenting, my wife and children were able to spend time with one of her friends from childhood. My wife’s friend’s home was in suburban Atlanta in a solidly middle-class neighborhood. This conference was during the academic year, so school was in session at the time. A policy at the school was to regularly open its doors to family during lunch, so that parents could visit and eat with their children. In many urban districts with vast security and distrust of any outsiders, this might be unheard of, but not at this progressive school. My daughter had around that time become fascinated with the idea of a school cafeteria. I am not sure which Nickelodeon show had exposed her to this, but it was something that she frequently mentioned looking forward to as she was soon about to enter kindergarten. The idea of getting a warm meal, sitting with her friends, and being social really appealed to her. Much to her enjoyment, my kids, my wife, and her friend visited her daughters’ school that day to have lunch with them—a suggestion she made after hearing about our daughter’s fascination with school cafeterias. It so happened that this was a top-notch cafeteria with plenty of food options, served warm by food service workers, and eaten at spacious tables in a room dedicated to eating only. My effusive daughter beamed with enjoyment as she recounted the experience to me later that day.

My now nine-year-old daughter continues to be fascinated by food. She collects cookbooks on baking, loves watching the Food Network, and even critiques my cooking—“Daddy, a little garlic is good, but biting into this pesto I felt as if I was enveloped in the flavor—you’re chopped!” She also continues to focus on food at school, which in no uncertain terms, she absolutely hates. Every morning my wife carefully prepares a lunch that is healthy and balanced, because we love our kids, but which can be a burden as we all try and get ready and out the door on time. My wife will often ask, “would you like school lunch today?” in the hope that she can buy some precious time, but the response is always a resounding “No! The food is awful! The apples are moldy, the hot dogs are soggy and greasy, and it is not even healthy. It all comes wrapped in plastic and it’s not even hot.” This came from a nine-year-old. Last year she actually ran for the second grade representative to the student council on the platform that the school lunches were so bad. She also complains that there is no longer a cafeteria, rather students eat at tables in the hallway, as there is no dedicated space for lunch. A quick 20 minutes are allowed to eat the food that leaves little time for socializing, necessary, in my expert opinion for a young person to grow up into a well-adjusted adult. While those in other countries show how they value social cohesion, we seem to be much more focused on performance and efficiency-thus the sparse free time and tight use of space. 

We also focus on profit and cost-savings, especially in the Chicago Public Schools. Despite highly publicized school closures to save money a few years ago, this did not necessarily translate into better services as schools consolidated. Around that time the school system also got rid of its public employee janitorial and food staff and hired the private company, Aramark. The school system continued to be publicly funded with local, state, and federal tax dollars, but now private companies were taking a cut in exchange for a service. In a free market, if a service is poor, one can take her business elsewhere, but because CPS negotiated a contract with Aramark, we, the consumers were a captive audience left without a choice.

Aramark also handles the food contract with CPS. The local public radio station has noted that CPS receives $3.15 from the Department of Agriculture per meal taken by students. It highly encourages all students to take the meals or even just a carton of milk so that they can account for a larger number of meals taken, resulting in more money for the school system. But, most of this money goes directly to Aramark and only about a dollar of that taxpayer subsidy goes to the cost of food. 

What kind of food do you get for a dollar? Soggy, moldy, greasy food (?) that is unhealthy, cold, and wrapped in cellophane.

I was happy to hear that a group of high school students a few blocks from the university where I work in Chicago have literally been fed up. They have created a website and are now demanding healthy food, which shouldn’t be too much to ask—as a school and society have a moral responsibility to take care of all children—and also knowing that the benefits of healthy food to learning are very real.

I told my daughter about this at breakfast this morning, while my wife prepared lunch. “Well it’s about time!” my daughter said. “I can’t believe they try and feed us what they do.”