The Culture of “Cool” Eating in Schools

About 35 people gathered in Wollman Hall on Thursday, October 11 at 6 p.m. for a discussion panel on the health of school-age children and adolescents as a result of school meals and media influences on food choices.
The panel, titled “Children and Food,” included Lynn Fredericks, founder of FamilyCook Productions, Lisa Sasson, nutrition consultant for Nickelodeon and Janet Poppendieck, a recently retired Hunter College professor and author of “Free for All: Fixing School Food in America.” Phil Gutensohn, Executive Director of the International Culinary Center’s Future Cooks Initiative, and Stefania Patinella, Director of Food and Nutrition Programs at The Children’s Society, also served as panelists.

Panelists criticized a school meal system where food is sold to students, rather than just provided for them. With lunch prices cheaper than a quality meal elsewhere, Poppendieck claimed, the food’s overall nutrition is compromised.

“We can’t continue to ignore the economical part of it: that cheaper foods tend to be the unhealthiest,” said Poppendieck.

With open campuses, Fredericks added, students are more likely to go to fast food venues and convenience stores, eating non-nutritious foods. She explained that even the á la carte options presented in school cafeterias can be unhealthy alternatives.

In the generation of primarily fast-food eaters, overall taste preferences have shifted to foods that lack substantial nutrition and the general idea of what is delicious divorced from what is healthy, Poppendieck told the audience. It has become the new culture of food.

“For a cultural problem, we need a cultural shift,” Patinella added.

Patinella noted that there is less encouragement for students to make healthy food choices in and out of the school lunchrooms. Outside of school, students are sometimes at the mercy of their parents for nutritious meals. Sasson also explained that for parents pressured to work and for low-income families, it’s easier to eat fast and cheap food, which over time negatively affects their health.

“Sadly, fruits and vegetables are more expensive, but I am thrilled to see fruit carts all over Manhattan,” Sasson said, commenting on their presence as a way to also consider fruit “fast food.” “I would like to see the media making healthy food cool,” she added.

Sophie Bosselmann, 21, a student at Eugene Lang College who has worked on a cafeteria garden for PS41, came to the event out of personal interest.

“A lot of schools are taking this issue from the ground up, rather than the government down,” Bosselmann said. “That might be a good way to go.”

 

 

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Charlotte is majoring in Journalism + Design at Eugene Lang College and graduated high school in Bamberg, Germany. Her father is a soldier so she grew up moving around a lot. Outside of her interest in journalism, she is an aspiring novelist & screenplay writer who dabbles in acting. Charlotte loves reading, writing, road trips, red wine, videogames, music, sketch comedy and tennis.

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