Jennifer Lin '09 dines with her students.
This guest post on comparative nutrition practices is from Jennifer Lin ’09, who just spent the past year in Japan as a participant in the prestigious Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme. Previously, Jennifer also lent her talents as communications assistant in the Office of Global Affairs at Brandeis.
Lunchtime! I imagine that most of us spent many lunch hours in school. We hated it and loved it, we bought it and brought it. What’s going on with school lunches these days? Let’s take a look at how America and Japan do things differently.
I think back to my time as a student in suburban New York, from elementary through high school. Free from teachers’ watchful gazes in the cafeteria, we subsisted on greasy rectangles of pizza, rubbery chicken nuggets, and hamburgers. There were pancakes which occasionally doubled as frisbees, dubious chocolate cake that could be used to scrub the floors, enormous quantities of sugary beverages and the ubiquitous ice-cream sandwich.
In middle and high school when we usually brought a few dollars to buy what we wanted every day, I recall my friends and I living on soda, chips, and giant cookies. Commercially produced goods were readily accessible via vending machines. Once in a while I would consume a bag of baked corn chips and feel virtuous for it.
No doubt about it, kids were independent when it came to eating at school. They could pick and choose what they liked. Reduced price meals were often available for those who needed it. Lunches and snacks could be brought from home, catering to the wishes of a picky eater or concerned parent.
But when choosing foods on their own, it was rare that a child would choose the healthy options, or anything they hadn’t been exposed to before. Such items often as not ended up uneaten, or used as weaponry in food fights. Unsupervised, kids ate anything they fancied. Bagged lunches might have been traded for items full of sugar, salt and fat. “Health class” was the only arena for learning about food and nutrition. As I recall, it wasn’t a class that was ever taken very seriously.
Has anything changed in the 10+ years since I was an elementary school student? I wonder what most health classes across the country are teaching now. With dire warnings of childhood obesity and other nutrition-related problems on the rise, educators in America are adjusting their tactics on school lunch and health education. Legislators are taking steps to improve standards through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act directing $4.5 billion towards federal children’s nutrition initiatives, as well as establishing voluntary programs like “Let’s Move!” (http://www.letsmove.gov/). It’s good to see awareness growing about good nutrition.
I recently returned to the United States after a year teaching English in Japan, where I ate lunch with my elementary-school level kids every day. We all consumed the same meal in the classroom, where the kids served lunch and cleaned up afterward. The teachers kept a sharp eye on everyone, making sure proper table manners were observed. There was very little wasted. Teachers distributed any extra food to the kids who wanted more. The school nutritionist (assigned by district) often stopped by each classroom to ask us some trivia questions about what we were eating.
Each day’s lunch was carefully planned in advance and prepared by that nutritionist, whom the school informed of any allergies or other issues. Kids knew what they were eating and how it was cooked. They learned about the entire process from growth to consumption, and participated actively through planting, harvesting and cooking their own produce. This meant that lunchtime was still classroom time, and so they were always learning about their food in a constructive way.
Healthy local and seasonal foods were kept on the rotation, with a fair mixture of both traditional and international styles. So children often developed a tolerance for a wide range of ingredients and cooking styles, even for those they initially disliked. They also thoroughly absorbed the Japanese principle of “mottainai” – don’t waste anything! Food fights were not tolerated.
The kids at my Japanese schools didn’t have the freedom to pick; they didn’t get a choice of what they wanted to eat, like I did. It had been decided for them. Parents also have to pay full price for each day’s lunch – this ranges from $1.50 to $2.50 USD. If there’s a reduced-price meal system, I’m unaware of it. But the system seems to work for them. Most older students and adults I encountered seemed to know how to make healthy eating choices. They knew how to respect and appreciate their food.
How did Japan arrive at this functional arrangement for feeding their schoolchildren and creating a nutritionally educated population? Ever since World War II, they’ve gradually phased in new policies and government subsidies encouraging good nutrition. Assigning specialists to each district was an idea proposed in the 1980s which has come to fruition in the past decade or so. It’s been a slow and steady process.
What could America learn from Japan’s example in this case? Are there any changes already in motion? Government at state and federal levels are making efforts to phase out junk food and encourage awareness of good eating habits. Michelle Obama has a notable interest in instilling good fitness routines in the nation’s youngest. Even British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has implemented projects in US schools, attempting to teach students how to eat for health.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act will incorporate many programs similar to those in Japan, like using local produce sources and starting school gardens. The Agriculture Department is also overhauling long-outdated meal standards, limiting calories and saturated fats. It will take time, and it will take money. It’s possible to improve our situation if we persevere, but America clearly has a long way to go.
What do you think about nutritional education in America and Japan? What have your experiences been like? What do you know about the situation in other countries?
Of course, this is just a very limited view of the many realities that exist for children all over the world today. Some of us have the luxury to worry about choosing the correct foods. Untold numbers of people aren’t so lucky. They have to worry about being able to eat at all.
Learn more about school lunch and the educational system in Japan through the MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) website: http://www.mext.go.jp/
The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) runs a website detailing the guidelines for school meals in the US: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/
A link to my old school district’s current lunch menus: http://www.pmschools.org/menus/menus.htm
An interesting series of posts on school lunches around the world, from the blog Serious Eats: http://www.seriouseats.com/tags/school%20lunch%20in…
September is Hunger Action Month in the US (http://hungeractionmonth.org/). Millions of children go hungry every day. Recent natural disasters have only made the crisis worse. The programs linked below are a start – what can we do to help?
Share Our Strength – Child Hunger in America: http://strength.org/
The World Food Programme: http://www.wfp.org/
Bread for the World: http://www.bread.org/hunger/global/
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