Jefferson County School Cafeterias

In elementary school cafeterias in the Jefferson County Public School system, there are a plethora of problems.

It is hard to figure out where to begin. I fear that there are a lot more cafeterias like this around the country than just in Jefferson County, for the regulations that have straight-jacketed us into many of the woeful decisions we are making on a daily basis have been handed down by the USDA and are, I am told, Federation wide.

1. We throw away a copious amount of food. And, because this is a school, are teaching our children to to respect food. And that throwing it away is just an OK thing to do.
2. Students are required to pick up 3 different foods in the line. Whether or not they can eat that much. Then we try to force them to eat it all.
3. When they have their food, they are encouraged just shy of the point of force to eat everything they have. Regardless if they like it, regardless if they want it, regardless if they are full.
4. But they cannot. So they end up throwing it away.
5. There is no where for this food waste to go. No composting; no collection. No chance to recoup this lost value. Even though New York has been able to figure it out, Jefferson County is unwilling to try..

Then there are a lot of people lamenting the quality of the food presented to our youngsters. The quantity of sugar (which is really, really bad for everyone) and the dirth of vegetables. But, if you spend time in a school cafeteria, it becomes apparent that this has more systemic problems. The food choice is a symptom of underlying issues. Children have vegetables they could choose. But they will not choose them.

There are so many problems with this model. Most of all that it teaches (perpetuates) these awful practices.

1. The throw-away culture is an ending stream. Eventually, it will run out. Of everything. This mentality is directly responsible (in part) for nearly everything that is wrong in the world today (citation needed, find a few hundred at your disposal).
2. By requiring students to have mandated choices, it does not teach them to make their own decisions and live with the outcome of that decision. It assumes that a system can make better choices than a 6 year old, which it cannot. Some children can (and need to) eat a lot; some do not.
3. Forcing children to eat can create just as damaging a relationship with food as rewarding with candy (which our schools also do). It can make a person hate a particular food because it is associate with battle. Battle that they always loose. It also assumes that the child has no understanding of their own digestion and cannot decipher when they are hungry or full. What if the kid really can't eat much more? Are we, by force, undermining their own digestion? Could they survive with less food. I don't know, but perhaps if I didn't eat so copiously in my youth, I would not have such an incredibly inefficient digestion now and it wouldn't cost me so much just to feet myself.
4. Even under such force, they throw their food away anyway. Going back to point one, "oh, well, since I don't like it/can't eat it, there's nothing else to do but put it in this magical plastic can..."
5. We spend a lot feeding children what they will not eat. Enough that I could survive a month on our leftovers. As an employee of the schools, I can't afford to feed myself... we can afford to feed the landfill... And instead of reusing all of this very valuable material, it is shunted to the end of the chute. Never to see daylight again. We could grow more food; we could teach gardening (a very useful skill); hell, we could give it away. Instead, it is lost completely. What a waste of tax-payer money, eh? 

I have been stalled for a long time. I don't know what to do. There is too much to do. I have contacted our representative, I have emailed the USDA... I still need to make a petition or two, and I have asked about composting but the only (unsatisfactory) answer I have gotten is, "it can't change, it's federal; it's the USDA; it's a sanitation issue."

Which is all crap. If we all thought this way, Europeans would still be eating off tables covered in filth, women would never have gone to work, black people would be slaves, and murder of the Irish would hardly be a crime. I have a hard time seeing this as any less important.

Besides which, it'll change by necessity as it must. Nothing lasts forever. Especially when we keep Throwing It All Away!

I think it's probably a good idea to be proactive and change before nature forces us to. Nature, when she gets around to it, is utterly unforgiving.