on Jan 5th, 2009Sidwell’s school lunches
Sasha and Malia Obama were the new girls in school today, with seven-year-old Sasha attending the Sidwell Friends lower school in Bethesda, MD and 10-year-old Malia at Sidwell’s middle/upper school in the District. The lunch menus differ on the two campuses but what they have in common is nutritious meals that are heavy on natural foods and organics and light on red meat.
Sidwell is often described as an elite school, and it is — it costs nearly $30,000 a year per student. It’s not surprising then that the price tag brings more than a top-notch education. No cupcakes, potato chips and Mountain Dew for those students. No Friday combo of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich.
This week’s lower school menu includes garlic organic green beans, roasted veggie melts, all-natural shepherd’s pie and sliced apples and cheese for a snack. Malia’s middle/upper school will be serving a lot of salads, local pumpkin and sage soup, organic baked French fries and cheese tortellini with fresh marinara. Both girls will have chicken on Friday, but not just any chicken: it’s premium Bell and Evans.
With our childhood obesity epidemic and so many school lunch programs built around the more affordable but far less-heathy fare of processed, frozen and gloppy foods, it’s a damn shame more schools can’t emulate Sidwell’s lunches for even one day. When Fitzgerald’s famous The rich are different from you and me was said to have been countered by Hemingway with, Yes, they have more money, he could have added, Their children eat better. They eat smarter. They can have nutritious foods and someone to prepare them in imaginative ways.
I hope this issue gets the attention it deserves in the new administration; it’s a perfect example of the politics of food. Nobody was well-served when, in the first Reagan administration, Budget Director David Stockman advocated classifying ketchup as a vegetable for the school lunch program. Talk about elitist. Fortunately, better minds prevailed, but so little progress has been made in providing more healthful meals for children that it’s simply shameful.
To see the full week of Sidwell Friends menus in pdf format, click here. It will open in a new tab or window. H/T: TMZ.
Copyright (C) 2009 From Scratch All Rights Reserved
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