Democratic Underground - A case for free school food

A case for free school food; twin rivalry
By Sarah Halzack
Washington Post Writers GroupBy Lisa Bonos
Washington Post Writers Group
Posted: 04/11/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
http://www.denverpost.com/books/ci_14847706

Free For All: Fixing School Food in America by Janet Poppendieck, $27.50

In "Free for All," sociology professor Janet Poppendieck explains how nutrition-deficient meals came to dominate America's school cafeterias and outlines a slew of problems in the national school lunch and breakfast programs.

Poppendieck identifies shortcomings at virtually every layer of the system, from inefficient government-mandated paperwork to school kitchens ill-equipped to do anything beyond defrost frozen meals. Outside the bureaucracy, there are other obstacles to healthy eating: Kids gravitate toward seductive but unhealthy items, such as cookies or chips, even when more nutritious items are available.

"The biggest problem is the stigma that comes from being different," she writes, "from being marked as poor, from being unable to pay in a culture that places excessive value on being able to pay and a school food subculture that increasingly views children as 'customers.' "

To that end, she argues convincingly that lunches should be free for all students, a measure that would remove shame from the equation for those who need the program while cutting costs associated with determining who qualifies for free or reduced- price meals.

A case for free school food [View All]