Food as a Second Language

It's About the Food
Food as a Second Language


There has been a cultural revolution in this country over the last 50-75 years, a sort of ethnic cleansing that has removed from most people's minds any understanding of food, of cooking, of the pleasures of the kitchen and table and replaced it with the language of the drive-thru, the shopping mall, and the convenience store.

Nowhere is this more evident than in our schools, where our kids are not taught about food and cooking, not even the "Home Economics" of my high school years. No, instead the Iowa City Community School District teaches something called "Family and Consumer Science." There you have it; we are not raising citizens, we are raising consumers. Our children are being taught one way of surviving in this modern, fast-paced world: the way of conspicuous consumption.

A recent federal mandate requires that every school district write and implement a "Wellness Policy" that addresses, among other things, the epidemic of obesity and childhood diabetes now rampant in our youth. This is a noble endeavor; however it must be more than a mere academic and bureaucratic exercise. What is called for here is a true revolution, one that, like all revolutions, will be very difficult to conduct in the face of the stalwart forces of the status quo.

Like all of us, our children are what they eat, and they cannot be expected to learn and grow effectively on fat, salt and corn-sweetener-laden government subsidized surplus. What is offered to them today is the result of the entrenched bureaucracy at the USDA, the immoveable object of parental indifference, and the irresistible force of union and administrative fear of change. Unlike the rest of the student's school day, the lunch period is conducted not by the curricular side of the school system, but by the maintenance side. Meanwhile the hardworking members of the ICCSD Food Service staff are restrained by inefficient kitchens, ludicrous time restraints, and a budget that is laughable at best. How well would you expect to eat on $1.60?

We need a paradigm shift. From the parents and the rest of the taxpayers in the district, we need an understanding that spending more money is not "just throwing money at the problem," it is an investment in the health and well-being of our children and our community. Parents must no longer choose to ignore the situation to the proven detriment of their children. From the teachers' unions we need the flexibility to see that there are other models for the school day and the school year that can be effective besides the one we have in place, which was created over 100 years ago to fit an agrarian calendar so that kids could be home to tend to the farm when needed. The school year in the US is 180 days long. It is 240 in Germany. 243 in Japan. School days and even school weeks are longer too. A longer school day will provide the time necessary for children to eat healthily. Today they have 30 minutes or less, and most of that is spent standing in line.

If we move lunch away from the maintenance side of the equation and over to the curriculum, food will gain the attention that is necessary for it to demonstrate its own importance. We cannot continue to teach one thing in Health class and peddle another in the lunch room. Teaching about food, about its history, its culture, its etiquette and its importance to our health and community will ensure a more productive and enjoyable future for our kids. To those who say "don't try to tell me what I can and can't feed my kids," I say this: first, the USDA is already doing that, it is demonstrably unhealthy. Second, they may be your kids, but they're our future.