Food Fight: Tackling Unhealthy School Meals

0
265

Frieda Schweky 

I’d like to tackle the topic of unhealthy foods at schools and camps. What do parents think?  First, some personal background. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was fairly young. As a 90’s kid I was either served a warm Eggo waffle with imitation maple syrup for breakfast or I helped myself to a bowl of sugary cereal (the kind with a prize at the bottom of the box!) with some skim milk.  I grabbed a fruit roll up or Dunkaroos for a snack and out the door I went! No one questioned if my diet affected the ADHD.  

Now, I’m trying to avoid toxic chemicals in my home. A big part of this has to do with food. I feel we must be proactive in what we are feeding ourselves and our youth. Recently, I saw a post on Instagram… We moms are only feeding our kids at home. But that’s where our control ends. What about what our kids eat at school or at camp?  I had lots of questions and so I asked my followers on Instagram and my trusty moms WhatsApp chat groups about the topic. Here’s what they had to say: 

 

Margot Cohen 

In my opinion, schools shouldn’t be giving out candy or snacks to persuade the kids to do reading or writing, or anything else for that matter. What happened to the humble sticker chart and getting a prize like an eraser or something? Why does it always have to be a candy? It’s never just one candy. It adds up, and it’s just too much candy. 

The teacher gives them the candy and then complains: why are they not sitting, why aren’t they listening and behaving?  

In camp, they don’t give out candy – they sell it at the canteen. I don’t think parents should have to shell out extra money for the kids to buy themselves more junk. If it’s a drink and chips or a cookie, I understand, no problem. But what’s the point of giving kids  the option to buy candy and bubble gum and junk food with no parental guidance or restrictions? 

I don’t mind if parents buy their kids candy and send it along to camp.  But why should kids have to buy it from the canteen? There should not be canteen in camp, especially the camps that charge an arm and a leg! 

 

Regina Cohen 

Summer is so fun with all the ices, birthday parties, cupcakes, candy, and junk. But you’re doing a disservice to the children to also give them junk in camp. They get enough on the weekends. They don’t need it all day in camp, too. I do my best at home for my son. I’m always making sure he’s fueled properly before school or before camp, making sure he has a gorgeous dinner too, with lots of fruits and veggies. But he’s in camp and school for eight hours. That’s the majority of the day. It’s frustrating to know my kid is being fed cookies and snacks all day. It’s so disheartening that I can’t control it, but I can’t. We pay so much in tuition, it’s crazy to me that they can’t do better by our kids. 

Would it be so much harder to give apple slices and pretzels instead of Oreos and animal crackers? Why, when there are so many healthy alternatives, should our kids and our toddlers be fed ices with red and blue dyes every day in camp? Let them try Hashem’s amazing fruit. It grows from the ground. Make a lesson out of it! 

It’s just sad that in camp all my son eats is noodles. He comes home with bags under his eyes, wiped out, in the worst mood, screaming. We shouldn’t normalize these kinds of tantrums. We shouldn’t because if our kids were fueled and hydrated properly I promise they wouldn’t be suffering like this. 

 

Cathy Beyda 

This topic is so frustrating for me! My son is fed gross food at camp and it really affects him. He goes to Chabad of the Shore during the year and they provide good nutritious food.  

Lunches are usually brown rice, something whole grain-based, and a protein. My son never has tantrums after school. 

I sent him to a local Jersey camp for three year olds. They give chips, ice cream, and candy. He’s having so many temper tantrums, that he never had before. I think it’s certainly due to all the junk. 

 

Etti Hazan 

This year, I’m sending my kids to a new yeshiva that’s opening up in Deal. I told the rabbi that having a no-sugar policy is really something all the parents appreciated at our last school. I think if it’s accepted from the start, it makes it a lot easier to implement. In my last school, if a child brought in a sugary snack, they were not allowed to take it out, and it would be sent home. The PTA should get involved. In our previous school one mom would be the class mom and we would all Venmo her one time and she was in charge of supplying healthy snacks for the class for the year, so we never had to send snacks for our kids and didn’t have to worry.  

Parents pay so much for lunch. It shouldn’t be such low quality. Pancakes, yogurt, and noodles shouldn’t be repeated every week. This is creating picky eaters! Everything is lacking real flavor and half the time no protein is offered. Could you believe  meat wasn’t offered at my son’s camp?! It was carbs every day, fruit and veggies only on the side, not incorporated in the meal! We can do better. We need to do better. 

 

Florence Marcus 

I work at Beit Yaakov of the Jersey Shore. For our Shabbat party we discourage parents from sending in a candy or a treat. Instead we buy our own healthier snack options and we ask that each Shabbat Imma or Abba bring in $5 in when it’s their turn. We set up a little store and they get to shop for their class that week. It was very cute and effective!  

For birthday parties, we do not have party bags. Instead we ask parents to send in a book with their kid’s name in it for the class library. They all get excited about it and get to enjoy it for the rest of the year. And it helps grow the library. We can’t completely monitor what the parents send in but we encourage them to follow our healthy guidelines. 

My boss Malka Ohayon implemented these policies. She is a great advocate for healthy eating for the children. She eliminated the ketchup with corn syrup and the pickles with food coloring from our school meals! This ensures a good nutritious meal without the nonsense.  Honestly, why should there be food coloring in the vegetables?! 

 

Natalie Nudleman 

We should normalize what real food looks like! Teach kids what that looks like from a young age. Really, it starts in the home. But would be great if schools incorporated nutrition as part of a child’s education. If they eat well, they will perform better in school, no? I think through hands-on learning and putting fruits and vegetables into the kids’ hands will get them more comfortable with trying healthy options. Some ideas I have are regular trips to a community garden to see how real food grows, and a little cooking class incorporating real food instead of cereal and candy. It would also be great if parents were encouraged to be on board and get involved! 

 

Dr. Rachel Harari, Co-Head of SAM Elementary School 

We had a group of parents who felt so strongly about this subject that they approached us to make a change. They had a good point. There are a variety of different reasons treats are brought into the school on a weekly basis, such as for birthday parties, holiday celebrations, and so on. We decided to hear them out and start making changes to do better by our students.  

The first thing we did was form a committee, 10 moms volunteered (and a few more are tentative). That’s an amazing amount for our school, it’s about 25 percent of our parent body! We then evaluated what we were doing right and what we could improve. We looked at the school lunch menu and sent a survey to teachers and asked what the kids are actually eating. Then we made a wish list of the foods that would be ideal to serve. We then consulted a nutritionist who is passionate about fueling kids to help a make well-rounded nutritious menu that was also kid friendly. Finally, we forwarded it to our caterer and officially changed our food order for the coming year! 

In addition to that menu, each day we provided whole fruits like apples and bananas, as well as whole grain bread and noodles. 

Next up, we tackled snack time. We surveyed all the teachers. We asked them what snacks they have been providing and what their students bring in for snack time. In addition to actually banning harmful food dyes all together from our school, we are trying to move away from seed oils. We’re helping parents by giving them resources that tell them healthy alternatives to the most popular snacks, and even where they can get them! We also changed the school-provided snack option to cut fruit. One teacher loves to do “reading lollipop Friday.” We swapped out sugary lollipops for a healthier version with organic fruit juice and no food dyes.  

Soon we are planning a meeting to discuss new ways that we can make celebrations such as birthdays, etc. Not only will this make for less junk being given out. It will also be especially good for the children who have food sensitivities and food allergies. They generally feel isolated when they have to have an alternative snack. Soon they will not have to feel disappointed or left out.  

So far, the feedback has been great. The parents feel heard and supported. They’re really invested! They ran with it and they’re doing an incredible job.  

I hope and pray some good comes out of shedding light on this topic. We as a community are hard-working individuals who pay incredible amounts in tuition, which makes it particularly frustrating when the schools and camps do not listen to our needs. The switch to healthier eating for children is a need. Especially if we want to raise the next generation to be healthy functioning adults! 

Happy first month of school everyone! 

Frieda Schweky 

Frieda is an event and portrait photographer. Check Frieda out on Instagram @ friedaschwekyphoto. For photography inquiries or article topic suggestions email her at friedaschweky@gmail.com.