Gobbledybook

I was thinking I might write about the Franklin County school superintendent's race. Will Kendrick and Denise Butler are running as Republicans; Temolynn Wintons and Isaac Neal, Jr. (the current principal) are running as Democrats. The school district is advertising for a new principal. The deadline for applicants was April 7. The school rumor mill is churning out scenarios and stories so quickly that I can't keep up on the latest. More on that story later, I promise.

Of course, I could also write about the economy. I came home from the grocery store suffering from sticker shock. One yellow pepper costs $2.79! I got a green one instead. Eggs are close to $3 a dozen. It sets me back $12 a day to drive to work. The legal advertisements in The Times are primarily comprised of foreclosures. I have a feeling that this story is going to be around for a while and will pretty much write itself.

However, I decided that it's time to tackle the big one!

As a veteran teacher, I have personal observation, interviews, and hours of research dedicated to this topic. The more time I spend trying to understand the intricacies of the top-heavy federal bureaucracy in charge, the more complicated it gets. Then there are the state and local obstacles! My sympathies go out to all who try to navigate this convoluted system in order to feed kids good food.

Think about your own experiences with institutional dining. There was some good, some great, and some absolutely abysmal. I went to Chapman High School in the Sixties. The lunch room had real plates and flatware. Each table featured a bowl of butter, and often peanut butter.

The lunch room ladies started cooking in the wee hours of the morning and the smells drifted through campus. We ate fried chicken, pot roast, pork chops, cherry cobbler, apple crisp, oatmeal raisin cookies, and fresh yeast rolls. Fridays were meatless back then, and sometimes we were served horrid fish sticks, but often there was vegetable soup with the second-best pimento cheese sandwiches I have ever eaten. (Mother made the best, of course).

Not all was perfection. The bologna and mashed potato taco goes down as one of the worst food memories of my lifetime.

I can still see Mrs. Duncan, Mrs. Floyd, and Mrs. Fincher standing like soldiers behind their steaming pots, dipping up the day's fare. Mrs. Duncan was prone to giving the boys (especially football players) bigger portions.

My sister remembers homemade hamburger buns in the early days of desegregation when all middle school students went to the formerly all-black Quinn High School.

There was paperwork to deal with even back in the day. The lunches were designed around government commodities. Free lunches were available to those willing to fill out the proper forms. The bureaucracy demands must have been more lenient then, because I remember my senior Home Economics class brainstorming menus based on what the cafeteria had to work with. The district office only had a handful of employees and overseeing the school lunch program was not a full-time job.

Now, the district has a full time food services secretary and a part-time consultant in charge. This came about after former district administrator Nan Collins retired. Ms. Collins was a hands-on type of district official. Many times I saw her in the kitchen as the kids were going through the lunch line. I miss her oversight.

Last year, when teachers and staff were planning for changes for the new consolidated Franklin County school (now scheduled for opening in August 2008), I brought up the topic of lunch with consolidation coordinator Charlie Wilkinson. Attendance was, and still is, a growing problem. I suggested that upgrading the lunch food might lure more kids to come to school. He agreed and said that good food for the kids would be one of the priorities at the new school. But today, Charlie is on leave-of-absence.

And what the children are being served now is awful.

It's not the fault of the lunchroom ladies.

They know how to cook, and when they are allowed to do it, the children eat well. The kids love the spaghetti, the macaroni and cheese, the barbecue pork, and the holiday dinners that feature cornbread dressing almost as good as my Nana's.

I watch these hard-working women's stoic faces on the other days, the days they don't get to pursue their craft. Prepackaged burritos of the convenience store variety, processed chicken nuggets and patties, and frozen pizza, do our children a disservice. Recently the menu offered corn dogs, cheese grits, canned green beans, and canned fruit cocktail. Yuck. Can we all say carb overload?

In addition, the food is served on Styrofoam trays. Each side dish is in either a plastic or Styrofoam container, and the flatware is a spork. Somebody smarter than me needs to analyze the cost benefits of so much disposable trash versus the environmental impact of washing dishes.

In order to receive federal reimbursements and commodities, the school food service must abide by strict guidelines. Believe me, it would take absolute commitment and creativity to come up with appetizing menus.

First of all, the lunches have to follow the mantra of low salt, low sugar, low fat. The weekly meals must contain no more than 30 percent of calories from fat, contain no more that 10 percent of calories from saturated fat, and provide one-third of the Recommended Daily Allowances for protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium and calories. Schools may follow the Traditional or Enhanced Food-based Menu Planning system, or the Nutrient Standard Menu Planning (NSMP), or the Assisted NSMP. The last two require USDA approved software. Are you nodding out yet?

I have spent hours on USDA websites, and I discovered that schools order their commodities in the spring. The list of available foods is pretty incredible: almonds, dried cranberries, all sorts of meats (not just downer cows), whole grain flours, and the like. There is another site replete with recipes using the commodities.

I know that we can do better for our children. All it would take is research and some effective leadership.

If we feed them well, they will come.