USDA seeks to cut fat out of education …

Frontiersman editorial board

The Mat-Su Borough School District will have to make some lunch room changes by the time students start lining up next fall. A recent audit conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture found that the schools were not in compliance with section 210 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966. The problem is that junk food is available in vending machines during meal periods.

Youth health issues have been in the public eye in recent months. Fast food restaurants have been targeted for marketing to young diners, and then serving unhealthy food. An obese teen-ager filed a lawsuit against McDonald's for luring him into bad eating habits. The lawsuit went nowhere, but it did focus attention on the eating problems of our young people.

As is often the case where youth are concerned, much of the argument becomes focused upon responsibility. Just who is responsible to ensure our children are eating right? Many schools offer not only vending machines, but also fast food outlets right in the lunch room. Given the choice between cafeteria fare and a value meal from a popular fast food restaurant, it should come as no surprise that many students opt for the pizza, tacos or burgers. Why wouldn't they? Many Americans eat at fast food restaurants at least twice each week. In a way, the academic environment has always been a good social barometer. The things kids learn in school, the culture at school, and the way students socialize all reflect the society at large.

Americans are overfed and under-exercised. Food packaging has become so sophisticated that even many meals prepared at home are fast food of sorts. The pasta sauce comes in a jar. Entire meals are fast frozen and ready in minutes in a skillet, oven or microwave. Even hot dogs are individually wrapped for convenient 15-second nuking. A television commercial for macaroni and cheese portrays one boy looking for the product in the pantry. His friend says something like, "You won't find it in there. Around here we eat the real stuff." He then proudly pulls a box of factory-made mac and cheese from the freezer. Americans, it seems, don't know what the real stuff is, anymore.

So who is ultimately responsible for teaching our children to eat well? The obvious answer would seem to put the onus upon parents. Still, many parents feel trapped by a culture that moves too fast to allow for sit-down family meals or something as time-consuming as cooking from scratch. Many households either have two working parents, or just one parent. Our children don't eat well because our culture doesn't afford them the opportunity. We make time to do many things. We work hard so we'll have time for the weekend fishing trip or a camping trip. The only way to ensure our children learn to eat well is to make the time to teach them how to do it. The good news is that one byproduct of healthy eating is that rare and powerful experience -- the family dinner.