Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution: What's Next? (or: Are You Angry?)

by Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

I've now watched the full season of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, and I must admit that the show mesmerized me. Yes, it is reality TV. Yes, much of the drama was manufactured. And I have to admit: the dramatic music drove me nuts. But fundamentally, Jamie educated, motivated and possibly angered millions (or at least 519,000 at the last count) of people about the condition and importance of school food.

If you watched the show, it wasn't hard to feel compassion for everyone at the school Jamie featured. People were hungry for change -- once they realized that change was needed and felt empowered to be part of the solution.

The show also left many people mad at the UDSA for providing schools with unhealthy food. As Toby Wollin wrote over at Fire Dog Lake:

What IS this food that is in her warehouse and the cold storage facility? Things such as chicken nuggets, hamburgers, french fries, fruit packed in syrup that are priced basically so cheaply that no school district can possibly resist it. THAT is what is on the USDA list. That is what THEY are buying and providing for the schools. This is not food bought directly from farmers; this is processed junk. Filled with chemicals, stabilizers, and (shall we say it once more?) corn and soy in every form imaginable and produced by mega-corporations such as ConAgra and Archer Daniels Midland.

However, I was left a bit angry in a different way. I was angry at three things:

1. School have so little to spend on healthy food;
2. Unhealthy food is so cheap, and;
3. School leaders are accountable for their impact on education, but not their impact on kids' health.

And for each of these items, we need to make change.

Let me explain what I mean.

First, if you've read this blog before, you know that schools only have about $2.68 per meal to spend on school food -- including labor and overhead. This leaves schools losing an average of $0.35 per meal served (and more than twice as much in large urban school districts). So school food programs end up with two options: they need to be underwritten with money from a district's education budget to break even, or they sell (generally unhealthy) foods outside the school meal program to cover their budget shortfalls. Let's face it: healthy food is more expensive to prepare than highly processed junk food is. And as long as we provide inadequate funding for school food, food service programs will be pressured to cut costs wherever possible and will have an incredibly hard time serving the food we'd prefer our kids to eat. Simply put, we need more money for better school food. We need the federal government to allocate more money to the school lunch program now.

Second, unhealthy food is too cheap. The problem with talking school food with the USDA is that it's just not as simple as it looks on the surface. We do need better food. However, most people don't realize that the USDA commodity program for schools has improved tremendously over the past years. Take a look at what they offer to schools, and you may be surprised. There's a lot of good stuff there that schools can use for healthy food prep. So it's a bit overly simplistic just to point to USDA and say they need to change what they offer schools in the commodity program. One of the biggest problems is that schools frequently send these commodity foods to middle men to turn them into processed food that is easier to prepare -- especially if the schools don't have adequate kitchen facilities.

At a more basic level is the fact that unhealthy food -- in schools, in stores, everywhere in our country -- is too cheap. Our government subsidizes corn and soy production through USDA programs to such an extent that these by-products have become ubiquitous in processed unhealthy foods. We need to shift ag policy (and USDA subsidies) to start supporting farmers who are growing fruits and vegetables, not just the current commodity crops. This would allow the marketplace to shift back toward whole food options.

Third, we need to hold our schools accountable for the health of our students. As our elected officials debate education policy, they (not just food and ag activists) need to recognize the important connection between health and learning. The current focus of education policy is on accountability for math and writing standards, but education policy is incomplete when it fails to include health outcomes as well. We need to have reportable accounting of how schools address nutrition and physical activity... because if principals and superintendents are not held accountable for these, they'll never prioritize them at the local school level.

So in the end, the Food Revolution got me angry, and I loved it. While the show is over, the revolution is just starting to kick in: now that so many more people are paying attention to school food issues, I'm looking forward to the discussions about the issues we're all upset about and ready to change.

I encourage you to sign Jamie's petition and help us all get more than 1 million signatures. But don't stop there. Help us get more money for school food. Work with us to change education policy to support healthy kids. And then be part of the discussion as ag policy is debated in our country. Our kids depend on it all.

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Follow up: Someone mentioned to me that I didn't include USDA nutrition standards in this list. True. I didn't. I'll tell you why. The nutrition standards sorely need updating, and the Institute of Medicine gave an excellent framework for how to make these changes. We will be seeing these implemented in the next few years, so this is happening. However, when these nutrition standards are updated, it will cost schools even more money to serve food that meets required standards. This means that getting more resources is the first and most important step to improving school food. We can have the perfect nutrition standards but without resources to implement them, we'll continue to serve our children unhealthy food.

Comments

[Bryan]

Great article, well written.

One of the main things I think our schools need to do is stop selling sodas and sugary drinks to our kids.

Kids rarely reach for water or a healthy drink when they are "free" in a school cafeteria to drink what they want. Why? Because from an early age they learn that the first kid in their class to drink soda is "cooler" than the rest.

We need to change this mindset. Some companies are making a stand, like this new water company called "Wat-aah" who are promoting healthy drinks (Water!) to kids instead of sodas.

They have some cute videos that definitely make it "cool" for kids to drink: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BC3796CB622E57BB

[Cindy]

Well written, well research article. It is apparent that the problem is not with the USDA commodity program. They do not provide "junk food" in the commodity program. I am glad to see the dialogue is continuing after Jaime Oliver's show. Keep up the great work!!!