To Serve and Defend: School Lunch in the U.S.

This week I started my rotation in food service, working with some local school districts.  Before my rotation started my preceptor told me she likes to have interns read about the history of the National School Lunch Program, so she loaned me a book called School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America's Favorite Welfare Program. As it turns out, not only was the school lunch program a welfare program providing many students with perhaps their only meal of the day, it was also a matter of national security. While early versions of the program date back to the pre-war era, when America entered world wars I and II it became clear that malnourished children grew up to become malnourished soldiers. Feeding the nation's youth was the best defense. There were concurrent concerns among American farmers about the fluctuating prices of their crops. In a brilliantly flawed move that created a giant conflict of interest and decades of debate, the National School Lunch Program was passed in 1946, and the program was designated under the auspices of the USDA. The Department of Agriculture would use surplus crops and commodities to feed the nation's youth, keeping prices steady and bellies full.  From the onset, the program also had a strong connection to the War Food Administration (and later to the Department of Defense, which it currently relies upon for much of its fresh produce).

Image from The Food Museum's online exhibit  on School Lunch

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."  While reading about the history of the school lunch program I couldn't help but think of the words of Ecclesiastes. Every major issue confronting the program today has been their since its very inception... the surplus commodities, the lack of proper equipment or trained food service workers to prepare nutritious meals, the tensions between running school food service as a business vs. as a public health program. And yet, what is most amazing is how this welfare program has endured despite these deep-rooted flaws.

What once constituted a "good" lunch -
not so different from the current USDA requirements

I would be remiss if I did not also mention the important role of the school lunch program in legitimizing the field of nutrition. Many of the earliest pioneers of the program were women who wanted to seriously pursue science but could not gain access to any advanced programs. Home economics was a "safe" way for women to study and apply the science of nutrition and also provided women with a point of entry into government jobs. The program also contributed to the standardization of the American diet - for better or worse.

The National School Lunch Program is "arguably the most regulated, thought-about, fought-over and highly planned meal in America."  There are so many competing interests and considerations, from cost to labor to reimbursement requirements to dietary guidelines to picky eaters, not to mention the regulations at the federal and state level and from the Department of Health as well. Furthermore, I find this ongoing connection to the DoD, with nutrition and war somehow becoming inextricably linked at once fascinating and troubling. I don't know if a month's time is enough for me to learn the ins and outs of this absurdly complicated program but it's an exciting time to be working in the field and to gain greater insight into the challenges of school lunch.

Reap and Sow

There are certain signs that indicate the end of summer. The days grow shorter with each sunset. The cooler night air lingers longer in the morning as the sun takes its time making its way up into the sky. Kids are everywhere as camp programs end and the mad rush to enjoy the last days of freedom coincides with back to school signs and sales. And while this is the first year of many that I will not be returning to class in September, I have new indicators of the impending fall now that I am working on a farm: the harvest of summer produce and planting of fall and winter crops.

In these first two weeks on the farm I have already been a part of this segue to the fall. During my first few days at St. Joe's I harvested the last of the cucumbers in the hoophouse before tearing out the bed and preparing it for greens. Each day we frantically pick the ripest tomatoes, which have only a few more weeks. Just yesterday we tore out the remaining basil - some of it already damaged by the early morning frost, and prepared the bed with a broadfork, claw and hefty amount of compost. Though I still spend my days out in the warm summer sun, our latest farm work provides a good reminder that fall is just around the corner.

This week we directly seeds carrots and transplanted scallions, chard and lettuce into the hoophouse. The harvest included different varieties of tomatoes (read my guest blog post about Sun Gold tomatoes here), peppers, eggplant, chard, kale, basil, beets and carrots. 

The physical demands of the farm are certainly new to me.  But the cycle of crops, the forecasting of what to harvest next, seems somehow intuitive, and I wonder how much of it is related to my Jewish roots. Although I was grew up in a city, I was raised in the Jewish tradition, whose calendar maintains a strong agricultural tie so that the year has always held a close relationship with the land and the major pilgrimage holidays throughout the year are all connected to the harvest cycle. As this synagogue's website nicely explains, Passover marks the barley harvest in early spring, Shavuot marks the wheat harvest in early summer and the final harvest of the season is celebrated on the holiday of Succot in the fall. With the month of Elul beginning this week, it is hard not to anticipate the Jewish New Year and Succot after that.

Each day I appreciate how lucky I am to spend my time on The Farm, around a bounty of beautiful produce and a healthy eco-system filled with life (also filled with mosquitoes!). I eat better, sleep better and am inspired by the work of so many professionals and volunteers I've met so far. And the work itself is hard. On a small farm where almost everything is done by hand, patience and determination are good skills to have. But there's something very satisfying about planting and harvesting in the same day, experiencing two ends of the farm cycle at once. Planting is the start of something new, an act of faith and anticipation while harvesting is the result, the yield and fosters a sense of gratitude. I am grateful to experience both.

Market Day

Some people think of Wednesday as hump day. For the next month Wednesday is also Market Day - the day I arrive at the farm early to harvest greens, pack tomatoes into pints, arrange the beets and carrots and peppers in an old fashioned wooden wagon in the main hall of the hospital where I am working on the next rotation of my internship. The hospital is one of the first in the country to start its own farm that now boasts two hoophouses for year-round growing.  Just last week the ADA posted a link to a Food Sleuth podcast interviewing the RD who developed the project that turned 15 acres of hospital property back into farmland last April (a great podcast!). Then in July the farm began to sell its produce at a farmer's market in the hospital. The hours correspond with the hours during which most patients are discharged (11am) and also during staff lunch breaks. The idea is not only to sell fresh, local (!) produce, but send a message, linking farm and hospital, food and health.

Tomatoberry variety of cherry tomatoes

Working at the farmer's market earlier today made me feel like a local celebrity. People's faces lit up when they saw the cart. Shoppers commented on the fragrance of the basil, the colors of the chard stems, the perfection of the tomatoes, and they began to swap ideas on how to use the produce, recommending recipes, sharing what they grow in their own yards and asking me for suggestions as well. Some customers were bold enough to try something new, some were returning to buy the Sungold tomatoes after trying them last week (my favorites!). 

A bunch of Bright Lights rainbow chard

I'll be spending the next month on the farm and I'm sure I'll have plenty to share. It's the most exhausting work I've ever done but it's exciting to be onboard with a hospital that is committed to investing in preventative care through food and nutrition.