Lunches in France for public school students: this is how to do it!

[Halcyon]

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1967060,00.html

[Annie Laurie]

It sounds delicious, but parents being discouraged from visiting school and not even knowing what their kids are studying made me recoil.

[amydavis]

It sounds delicious, but parents being discouraged from visiting school and not even knowing what their kids are studying made me recoil.

 

:iagree:

[ReneTL]

Interesting - I have been following Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and the state of lunches in US public school. Quite a different tale indeed!

[RoughCollie]

Here's another interesting article.

 

http://www.culinate.com/columns/deborah/french_school_lunch

 

Here, school lunches for high school students cost $1.50. They are worthless, IMO. I wouldn't feed that food to anything except a hog.

[Stacia]

The military is pushing for US lunchroom reform too:

 

http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=100242&catid=158

[Lucy in Australia]

Great articles! Thanks for sharing :)

 

I think this sentence from the first article sums up the French attitude towards food : "They already know the rules: sit down and take your time, because food is serious business."

 

That's the main difference between countries like the US and France. I think too often eating is treated as something that has to be tacked onto the day's other activities, whereas in France, eating is an important activity in its own right.

[Cindyg]

...my son...sat in silence with his 25 classmates at tables in the nursery-school cafeteria...

 

When the public school office of the 6th district of Paris summoned me to a meeting late last year, the tone of urgency in the letter sent me running...when he failed to appear in the lunchroom after that, city officials quickly took notice. My explanation — that I thought he should take a break and eat lunch at home in the middle of the day — was apparently not sufficient.

 

Public schools in France are overcrowded, rigid and hierarchical. And parents, who are never addressed by their first names, are strongly discouraged from entering school buildings, let alone the classrooms. I cannot tell you what my child learns, paints or builds on any given school day...

 

Ick. I think I'd rather have my my son eat my sorry homeschool lunches.

[happyhomemaker25]

Dh showed me this article the other day. It made a lot of sense to me. Besides the treating parents like they have no business being parents.

I love the way they do lunches.

[LibraryLover]

France does know how to do food.

[mcconnellboys]

Wow! My mouth's watering, LOL! The last time we talked about such things, someone posted what kids in Japan eat and it was equally wonderful. Wish we had anything even vaguely approaching this......

 

There are a few movements in progress in the US at this time. Here's one:

 

http://www.foodmuseum.com/slralicewatersessay.html

[cathmom]

The best airline food I ever ate was on Air France. It was so delicious I ate mine and my son's. And yes, it came with a menu and had 4 course, I think.

 

I just read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and he points out that the US doesn't have a food culture.

[LibraryLover]

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=158404

 

http://www.healthyschoollunches.org/carrot/09winners.cfm

Edited April 22, 2010 by LibraryLover

[Hedgehogs4]

Lovely for those kids...crummy for the parents who are paying about 60% of their income in taxes so the state can feed their kids, among other things that the gov't does.

[jld]

Lol, Cathmom. I remember when Air France would give you a menu as soon as you stepped on the plane . . .

 

Hedgehog, I hear you, but the French get something for their taxes, too. Dh's parents didn't pay anything for dh's college.

 

The lower income you are in France, the better a deal it is for you.

[Laura Corin]

This is how I ate when I taught in a French high school. And, as a teacher, I got 1/3rd of a bottle of red wine to go with it.

 

Laura

[cathmom]

This is how I ate when I taught in a French high school. And, as a teacher, I got 1/3rd of a bottle of red wine to go with it.

 

Laura

 

Woohoo! I like that idea!

[Lucy in Australia]

This is how I ate when I taught in a French high school. And, as a teacher, I got 1/3rd of a bottle of red wine to go with it.

 

Yep, and my mother tells me when she was in nursing school in France, they always got their 1/3rd bottle of red. Even when there were food rations. :D

[happyhomemaker25]

This is how I ate when I taught in a French high school. And, as a teacher, I got 1/3rd of a bottle of red wine to go with it.

 

Laura

 

 

I can see how this would improve schools 100% here. LOL

[LibraryLover]

There are many good reasons the French couldn't care less about what the rest of the does, or thinks about them. There is a reason they don't find us charming; we're Barbarians who gobble crappy food and don't know how to enjoy one 1/3 of a bottle of red wine at noon, daily.

Edited April 22, 2010 by LibraryLover

[LibraryLover]

I can see how this would improve schools 100% here. LOL

 

 

I agree. lol

[Margaret in GA]

The best airline food I ever ate was on Air France. It was so delicious I ate mine and my son's. And yes, it came with a menu and had 4 course, I think.

 

I just read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and he points out that the US doesn't have a food culture.

 

I read OD, too but I don't recall him saying that. It's really not true. The South does have a food culture. Turnip Greens, Black Eyed Peas, Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Fried Green Tomatoes, Corn Bread, Iced Tea. I know some local men that go home for lunch every day from the office to eat a big southern "dinner" with their mother. The exception, not the rule I know. But, hey, there really is a food culture here.

 

I wish all kids could go home for lunch like they used to years ago. What a great change that would be. I know it's unrealistic, but --wow, that would be great.

 

Have you guys signed the Food Revolution Petition? Please do- it might really make a difference to our government to see so many people that want to see a big change in school food:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution/petition

[stripe]

I just read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and he points out that the US doesn't have a food culture.

Well...some people / regions do. Where's Julie from MN -- she could explain hotdishes to us (or is the plural simply "hotdish"?). I think it's gotten confused by people getting less traditional and moving all over so there's not really one way most people eat. But I've got some elderly relatives who stuck to their style all their lives.

 

Countries are a bit of a random concept that have in some cases been cobbled together. There is no single Indian food or Italian food, as an example; these giant countries have differing regional eating styles. People in different areas have differing main starches and so forth. But they do have a culture.

 

Personally I think the 1950s canned food revolution may be responsible for a great deal of this mess we're in.

[angela in ohio]

It's not that we don't have a food culture; we just have more food cultures than many countries. :001_smile: We have Chinese food and Italian food and on and on...

[joannqn]

The French Don't Diet Plan talks about eating like the French. It describes what to eat (fresh, real, organic food), when to eat (when you are hungry but skipping that little hunger blip if it goes away in 10 minutes), and how to eat (small bites, take your time, enjoy the people you're with). I'm not done reading it yet, but I've lost 8 pounds in about 3 weeks without dieting, exercise, or feeling hungry or deprived. I'm not planning on ever going back to eating the American way.

[LisaKinVA]

I just read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and he points out that the US doesn't have a food culture.

 

I would argue we do have a food culture. Our culture embraces easy to prepare, fast meals, eaten...fast. Food isn't something to truly be enjoyed as it is in other cultures, it's treated as something we have to do.

 

How many office workers eat at their desks?

How many schools have reduced meal times to the point that kids have to literally shovel it in (or go without) if they want some play time?

How many of us eat in the car?

Even if we eat dinner as a family, we're always watching the clock, thinking about what's next on our agenda.

 

We multi-task our meals -- which means we aren't really taking time to think about, let alone enjoy what we eat. We shovel it in fast, eat more than we should because our hunger cue hasn't caught up with what we've already put in.

 

I remember barely having time in high school to eat -- by the time I got my food and found a place to sit, I maybe had 15 minutes to eat. As a working teen, a 30 minute break was routinely shortened to 2- 15 minute breaks. As an adult, I had a boss who, if I left my desk for *any* reason felt I owed him an explanation (my office was by the restroom... he wanted me to ask permission to leave for the restroom or to get lunch -- I gained MORE weight at that job than anywhere else. I kept food (junk) in my desk, just so I wouldn't have to leave... I couldn't wait to quit that job).

 

I think if we just made enjoying food more of a priority (taking an hour or more to eat, relaxing -- we'd do better).

[Mama Lynx]

This is how I ate when I taught in a French high school. And, as a teacher, I got 1/3rd of a bottle of red wine to go with it.

 

Laura

 

So THAT'S what's been missing in my homeschool! :D

 

Or more to the point, on co-op day :lol:

[LauraQ]

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1967060,00.html

 

Thinking I'll spin off a thread about what WE serve for lunch each day ;-)

[cathmom]

To explain a bit more from the Omnivore's Dilemma, what Pollan means is that there is no one, overriding food culture that will prevent food faddism. Overnight Americans will change their eating habits based on whatever the latest study shows, like when a lot of people stopped eating bread. Bakeries went out of business. Atkins was everywhere. Before that it was low-fat. Everything was low-fat. Remember Snackwells? His argument was that people in places like France are protected from this food faddism because they eat what they have always eaten, whereas we Americans never know what to eat. How many people today just eat whatever they want because it keeps changing? And we don't have rituals about meals. Society at large does not protect breakfast, lunch, or dinner. When my oldest was in K and 1st in public school, they got 20 minutes for lunch, and that included walking to the cafeteria to get the food, walking back to their room, and then eating it. I bet they maybe had five minutes tops to eat. And you couldn't send lunch from home to avoid that - all the dc had to walk there together. The teachers ate with them - no break for them. How many families have to fight to protect family dinner? Anyway, that's more of what he meant, not that we don't have special, American foods. And maybe the South does have more of a food culture - he's not Southern, so maybe he doesn't know.