Children’s Village director pushes back on the ‘fastfoodification’ of school food

About the late ‘90s, Mary Graham, executive director of the Children’s Village, noticed the increased amount of highly processed food being served to children in schools and day-care centers.

It was a steady stream of chicken nuggets, white bread, tatter tots, corn dogs, doughnuts, and sweetened juice. It was inexpensive, easy to prepare, liked by children, and quick to serve.

“And it’s crap,” Graham complained, refusing to bite her tongue.

That’s when Graham, who has been with the nonprofit child care center Children’s Village, at Eighth and Arch Streets, for more than 40 years, became an early school-lunch activist, part of a growing number of people pushing back against the “fastfoodification” of school meals. They favored meals cooked from scratch that used farm-fresh produce rather than the ultra-processed meals loaded with salt, starch, sugar, and trans fat that school lunches had become.

That philosophy is the essence of the farm-to-school movement. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s own farm-to-school efforts are a decade old this year.

According to the USDA’s count, more than 67,000 schools are either procuring and using local foods, most commonly defined as coming from somewhere within the state, or providing nutrition education, such as visiting a farm.

Locally, the Food Trust, which coordinates the statewide Farm to School Network, works directly with day-care providers such as Graham to support farm-to-school-related initiatives and advocates for farm-to-school activities.

Hannah Clements, a volunteer board member, and parent of 2-year-old Martin, said knowing her son had a nutritious breakfast and lunch took some of the pressure off her. “My husband and I both have demanding jobs and I don’t have the capacity to cook at that level. It’s such a relief.”

One of the most famous school food makeover advocates was Michelle Obama, who as first lady launched the Let’s Move! initiative in 2010 to help decrease youth obesity rates, which had tripled over the last 30 years.

» READ MORE: Michelle Obama announces new effort to help cities fight obesity

Children eat almost half their daily calories at school.

With the USDA spending almost $14 billion a year to provide low-cost or free lunch and breakfast each school day, it forms the nation’s nutritional safety net for more than 30 million children in 95% of the nation’s public and charter schools.

The National School Lunch Act became law in 1946 and, by the 1980s, the government had become less restrictive about what could be included in school food, allowing for such student favorites as hamburgers, pizza, and tacos. This was combined with schools installing vending machines for extra discretionary funds. Students’ choices, and the amount of ultra-high-processed food available, skyrocketed.

As early as 1977, a General Accounting Office report raised questions on the healthiness of the food and whether the school lunch and breakfast programs were contributing to obesity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in five school-aged children in the United States is obese. Poor diet quality in childhood is also linked to vitamin D, iron, and potassium deficiencies and mental health conditions.

It put schools on the frontlines of the political battle to improve children’s nutrition.

“I have a friend and when she drops off her child it’s Goldfish and Chex Mix for snack at 9 a.m. You would never have that at Children’s Village,” Clements said.

The joy of cooking from scratch

Graham now employs a chef-led service staff to prepare fresh food on-site in a commercial kitchen and serve it family-style to about 400 children ranging from infancy to 12 years old. Instead of pastries and chocolate milk, breakfast at Children’s Village may be cheese frittatas and whole-grain raisin toast. Or grits and fruit packed in natural juice. Salmon and garlic shrimp replace fish sticks at lunchtime.

“It smells good and it is restaurant-quality food,” said Nadja Eaddy, mother of 2-year-old Namani. “They make a jam that is delicious.”

And although she said she selected Children’s Village for its academic reputation, the food was a bonus. “Namani went to another day-care center and I think the food came from the city in packages. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t compare.”

The process is neither cheap, especially with increases in food prices, nor easy in terms of procuring farm-fresh food, but Graham said the effort is well worth it.

“We’re exposing children to good eating habits,” she said.

But providing a meal brimming with fruit, vegetables, and whole grains is one thing. Getting a child who has grown accustomed to fast food to eat it is another.

» READ MORE: The average family wastes $1,500 in food each year. Drexel Food Lab wants you to eat your garbage.

On a recent day, Clements’ son Martin had turkey meatballs and roasted peppers for lunch.

“Two-year-olds don’t usually have diverse palates,” Clements said.

Noted Graham, “You have to introduce new food product,” adding that influencing a child to eat more nutritious food often takes multiple efforts with high-quality food served consistently.

“We can’t force children to eat.”