Historical September 1997 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Oh sure, there’s a lot of talk about educational standards and poor schools, but what about what’s really important? What about lunch?
With computers and microchips, what difference does it make whether kids learn to read and write? And speling isn’t worthewhile eather. Isn’t that what those itsy-bitsy buttons on the computer are for, anyway, to hit spelcheck?
We should quit fretting about academic achievement and focus on what we know and understand: lunch.
An endomorph for life, I’ve always been in favor of lunch.
The hectic pace of the 90’s means that lunch is even more important than it was a decade ago when times were simpler and the pace slower. Simple?
It wasn’t that long ago, after all, when we viewed the Bee Gees as a top-rated musical group. Patient? Remember when we waited in lines at the gas station to buy high-priced gasoline? Today, though, everything needs to be done yesterday and leisure time is something that other people have. That’s why lunch Is so important. It’s no better for young people.
For many, lunch is the only substantial meal of the day.
Most kids don’t eat a real breakfast, instead gulping a SlimFast, chewing a nurture bar, or wolfing down a donut as they rush out in the morning, saying, “Seeyalatermom, sorrybutl’m inahurry, gasp, anddon’thavetimetoeat. Gasp. lhaveabookreport, see, that’sdueatnoon, solneedtogetthereintime, gasp,toworkonit.Byyyyyyyyyye!” If the kids are lucky maybe they sit down with a bowl of toasty oats and some chocolate milk.
But breakfast can best be described by its speed, not content, Dinner’s a bit better, but not much. There’s homework waiting and then probably hopping in the car to be shuttled to karate, piano, or dance class. Maybe it’s just out in the back yard to play with matches or up to the room to get on-line or do Nintendo.
In any case, the result is the same. Dinner becomes something that is primarily a break in the action. Yes, you know that lunch is important, dear reader. Just think back to the lunches you ate when you were growing up and out. Fond memories; right?
As a kid, you probably took your lunch through most of grade school.
Then when you got to high school, there was HOT LUNCH!
In retrospect, it’s easy to see why everyone was a bit of a porker.
The school’s hot lunches reflected the food groups known to man at the time. starch, chocolate, and more starch. Ah, those were the days, my friend, 30 minutes of lunch in the cafeteria. At my school, almost every day we had pizza with fries and mashed potatoes.
Some days it was a tiny, square Salisbury steak (from Salisbury cows, no doubt), fries, and macaroni. Or hamburgers with potato chips and cheese bread.
On Fridays, even though Roosevelt wasn’t a “Saint school,” we had fish patties, fries, and macaroni. And every day we had little squares of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce for dessert.
The desserts were cheap, 8 cents, one-half the cost of a plate lunch. “More is better” definitely applied to desserts!
But today kids brown-bag it. Like an astronaut, they eat what they carry. So whether it’s pizza, a tiny tuna sandwich and chips, yogurt and an apple, or an all-American baloney sandwich with Cheez-its, it must fit in a bag. Dessert can be a can of pudding, a few Oreos, or a Hershey bar. Weight and space become a factor; taste is secondary. It’s as if they are preparing to go into outer space.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Sure, volume and bulk are important and so is lack of refrigeration, but as in every other arena, creativity overcomes any obstacle. So moms and dads, let’s put a little panache in the brown bag.
Here are some simple and inexpensive tips to cause those hearts to beat a bit faster at lunch time and get the amino acids to kick in. Put pepper on everything. Yes, everything. Sure, people know that a spice helps meat, fish, and vegetables, but a little pepper does wonders on chocolate too. And it will surely get those little hearts racing.
For that matter, a little tabasco sauce on marshmallows never hurt either. Put chips inside the sandwich, next to the meat. What wrongheaded person said that chips have to be separate? It’s economic, after all, to be able to chew the bread, baloney, and chips in the same mouthful. And adding fiber to the sandwich has to be healthy. Cut the slices of pizza into familiar shapes. 1 mean, how boring is a triangular slice of pizza?
With a tad of an artistic flair, the pieces of cold pizza that kids pack can resemble Richard Nixon’s ski slope profile, a Cheshire cat smile, or Madonna. OK, maybe not Madonna. Slip a small ceegar in the bag. No, I’m not encouraging that kids smoke, besides most schools are smoke-free buildings.
But think of the glee at the lunchtable when your child pulls out the ceegar!
It will make for a memorable lunch. Trust me on this one. White, powered donuts are one of the basic food groups. It’s a little known fact that the white powered sugar, dough, and circular shape come together, rather synergistically, to create a protein-based, vitamin C, high energy substance.
If you go to a Rams’ game, for example, and peer at the sidelines with binoculars, you’ll see the players coming to the bench and popping down a white donut or two between plays to get a jolt of energy. At least I think that’s where the white powder comes from.
Following these tips will help your child’s lunch be a memorable one. And remember, you are what you eat. That’s why vegetarians seems to be planted so firmly in reality.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, September 1997.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1997_09.pdf, printed page(s) 8; PDF page(s) 7.
