School Beat: Salad Days

by Dana Woldow via Beyond Chron

Thu, Sep 20, 2007 6:57AM

Thursday, September 20, 2007 : Another day, another depressing study about kids’ health – this time it’s Newsweek reporting that a projection by the Center for Disease Control indicates that nearly half of all African American and Latino children born in the US in the year 2000 will become diabetic at some point in their lives. By now everyone knows that today’s youth are facing an obesity crisis that threatens to make their generation the first in modern history to have a shorter life span than their parents’; less commonly discussed is how much harder poor communities of color are hit by this crisis.

Five years ago, the San Francisco Unified School District took action, unanimously passing a resolution to get soda and junk food out of the schools and establishing a committee to improve school food. Although much progress has been made, including the removal of junk food from cafeterias and vending machines, and upgrading the quality of the hot lunches with fresh fruit and whole grain breads, there is a huge barrier to further improvements, and I bet you can guess what it is. (If you guessed “money”, you get an A+.)

The shamefully low government reimbursement for meals served to low income students (57% of SFUSD students in 06-07), combined with the highest labor costs in the state (because it is expensive to live here!) means that there is just not enough money available to pay for better food. Happily, Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Department of Children, Youth and their Families have provided grant money to open salad bars in up to 25 schools later this year.

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