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Attendance in the poorest, most difficult middle school in my borough is at or slightly above 90%. Which is not bad at all and is pretty representative. When you factor in food stamps, along with the meals available in the schools all year round, there is definitely a safety net.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>So, maybe the effort should be focused more on what food is served at schools and what is allowed to be bought using food-stamps?</p>
<p>In my kids school district they instituted a new rule: the kids should get a serving of vegetables or fruits with their lunch or their lunch would cost more. My high schooler is on a budget for lunches (I was sick and tired for paying for his $12 lunches), so he started to get fruit to save money. He told me that he does not mind eating fruit but it would have never occurred to him to get fruit on his own.</p>
<p>I’ve got no expertise on the subject of nutrition but I try to stay informed. From what I have read about the judge’s ruling, the heart of his disagreement with the law was the inconsistency of its rationale. Why were retailers like 7/11 exempted? Why no examination of “single serve” bottles of fruit juice, which can have about a third of the total of the recommended total intake of carbohydrates [sugars] for the day? And that’s the 8oz size!</p>
<p>My opinion is that the Mayor used an elephant gun to try to kill an ant. It’s no secret that we’ve got an obesity problem and a empty carbohydrate consumption problem in this country. But unless things have reversed themselves in recent years, the consumption of soda has been in decline for quite a while. That’s why Coke and Pepsi literally leaped into the bottled water business.</p>
<p>I am also bothered by our societal indifference to other important facts. I heard Elizabeth Warren say that these days low income Americans spend less of their money on food than was the case a few decades ago. The problem is that the cheap diet is built upon a mountain of highly refined carbohydrates; wheat, corn, sugar especially; and processed meats. I have been a bit more appreciative of the Mayor’s efforts if he had adopted a Jamie Oliver type of campaign. But as we saw in the Los Angeles School District, Chef Jamie Oliver’s ideas for better food was rejected out of hand by the bureaucrats in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>I WOULD have been a bit more appreciative…</p>
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Why? The food served in schools is generally fine. Not as good as my cooking, but fine. And there are rules about food stamp usage. I don’t think either of those things is a problem. I posted about the school meal programs to point out that it takes some effort on the part of the parents for kids to be truly hungry in NYC.</p>
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<p>Kids don’t bring their lunches to school anymore?</p>
<p>We have a refrigerator, microwave and sink available at the office and people bring in a variety of home-cooked stuff along with restaurant leftovers. I’d guess that teachers have these things too but probably not for students. They do have microwave ovens at the kids’ college cafeterias and in the classroom buildings where there are offices for professors.</p>
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<p>This is how it was for us non-poor as well. No fast food, no soda, no snacking, we ate what was put in front of us or nothing at all, we thought the school lunches were awful and to my knowledge there was no effort to make them palatable to children, and we dined out at a Chinese restaurant about once every two months. This is why H and I thought “kids facing hunger” was a normal condition. 
So very different from today.</p>
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<p>Hey, I am not the one complaining about epidemic of obesity in poor population. If they kids eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at school, why are they obese?</p>
<p>Since the new healthcare was passed a few years ago, our big corp has been trying to control costs further and have started being more involved with our health. So they give us additional insurance money if we do annual checkups with bloodtests, talk to people who are doing the check about the risk factors based on what the profile spits out, take an online survey etc. They have also added a health clinic onsite overnight with a walgreens staffed with nurses and doctors so one can do the regular checkups (right next to the onsite gym!). </p>
<p>We were given incentives to go tour these facilities and get some more advice on keeping healthy. There was a nurse showing us how to eat healthy. The only thing I remember was that one should not exceed a specific portion of sugar per day and a sugary softdrink can has 2-3 times that recommended amount.</p>
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<p>I am a working mom, who also runs a business ( in addition to full time job) and shuttles my kids to activities. I don’t have time to prepare lunches. I only have time to cook dinner. I cannot do it all. Sorry.</p>
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I’m not complaining about obesity either, but maybe it’s because they aren’t getting enough exercise or because mom and dad aren’t cooking healthy meals at home. Maybe the state should just take custody of all the fat kids.</p>
<p>When my son was in middle school, the kids all ate the dinner at school if they were involved in sports or music programs after school. Many were not poor by any stretch of the imagination, but if the food was there, they were going to eat it. The boys, especially, seemed to really enjoy having dinner at school and then going home and filling up again. Although, most of them were not having weight problems – I think many 12 year-old boys have hollow legs!</p>
<p>My son now goes to a private school that has a chef who was classically trained in France. In just 6 months, my son’s palate has become so much more sophisticated that I giggle behind his back, but the larger point is that if offered good food in a pleasing and respectful manner, many kids will give it a try.</p>
<p>Poverty and obesity go hand in hand. </p>
<p>“In a report released earlier this year from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Mississippi was also found to be the fattest state in America as well as the poorest state, Yahoo News reported. Experts say these two rankings are likely related: Those with lower incomes have fewer choices for health food, which tends to be more expensive. Cheaper food options are usually processed food that is high in sodium and calories.”</p>
<p>[Poorest</a> State Is Mississippi, Also The Fattest](<a href=“Poorest State Is Mississippi, Also The Fattest”>Poorest State Is Mississippi, Also The Fattest)</p>
<p>He should frigging tax the heck out of the large drinks, but I guess it is easier to ban them than getting another tax through, heh, heh. Really, for every large soda or other empty calorie or bad for you choice some extra tax to go towards the food banks and soup kitchens should be assessed. I could use some money for some peanut butter right now. I’m on the phone now getting some donations for it so some people don’t go hungry the nights we run out of the main food servings. </p>
<p>The problem with the healthy foods at the schools is that the garbage cans get the stuff. When you are used to the tastes of high fat, high sugar, high salt, you don’t want to eat the healthy food. And though you can lead the proverbial horse to the water, but you can’t make him drink. Yet, to provide the foods that will get eaten is not providng the healthy stuff. We would have a fall back of peanut butter or cheese sandwiches on white bread for kids and those would do better than the hot meals and the salad, veggies, fruit included would go into the trash. Even after nutrition sessions. Even after Michelle Obama would give her spiel as she made it her focus to get kids eating healthier and exercise more. They are great the hour she is there but the lunch room trash cans are just as full afterwards. </p>
<p>I don’t know what the answer is. The food served at our soup kitchen is not the most nutritious because we do have to keep taste issues in mind too. A meal of rice and beans with a salad, for instance won’t cut it. Salads,we’ve found for the most part are a waste. We do mini salads now, and even so a lot of them get tossed (and not in the making and no pun intended!) We serve mainly adults, not families here, and fruit, salad and veggies do not go well at all. Canned soup, sandwiches, and very traditional fare is what gets eaten. A lot gets thrown out because we can’t give it away. I’ve taken the stuff home for my family since any open container, perishable cannot be reused nor can it go into the food pantry. Not that it makes much difference. Whole wheat bread, beans anything that requires much preparation does not get many takers.</p>
<p>Why? Depression, immobilization, time, not knowing how to prepare foods, palate not used to certain foods. It takes foresight and work to prepare a lot of meals. I so well know this because I have fed and am feeding a large family for years. Those are characteristics that those in crisis mode with a lot of problems do not tend to have. I stuck two chickens in the oven the night I went out and premade a stuffing that just needed to be reheated (out of the rejected whole wheat bread from the pantry that had gone stale, by the way) and put some green beans in a pot with water. Made mini salads and stuck them in the frig. Had high school son, turn on the green beans, remove the chicken, heat up the stuffing and get out the salad for the meal. But it did take time for me to set all of that up and coordinate it, And let me tell you, we had chicken salad the next day, but taking the meat off what was left on the chicken was not a savory job for me. Then chopping the celery, and doing the whole mix all took time. Seriously, I can’t see my kids who are used to eating this way, doing all of this. They are too immediate. They’d rather just pull meat off the carcass and eat it right on the spot. But by doing what I did, I made two dinners for 6-8 people with a very low base cost ($10 for the chickens, free bread) that was nutritious. Actually three, because I was able to reserve enough chicken meat to make sauteed ramen with wilted lettuce, left over peas, the chicken and some carrot scrapings the next day for lunch. But it takes work, foresight, time , know how, skill and the equipment to do this. For those beleaguered with a lot of problems, to get them to that point is very difficult and, more importantly to have them do this day in and day out requires a discipline that is there.</p>
<p>There are still low income families out there who are intrepid and can pinch that penny till it screams and manage to put together a healthy quality life with very little. Just as there always have been, but there always have been the problem families too. We tend to focus on the ones who manage to survive and flourish despite these impediments and ignore those families that simply failed. I come from a family that failed in that challenge. My grandfather became a drunk, bum, lost his kids to the social services, could not support his wife, grandmother who died of pneumonia–she worked cleaning stairways and steps and it was a bitterly cold winter, and was buried in Potters field. His kids, my father was raised by the state. And there was a huge “orphanage full of them”, St Malachy’s of Brooklyn, once an enormous structure, now gone, filled with children whose parents could not take care of them. Hardly any of them were true orphans; they all had at least one parent who was going to come and get them when they could, and it rarely happened. Didn’t for my father, either. </p>
<p>So the problem is not new. How do we get people to eat nutritiously?</p>
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<p>I think we debunked this in another thread. There are plenty of healthy food choices that are cheaper than processed and fast foods. It just takes more time and effort, which many people are not willing to give.</p>
<p>“It just takes more time and effort, which many people are not willing to give.”</p>
<p>When one is working two or three jobs to make ends meet it is very difficult to find the time and make the effort. </p>
<p>Also, inner cities are notorious food deserts. </p>
<p>[Food</a> deserts: We need more grocery stores in the right places - Houston Chronicle](<a href=“Food deserts: We need more grocery stores in the right places”>Food deserts: We need more grocery stores in the right places)</p>
<p>@ Mini: you seem to be deeply affected by a lack of beef lungs. May I suggest a visit to a Mi Pueblo market. Fast growing chain in my neck of the woods…and they tend to locate in poor sections of the area - like East Palo Alto. They have a wonderful array of unique and surprising beef parts which you can have put into a meal at the food court, purchase at the butcher shop or sometimes find in the dry/dehydated. May I suggest the beef lips as a starter.</p>
<p>This chain has a fantastic produce section which includes ethnic items I have no clue how to prepare. However, I’m sure they could never locate to NYC ( or Santa Cruz) because they have a ‘big box’ feel and foot print. So, maybe the lack of actual available supermarkets in poor areas has less to do with $$ and a whole lot to do with NIMBY zoning.</p>
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<p>Actually, one of the reasons why I don’t even try going through the motions in packing my kids’ lunches, is because the sandwiches would end up in the trash can. My kids prefer hot meals and/or salad to sandwiches. And trust me, I am not Martha Stewart (or whoever the role model for this stuff is). I am just too lazy. I don’t like junk food and I don’t like sandwiches, so I cook what I like and don’t dumb down the food for my kids. If they don’t like it, they can go ahead and be hungry. So far no one died from hunger in my family.</p>
<p>I’m not really sure that I think we, as in the government, should be getting people to eat nutritiously beyond providing education and availability. Many foods can be either healthy or unhealthy, depending on when they are eaten and in what context. For example, movie theater popcorn is revolting and unhealthy. I have been to the movies exactly 3 times in the last 25 years. If you were to see me buy the large tub, you might think I was a disgusting pig, but in the context of my life, it has no real impact. The mayor’s plan also made it so that ordering soda with pizza became much more expensive. I happen to think that the occasional delivery pizza and soda is one of life’s nice pleasures, so it should be left alone!</p>
<p>I guess what I think (and I don’t expect anyone to agree with me, I’m not trying to change minds) is that information should be made available (and I agree completely with the mayor’s policy of providing nutritional information in restaurants), school based foods should be healthful (and I do think it’s possible, with the budget available here, to make the school food appealing – and it very often is), physical activity should be required in schools, and adults should and do face the consequences of their food choices. Sometimes, the life consequences are the best and those are personal. For example, my husband has been obese for years (giant soda drinker) but it wasn’t until our son, who is 5’8 114 pounds, whupped his butt at golf that my husband really got motivated. He is down almost 30 pounds now and it had to come from his own needs and priorities. Everyone has a price, you know? It’s just a question of what it is for every person.</p>
<p>At the school level, I’ve rarely seen a school athlete who was truly obese because the activity burns calories, but the young people concerned about their performance also consider the impact of their food choices on their athletic performance. I don’t think the lack of recess or physical activity is particularly helpful.</p>
<p>I made lunch for my kids up until high school, and then made them make it most days, except for the two who went to a school where the meal was included in the tuition, to all who come by at lunch time and you got no quarter for packing your own meal. But my one son who is 6’ tall and 120 lbs and is a three sport athelte is always hungry. He’d need a second backpack to take food to school. I feed him breakfast at 6:30 AM and pack a lunch and a snack, big ones. He still wants another breakfast at school as it doesn’t start for him until 8:30. He pays for and eats a lunch at school, and then right after school, he’ll eat his packed lunch and go to his sport. He eats his packed snack, and then is famished by the time he gets home around 6:30 and if dinner is at 7 as it usually is or later, he’s rummaging around for more food. Not the first that way of my kids either. My one was a national swimmer, and he consumed 6-7000 calories a day in his growing years and was slim, still is. I made out with the meal plans at college, let me tell you. </p>
<p>Those of us who are focused on our kids’ nutrition continually offer and even force (not physically) foods that are good for them as daily fare, so that their bodies and psyches get accustomed to it. Even so my kids fell terribly on their own, feeding themselves. I was told by a deep fry fast food place that they told my son to take a break from there, because they were afraid he’d have a coronary, as much as he would of their stuff. You could not pick less healthy place, It was a dive. After all of those years of salads, and meals that I carefully prepared he was stuck on a nasty deep fryer hole of a place for his favorite place to eat. Yeah. Now a few bouts of badly upset stomach, maybe food poisoning from eating too much of questionable foods, at age 30, he’s beginning to be more careful The other one, to his horror, gained some weight when he quit his sports activities, and is now more careful after years of eating terribly. So, it’s no wonder to me that there are so many out there that have trouble planning and making and eating healthy foods. And I doubt very many were raised as mine were in terms of healthy, tasty meals, as I made that a priority here.</p>
<p>Zoosermom,</p>
<p>is PhyEd not required in schools in NY?</p>