Tuesday, May 05, 2009

School Lunches

F is for French Fry writes about school food, here's what they found about school lunch in France: "Here’s what students in one Paris school district ate for lunch last Tuesday: cucumbers with garlic and fine herbs; Basque chicken thigh with herbs, red and green bell peppers and olive oil; couscous; organic yogurt and an apple. For snack, they had organic bread, butter, hot chocolate and fruit."

"I’m starting to see a trend here with school meals in other countries. In both France and Japan, school meals are important. Both countries spend more on school lunches than we do, and both use school meals as an educational tool to instill proper eating habits and good manners. The French government recommendations acknowledge that students only eat one meal each day at school. The purpose of that meal, then, is to “assure an elementary formation of taste” and provide nutrition education. Lunches should incorporate lessons on the vocabulary of taste, regional specialties, food preparation techniques and culinary heritage, the government suggests, adding that the midday meal “is much more than nutrients and calories.”

2 comments:

Richard said...

All meals (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner for children and adults) should be more than about nutrients and calories. I like the French approach.

Megs said...

Still don't know what I make of this. I'm certainly not getting such fine food in the canteen in my office in Paris (or maybe it sounds good like that, but presentation and preparation removes all appetite/taste).

And, these school lunches are most certainly subsidised by the government - I'm sure we could offer the same in the States if we paid what the French pay in taxes.