Extreme Makeover: School Lunch Edition
School Lunches In Santa Barbara County Receive A Much-Needed Revamp
It’s back to school time, and for millions of kids across America, that means it’s back to school lunches. Many parents don’t know just how unhealthy and unappetizing school lunches can be, but kids everywhere can tell you that frozen chicken nuggets, packaged burritos, oily french fries, and canned fruit are pretty much the norm, and they usually taste even worse than they look.
Luckily for the kids in Santa Barbara County, change is on the horizon. The country school system has sent 24 cafeteria employees – “lunch ladies,” as we used to call them (though not all of them are women) – to a culinary boot camp run by Cook for America founders Andrea Martin and Kate Adamick. The program is designed to teach the cafeteria workers the skills they need to prepare fresh and healthful food for their students. While all of the cafeteria workers in the Santa Barbara Country schools have been trained in food safety, many of them have no culinary training. The boot camp teaches cooking basics such time management, menu planning, and knife skills, but also discusses concepts that are specific to school cafeterias, such as child psychology and nutrition, the history of school food, and the culinary math needed to design large-scale meals within strict government budgets.
The above photos, which were scanned to digital for use on the Los Angeles Times website, show the cafeteria workers learning the skills they need to make food that tastes good and meats government standards for nutrition. Adamick and Martin’s Cook for America boot camp is one of many efforts across the nation to fill lunch trays with more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and freshly cooked foods. The issue was brought further into the public eye by the reality TV show “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” in which Britain’s “Naked Chef” attempted to reform the school food service in one of America’s unhealthiest towns. But while that program depicted a TV-worthy struggle between the forward-thinking chef and the change-resistant school staff, everyone seems to be on the same side in Santa Barbara County. Cathy Kelly, a cafeteria worker from Lompoc Unified School District, says she was “totally impressed” with the culinary boot camp, adding, “I would like to serve something I’m proud of.”
To see the full slide show of boot camp photos that have been scanned to digital, visit http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-culinary-boot-camp-pictures,0,978938.photogallery.
Tags: Santa Barbara, scan to digital, School Lunch