By Deborah Lehmann —
When I blogged about cafeterias in France a few weeks ago, I thought I had found the country that was most different from the United States when it comes to school lunch. Then I found Italy.
Italy is like the United States in one respect: both countries look to school meals to promote the consumption of domestic agricultural products. But while the U.S. government uses schools to support the industrial meat and dairy industries, Italy sees schools as a vehicle to support organic farms and traditional farming. In fact, Italy has a law that calls for organic and local products in schools, hospitals and other public institutions:
“To guarantee the promotion of organic agricultural production of ‘quality’ food products, public institutions that operate school and hospital canteens will provide in the daily diet the use of organic, typical and traditional products as well as those from denominated areas, taking into account the guidelines and other recommendations of the National Institute of Nutrition”
Sound different from the way we do things here? Farm-to-school programs are gaining strength in the United States, but parents usually have to fight to bring fresh produce and organic food to their children’s cafeterias. In America, “sustainable school food systems often develop despite government action,” write Kevin Morgan and Roberta Sonnino, professors at Cardiff University in Wales who study sustainable food systems. “In Italy, the school food revolution is happening because of state action.”
Judging by the numbers, that state action has been effective. In 2003, about 70 percent of Italian schools used organic ingredients. In 2005, 647 schools, including those in Rome, served entirely organic meals. Other cities, like Ascoli and Borgo San Lorenzo, use only local ingredients.
Like France, Italy views lunch as an integral part of a student’s education. School meals are supposed to teach children about local traditions and instill a taste for the regional food. To that end, Italian law allows schools to consider more than just price when making contracts with meal providers. Schools can take into account location, culture and how foods fit into the curriculum.
All this makes for lunches that are about as different as it gets from American school meals. On a recent Friday, students in the northern city of Piacenza ate zucchini risotto and mozzarella, tomato and basil salad. Tomorrow they’re getting pesto lasagna, a selection of cheeses and a platter of garden vegetables. Meat only shows up on menus only once or twice a week, and it’s usually not the main course. Compare that to American cafeterias, where it’s so hard to find a meatless entree that organizations are petitioning Congress to require a vegetarian option for school lunch.
How much does all that pasta, risotto and organic produce cost? In Rome, meals cost about $5.60 to produce, and half of that money is used to purchase ingredients. Students pay based on their family income, and the city funds the difference. For students who pay full price, a meal costs about $2.80. That means the city is pitching in $2.80 for every full-price meal, and even more for the reduced-price meals. Here in the United States, the government pays only 24 cents for every full-price meal and only $2.57 for every free meal.
But you get what you pay for. This past Monday, elementary school students in San Francisco ate popcorn chicken and potato stars, with sides of BBQ sauce, ketchup, Goldfish crackers, milk and an apple. Italy, France and Japan all spend more on lunch, but that’s because they view school meals as a health initiative and an integral part of education. Clearly Americans haven’t made that connection yet.
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