Two events of note occurred last week in San Antonio, Texas, both revolving around school foodservice. The Culinary Institute of America, in collaboration with the National Restaurant Association, staged “Healthy Flavors, Healthy Kids,” a three-day event billed as a National Invitational Leadership Summit. More than 80 school foodservice directors and others linked to school nutrition were flown in to hear presentations and share their ideas for making school meals healthier and more acceptable.
At the same time, the San Antonio Independent School District announced that it had received a $2 million grant from the U, S. Department of Agriculture to install cameras in elementary school cafeterias to track what children are choosing when they go through the cafeteria line, and what they’re actually eating. The study is expected to begin in August, provided the measure is approved by school district trustees later this month.
The CIA summit, which Associate Editor Becky Schilling covered for FoodService Director, was the quieter of the two affairs. Check back later for Becky's full report at In the News.
It’s not surprising that the San Antonio schools’ announcement created the bigger buzz, even though the actual occurrence is still three months off. Some observers already have called it another example of government’s “nanny state” mindset and likened it to the Big Brother of George Orwell’s 1984.
Two arguments against the cameras are being made: that they will “monitor” what kids eat, with the resulting power to take food offenders to task, and that they are a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars. I’m not sure about the “monitoring” part, as the data collected by the cameras could help school foodservice personnel learn things about positioning certain foods in serveries to attract kids’ attention or make foods more saleable.
But I agree with the argument that the project is a waste of money. If you want to know what kids are buying, take a look at sales figures or the relative numbers of the various items selected. If you want to know what kids are eating, measure your food waste. If you want to make children self-conscious about their food choices, stick cameras in their faces.
I can’t imagine cameras will provide, as one consultant suggested, a more accurate or cost-effective measuring stick. But I can totally understand why parents would be up in arms over the project. Does the USDA really believe this holds a key to the solution of our obesity crisis?
Let’s see what the San Antonio school board has to say.