FROM THE
EDITOR'S DESK

"You're not gonna ingest that stuff, are you?" my swami friend said as we stepped out of the lunch line.

I looked at my school lunch and said, "Sure, why not?"

The swami grimaced and said through a haze of banana peel smoke, "It isn't good for you."

I shrugged. "Well, it does taste bad, but it provides nutrition for you. Look, it has portions of meat, vegetables--"

"Hey, listen," the swami said. "I've been doing a little research about school lunches. Lunches are subsidized in part by the National School Lunch Program which spends $4 billion a day feeding 26 million school kids." I caught the swami glancing at his crib notes in his palm. "But in order for a school to get its share of the subsidy, it has to serve a 'Type A' lunch which the USDA, as you so astutely pointed out, says must consist of portions of milk, vegetables, and so on."

"It's the 'so on' that usually tastes the worst," I interjected, sitting down.

"Anyway, the Chicago Tribune recently conducted a survey into school lunches and found that the USDA guidebook was written thirty years ago and is probably out of date. Aside from this, some of the food tested was found to be low on vitamins and protein as compared to fresh food.

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink," the swami pondered. "This is appropriate to school lunches especially. You can heave a tray full of good food at a kid, but what's to make him eat it? How's he going to get a balanced lunch if he doesn't eat the whole mess? Fifteen percent of every school lunch on the average ends up in the garbage. The Tribune also discovered that kids consume eighty six per cent of their meat portions but only 65 per cent of their vegetables. No wonder America is so out of shape!"

"But what to do, oh pompous pondering prognosticator?"

"There's not too much to do about the quality of the food until the USDA updates its guidebook. But as for getting kids to eat what they have to, according to the rules, many schools have tried spiffing up the menus by offering pizza, lasagna, and tacos for instance. Many nutritionists feel that the answer lies in more student menu planning participation. As I look around the Snider lunch room, I see three separate lunch offerings; that's a step in the right direction. I'd say you kids here got it pretty good compared to some schools. After all, what do you want for forty cents?"

"I want something that tastes good," I said. I looked down at the cold food that was getting even colder as I watched; I threw the lunch to the floor.

"That's the spirit," the swami said. "It's a matter of giving the kids either what they want or what's good for them. You made a decision. That's good."

"But now I'm hungry," I complained.

"Here," the swami said holding out something in his hand. "Have a banana peel."

--Rick Hines