I’m glad my son’s school provides lunches for its students - it’s one less chore for me. Not that I mind packing lunches - I did that for some of his camps. He has his likes and dislikes, just like every other child. He is, for example, a carb man. But he’s also not just about chicken fingers.
Speaking of chicken fingers, we were pretty worried that his school lunches (his school provides a hot meal to all students so parents don’t have to pack lunches) would be “typical” kid foods like mac and cheese, burgers and, yes, those damn chicken fingers (why do kids love them so much?). But nope, they have real foods too. Last Friday, for example, they served chicken shawarma and caesar salad (his favourite salad! And it seems that it’s a Friday staple, at least until they break in December). They also do baked breaded fish and potato wedges (the school doesn’t serve fries), baked pasta and more. Kid favourites like pizza and burgers are also served. It’s still a bit more “traditionally North American kid-friendly” than his previous school where global foods were served, giving children a taste of foods representing different cultural groups that live in Toronto. So yes, my son had chana masala long before I ever tried chickpeas for the first time. He was four. I was 19. Chickpeas just weren’t part of my family’s menu rotation like they are now.
This brings me to the question of WHY. Why are kids’ menus so boring and pretty much the same. They also haven’t changed in the past 40 years. Don’t we want our children to experience new foods? Why can’t they be smaller portions of the regular menu? Some places do a good job with kids’ foods. Over the summer, we had brunch at a hotel restaurant. Their children’s brunch items were less “plain” than other kids’ breakfast offerings and their lunch/dinner menu included roast chicken and grilled Pacific salmon. Private clubs do a good job at having these items (as well as standbys like grilled cheese or, yes, chicken fingers) as well. However, more mainstream places never do. It’s always grilled cheese, plain pizza, mac and cheese, pasta (either butter or red sauce. Cream sauce if you’re lucky) and chicken fingers. One restaurant I was at offered a pasta and butter dish with a smidgen of parmesan. My son hated it (we’re talking about a kid who eats calamari). The only colour option you might get is the tomato sauce (either on pizza (if that counts) or pasta). So are we saying that kids are dumb? That only children whose parents can afford private club membership or ritzy hotel restaurant meals can experience these foods (and even THERE, kids’ menus tend to be…boring)? That doesn’t seem fair, does it?
So there’s another WHY. In Toronto, at least, public elementary schools don’t usually have in-house food services. Meal programs are external, and for the most part, only for the morning (i.e. breakfast or snack programs), at least to my understanding. According to the Toronto Foundation for Student Success, Canada is the ONLY G-7 country without a federal school nutrition program, leaving everything to the provinces or local school boards. This is shameful, but Ottawa doesn’t seem to care. Food can be educational, and not only about nutrition, but also developing kids’ palates, giving them a taste of foods from different parts of the world, just like at my son’s preschool/Junior Kindergarten (by the way, they used Real Food for Real Kids. A post on their blog shows how their menus have changed over the years). Heck, it might even give a child of immigrant’s first taste of mac and cheese, just like how my son had chana masala or dal for the first time…at school. Nothing wrong with either situations. It doesn’t take away the fact that the child of immigrants will still eat foods from their parents’ homelands just like my son will still eat both “mainstream Canadian” foods and foods from my husband and my respective ancestral backgrounds. In fact, it might help a child appreciate their ancestral cuisines even more. And other cultures’ cuisines. Or find ways to marry ancestral foods with other foods they’re exposed to here (hummus topped fried rice, anyone? It’s good. NO JOKE) when they’re older. It keeps EVERYONE from becoming ignorant because we are often isolated from other cultures when we’re not in school or at work. That’s the reality, even in Toronto.
While I understand picky eating and conditions like ARFID exist, I would also love to see other options for children. As I mentioned above, eating is a part of learning. Sure, children can always eat off their parents’ plates, as they would do in Europe or Asia (and children there tend to have a broader palate)
EDIT: It looks like a federal lunch program is being phased in…according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s official Instagram. But it’ll take time for it to be available nationally.
Informative
I could not agree more! Growing up in the 70s, school lunches were AMAZING! They were made in a kitchen, not trucked in from a factory. We had the most amazing chili, beef and noodles (over mashed potatoes, because we're in the Midwest), fantastic sloppy joes, truly good chicken over biscuits. No, it wasn't adventuresome, but it was really good food that nourished and gratified and made us feel all well-cared for.
And don't even get me started on restaurant kids menus. Restaurateurs, please quit low-balling our tastes!