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> The French attitude is "we live to eat". They say every other country "eats to live". Japan also lives to eat and their public school lunches are very health

by gkanai 11y ago

> The French attitude is "we live to eat". They say every other country "eats to live". Japan also lives to eat and their public school lunches are very healthy and nutritious. The children often also partake in the preparation of the meals in part, so they get that learning as well.

hanniabu 11y ago
That actually seems like a great idea. Not enough kids know how to cook and I feel this is a reason a lot of the younger generation eats out rather than at home. Having a class rotation where every day of the month (or week, depending how big the school is) a different before-lunch class will instead go to the cafeteria and prep meals would be awesome. Students would get to learn and the school may be able to cut costs by hiring less lunch attendants. Of course kids would have to wash their hands and be trusted not to taint the food, but that goes for current lunch attendants as well.
- ethbro 11y ago
  Colleges have a hit or miss on this. A lot of liberal arts colleges still seem to have student employment opportunities in the dinning hall. In my large public university? Sodexo and poorly paid off site employees for 100% of staff. Another failure of unmodelled externalities in capitalism, I think. If a kid's lunch costs $5 to involve them in the preparation process on site vs. $2.50 for a minimum cost contractor preparation... which is the better deal?
- mikekchar 11y ago
  I have literally seen elementary school children in Japan slicing vegetables with a normal kitchen knife. All the kids learn knife skills. It's amazing, but I suspect not something that would be easy to export, culturally. When I taught English to high school students in Japan, I had a couple of courses where we took over the kitchens and the students had to figure out how to cook meals with English recipes. I was very impressed with most of them. Certainly every student had basic cooking skills and could be trusted with every aspect of kitchen safety (and I was in a low level school). One of the downsides to the Japanese school lunch approach is that it puts a burden on teachers. They are "on duty" during lunch time on a rotating basis. Japanese teachers get very little down time and extras like this are just expected of them. Lunch is taken very seriously at the schools. In high school, lunch is not provided. A local bakery comes by to offer a variety of baked goods at a reasonable price, but you can't really trust that there will be decent food left by the time you get there (it is always a mad rush to be first in line at lunch time). Parents are expected to make a packed lunch. The teachers will often look at the students' lunches and if they are not good enough, the parents will be called in. In extreme cases I have seen teachers teaching parents how to cook nutritious packed lunches. Again, it's a good policy which I think would be impossible to export. Imagine being called up by your kid's teacher and having to go in and be lectured because you failed to make a good enough lunch. I've actually seen parents in tears during their reprimand. Also imagine teachers staying late (unpaid) so that they can teach parents how to make lunch... In many ways, Japan is an amazing place...
  - douche 11y ago
    U.S. school teachers are routinely on duty during lunch periods, as crowd control, so I'm not sure that's really a difference. U.S. school lunches are absolutely woeful. Just check out the #thanksmichelleobama pictures on twitter for a general overview[1]. I think there's got to be some big kick-backs given by the packaged food distributors, because there is no way that frozen pizza and McRib sandwiches are cheaper than cooking actual food. [1] https://twitter.com/hashtag/thanksmichelleobama https://twitter.com/hashtag/thanksmichelleobama
    - knughit 11y ago
      Bread is the cheapest food. Dairy is heavily subsidized in USA. Pizza is famous because it is the cheapest cooked meal known to cow-owning humanity. McRib literally exists only during times of pork market collapse. This stuff is absolutely cheaper than cooking with vegetables.
      - douche 11y ago
        True, but how is it cheaper to purchase packaged pizza versus a bag of flour, a can of sauce, a block of government surplus cheese, and the minimum-wage cafeteria workers that you've already got hired? Making pizza is not exactly a high-skill task.
  - prawn 11y ago
    At his childcare place here in Australia, my 2-3 yo gets involved in meal prep in the facility's kitchen. They have 5 meals a day with a great rotating menu. He'll often eat better than we do. We involve him in almost all cooking we do at home too.
  - userbinator 11y ago
    It's amazing, but I suspect not something that would be easy to export, culturally. I think this would be especially awkward with the prevalent safety culture of the US. ("How dare you put our kids in danger by giving them knives!")
dnautics 11y ago
Having experinced this (and also student participation in cleaning the school)... You can't do that in America because jobs would be lost. Then there would be complaints about insourcing, or child exploitation.
gbog 11y ago
I think Chinese are even worse: they not only "live to eat", but also talk, think, write almost only about food. Especially true in Sichuan: there food is the only conversation topic available. In Beijing it is possible to talk also about other things, like politics.
simonebrunozzi 11y ago
And Italy, and most of the mediterranean countries. And possibly, also some other countries in Asia or South America.

by gkanai 11y ago

hanniabu 11y ago

That actually seems like a great idea. Not enough kids know how to cook and I feel this is a reason a lot of the younger generation eats out rather than at home. Having a class rotation where every day of the month (or week, depending how big the school is) a different before-lunch class will instead go to the cafeteria and prep meals would be awesome. Students would get to learn and the school may be able to cut costs by hiring less lunch attendants. Of course kids would have to wash their hands and be trusted not to taint the food, but that goes for current lunch attendants as well.

ethbro 11y ago
Colleges have a hit or miss on this. A lot of liberal arts colleges still seem to have student employment opportunities in the dinning hall. In my large public university? Sodexo and poorly paid off site employees for 100% of staff. Another failure of unmodelled externalities in capitalism, I think. If a kid's lunch costs $5 to involve them in the preparation process on site vs. $2.50 for a minimum cost contractor preparation... which is the better deal?
mikekchar 11y ago
I have literally seen elementary school children in Japan slicing vegetables with a normal kitchen knife. All the kids learn knife skills. It's amazing, but I suspect not something that would be easy to export, culturally. When I taught English to high school students in Japan, I had a couple of courses where we took over the kitchens and the students had to figure out how to cook meals with English recipes. I was very impressed with most of them. Certainly every student had basic cooking skills and could be trusted with every aspect of kitchen safety (and I was in a low level school). One of the downsides to the Japanese school lunch approach is that it puts a burden on teachers. They are "on duty" during lunch time on a rotating basis. Japanese teachers get very little down time and extras like this are just expected of them. Lunch is taken very seriously at the schools. In high school, lunch is not provided. A local bakery comes by to offer a variety of baked goods at a reasonable price, but you can't really trust that there will be decent food left by the time you get there (it is always a mad rush to be first in line at lunch time). Parents are expected to make a packed lunch. The teachers will often look at the students' lunches and if they are not good enough, the parents will be called in. In extreme cases I have seen teachers teaching parents how to cook nutritious packed lunches. Again, it's a good policy which I think would be impossible to export. Imagine being called up by your kid's teacher and having to go in and be lectured because you failed to make a good enough lunch. I've actually seen parents in tears during their reprimand. Also imagine teachers staying late (unpaid) so that they can teach parents how to make lunch... In many ways, Japan is an amazing place...
- douche 11y ago
  U.S. school teachers are routinely on duty during lunch periods, as crowd control, so I'm not sure that's really a difference. U.S. school lunches are absolutely woeful. Just check out the #thanksmichelleobama pictures on twitter for a general overview[1]. I think there's got to be some big kick-backs given by the packaged food distributors, because there is no way that frozen pizza and McRib sandwiches are cheaper than cooking actual food. [1] https://twitter.com/hashtag/thanksmichelleobama https://twitter.com/hashtag/thanksmichelleobama
  - knughit 11y ago
    Bread is the cheapest food. Dairy is heavily subsidized in USA. Pizza is famous because it is the cheapest cooked meal known to cow-owning humanity. McRib literally exists only during times of pork market collapse. This stuff is absolutely cheaper than cooking with vegetables.
    - douche 11y ago
      True, but how is it cheaper to purchase packaged pizza versus a bag of flour, a can of sauce, a block of government surplus cheese, and the minimum-wage cafeteria workers that you've already got hired? Making pizza is not exactly a high-skill task.
- prawn 11y ago
  At his childcare place here in Australia, my 2-3 yo gets involved in meal prep in the facility's kitchen. They have 5 meals a day with a great rotating menu. He'll often eat better than we do. We involve him in almost all cooking we do at home too.
- userbinator 11y ago
  It's amazing, but I suspect not something that would be easy to export, culturally. I think this would be especially awkward with the prevalent safety culture of the US. ("How dare you put our kids in danger by giving them knives!")

dnautics 11y ago

Having experinced this (and also student participation in cleaning the school)... You can't do that in America because jobs would be lost. Then there would be complaints about insourcing, or child exploitation.

gbog 11y ago

I think Chinese are even worse: they not only "live to eat", but also talk, think, write almost only about food. Especially true in Sichuan: there food is the only conversation topic available. In Beijing it is possible to talk also about other things, like politics.

simonebrunozzi 11y ago

And Italy, and most of the mediterranean countries. And possibly, also some other countries in Asia or South America.