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Country Watch: Italy
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.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:06 am
No, we Americans are not on the ball at all. We don’t see that by spending more now, we are insuring the health of our future.
May 21st, 2009 at 12:03 pm
I don’t know what you’re complaining about- “popcorn chicken and potato stars, with sides of BBQ sauce, ketchup, Goldfish crackers, milk and an apple” sounds like a culturally correct American diet to me
May 21st, 2009 at 8:08 pm
I am a teacher in an elementary school in New England and our meals are just like the one mentioned in SF. As I watch all the food being thrown out, uneaten, I am sickened by the thought of how many animals were needlessly slaughtered. We have 84 % of our students on free lunch and they don’t realize the impact of wasting food the government is paying for.
However, when we serve healthy snacks of fruit and vegetables, they eat all of it. It is fresher and often local. Even the kids know the difference.
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:37 am
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May 22nd, 2009 at 11:13 am
A dear friend is the director of an elementary school in Paris. She gave me a tour last year, including the dining room, complete with tiny chairs and round tables. About 40 students at a time are attended by three ladies who serve them in courses, complete with table cloths, cloth napkins, flatwear, china, and when appropriate, cutlery. The ladies prepare the food in a central kitchen, then deliver it to the school, and serve it. She gave me a sample menu, which I have since lost, but it was as impressive as any bistro in town. She did mention, interestingly, that the school does work with parents who have allergy concerns, but that they do not change the menu for vegetarians (she tells parents that young children need their protein, and the vegetarian experience can be adopted later, and of course, honored at home). They also do not change the menu for Muslims or Jews, although the dishes including pork are such that the pork can be avoided by the children. She tells the parents that the district cannot favor any religious denomination, and that the parents are free to instruct their children on dietary choices at home. No children bring their meals, even those who have allergies.
May 27th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Look at the comercials we see on TV. Look at all the overweight people in the US. When you become aware of it, it is easy to tell. It’s not that we can’t figure it out, plain and simple, our government doesn’t want us to be healthy! They don’t even care about the kids, pathetic.
June 2nd, 2009 at 12:06 pm
[...] Here is the original post: Country Watch: Italy | School Lunch Talk [...]
July 7th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
[...] organics, while the acreage committed to conventional agriculture has been shrinking. • In Rome, 70 percent of the meals served in school canteens are now organic. There is a movement to reach these kinds of numbers in every Italian city. • Italian research [...]