French hospital food is a cut above, too! I once went from fresh, healthy salads served with wine in a French hospital to three days of fish and chips in row in an English one.

Public school lunches in the US are abhorrent, but I guess we'd have to pay more taxes in order to get something better, which is what the French do.

My first school lunch memory was being served a sloppy joe in 1st grade, and being convinced that there were small hairs sticking out of the whole thing. High school didn't fare much better: the salad bar consisted of rotting iceburg and cubed deli meat. We were forced to sit in alphabetical order because of all the fights in the school and I remember this guy I sat next to who made a "salad" everyday of ham cubes and american cheese cubes covered in ranch dressing. Ick! It all scared me off cafeteria food forever.

After seeing that piece on Sunday Morning, I have to see that a French 3-year-old definitely eats better than I do. They eat much better than anyone in my extended family.

I did a rotation at a very large school district in TX, which qualified for the "gold" award from the USDA for excellence in nutrition (the highest tier). Needless to say, it was an extremely eye opening experience. The nutrition standards are an arbitrary set of goals, like meal must contain at least 3 food groups, have no more than xx g sat fat, etc. But, there is no rule about trans fats, no vegetable requirement, etc. So, a "frito pie" consisting of low fat Fritos + Doritos, chili made with commodity beef, topped with low-fat nacho "cheese" sauce qualifies as a "healthy" and "balanced" meal. Crazy, no?

Every single one of the baked goods contained partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. And nearly everything contained an artificial color, flavor and/or preservative -- BHA/BHT, MSG, polysorbate 80, etc etc.

You would think meat would be pretty safe, not much you can do to meat. But actually all meat products were cut with TVP. The hamburger patties were only 75% beef, 25% TVP and other stuff. How f'ed up is that??? The kids would honestly be getting a more wholesome meal from McDonald's.

People are making a big stink over getting local produce in school, which I think is a great thing, but honestly, I think the bigger problem is getting the crap ingredients out of the food.

The schools receive money for selling more "reimbursable meals" -- meals that meet the 3 food group criteria. They get $$ from the USDA, and commodity foods. The district where I was received over $25 million the previous year from the USDA. That's substantial! What was abundantly clear to me is the USDA is using the nation's children as the market for all these subsidized crops grown in the mid-west. We grow way more wheat, soy and corn than we can use, so the surplus winds up as commodity foods and gets shoved out to the school districts.

If we want to change school lunch -- and overall health in this country -- we need to ditch the farm subsidies. That's the biggest difference I see between the US and Europe -- corn and soy.

</rant>

Anyway, thanks for the video! Can't wait to watch it. Viva la France!

This is one of the big reasons I will pack lunch everyday for my daughter. Poor Jamie Oliver, trying to help kids in WV, nearly getting run out of town by stuck in the mud parents. French fries and ketchup shouldn't be two servings of veggies!

I saw that piece, and I was amazed. I am definitely jealous of the 3 year old school children of Paris!

My kid is still in kindergarten (half-day-no cafeteria food yet), but he goes home learning 'fun' songs about 'McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken.'
Now he wants to go to all of those places because according to his teachers: yum yum.

But I agree, a French 3 yr old definitely eats better than me (then again, I only have coffee at lunch)...

So jealous! I worked in a public HS in MD for five years, and I'm happy to say that I never once ate from the cafeteria, with the exception of the chocolate chip cookies. They keep saying that the kids won't eat the healthy stuff, which might be true in the elementary schools, but in high school it's definitely not. My seniors used to complain all the time that there were no vegetables. The one week they ACCIDENTALLY ordered green beans, the kids couldn't get enough of it, and they came back to class super excited about it. They never ordered them again. Why? Too expensive. Tater tots are much cheaper. Sigh.

I'm with ilovebutter- let's get the crap out of the food first! Looks like the French kids are still getting food they will actually like (deep-fried brocolli? my kids would love that!) but their stuff is made of actual food.
I remember studying in France for a little while in high school and lunch was amazing. Just as the video shows, it was served on real plates with metal utensils and consisted of several yummy and "homemade" courses. Nothing looked like it was dumped out of a can or a freezer bag.
Watching the video, I was struck by several different things. First, the meals cost $2.50. I think we spend about $2 per meal in the US. It seems the French are getting far more for their buck AND they are employing obviously skilled people because the food actually has to be cooked, and not just reheated. Secondly, I was really impressed by the attention to hygiene. While I hate the paper and styrofoam used at my kids' daycare for lunch, I guess I thought it was a necessary evil because it would be impossible to feed a large group of toddlers from real plates and then clean all that afterwards. But, looks like it's totally possible and the Paris preschool has better food hygiene standards than my kids' school. Finally, I like how the real plates and utensils contribute to a sense of mealtime as a special time to be cherised, not a time to shovel food into one's gullet.

Oh, one disagreement with ilovebutter. In Europe they subsidize farms as much, if not more, than we do. it's just not so much the corn and soy.

I wholeheartedly agree with ilovebutter. Thank you for highlighting this issue Stephanie...one more reason to move to France!

When I went to elementary school in Vienna 20 years ago, we were served good food too. Not quite as great as what you see here in France but we'd always have a three course meal with a soup to start and some kind of healthy dessert like yoghurt. Our main meals were mostly traditional Austrian dishes like goulash or pork roast with dumplings and vegetables and dishes that have become more common in Austria like pasta bolognese or ratatouille.
We also had two snacks - a snack of dark bread with butter and milk in the morning and a piece of fruit in the afternoon.

But what you have to realize is that in Austria lunch is the main meal. In the evening you have a sandwich or a salad so people expect a lot higher quality from their lunches and it is not uncommon to go out to a restaurant for lunch.

I do remember that the food got a lot worse by high school. We didn't have a real cafeteria anymore, just a little shop that sold sandwiches, pastries and yoghurts (milk products are very important in Austria).

the school lunches that i got to eat when i did an exchange in a small french town weren't exactly gourmet, but to me they were one of my favourite parts of my stay. along with a meat and vegetable entree, we got a dessert, a delicious cheese and unlimited salad and local bread (often, we got hand-baked desserts from the local bakery.). the cafeteria was extremely clean, and the food was more affordable than eating at home, and i got to try beef tongue.

interesting story: all of the food and equipment and eating tools are sanitized before being cooked. and that is awesome. once, though, my friend svenja found a wasp under the skin of her chicken. pretty unsettling, but i'd say that is a one-in-a-thousand chance, right?

i've always been frustrated with the propaganda machine that convinces kids they hate vegetables. growing up in an advertisement-free eastern bloc country, i was never told to hate broccoli and spinach and as a result i loved both.

i have a friend who routinely cooked a real meal for the adults and fried crap for the kids, saying "kids don't eat curry" or "kids don't eat stir fry" although i'm pretty certain kids in india and china do.

and don't get me started on cutlery. north america's inability to use a knife and fork simultaneously is pathetic. i learned in kindergarten, and i'm not the most coordinated person in the world...

Where I was in high school (not that long ago) we had healty meals at the cafeteria, they were not that tasty, but they were healty usually composed of a meat with vegetables, they were no soft drinks, only 100% juice box and milk, all served in plastic reusable plates with metal utensils.

Average price spent on a school lunch is 2 dollars in the US. In many states we spend more money on feeding prisoners than we do children.

I can't remember where I saw it, but there was a private high school, I think in Seattle, that servered local and organic lunches. They had a private chef and a huge salad bar that the students actually ate from. They also grew a lot of their own produce on school grounds. Ah, only if...!

I'm hoping someone out there can comment in better detail about this than I can, but as part of my job as a social worker, last year I spent time in two Head Start classrooms helping the teachers with classroom behavior management.

I observed mealtime on several occasions, and was pretty impressed with the way daily "lesson" was run. Meals are served "family style," and children are encouraged to serve themselves. If I remember correctly, there was usually milk, juice, an entree, and a fruit and/or veggie for lunch. I think they used disposable plates and flatware, but still, it was a step up from what I saw in the elementary school down the street (where most kids were on the free lunch program and therefore ate sad looking school lunches every day). At Head Start, teachers sat at the tables with the kiddos and encouraged them to use appropriate manners and clean up after themselves when finished. What would it be like to continue this type of mealtime lesson in elementary schools and up?

I remember reading about the school lunch program in Japan a few years ago--it's integrated into the curriculum, and kids help serve. It just seems so key--food and nutrition are an essential part of an education and learning to take care of yourself as an adult, but no one recognizes that in the US.

But, as the first commenter said, it really all boils down to taxes. I'd be more than happy to pay more taxes, but sometimes it seems like I'm the only American who thinks that!

Omg.... chaco taco.. mmm

I disagree that increased taxes = better lunches. Thirty or forty years ago, schools had actual functioning kitchens and the lunch ladies cooked instead of heating and serving. We pay a much greater proportion of our income as taxes now than then.

I think that there is an issue with federal funding of schools that locks them into using commodity products in exchange for access to federal dollars. If we got the feds out of the schools, the states, counties and districts would be free to use their budgets as they saw fit - so if parents demanded better lunches, they could decide to meet that demand. It would also be helpful to get rid of ag subsidies, as this creates a push to get rid of excess food.

The system now takes all of our money, hands it to the government, and then the government doles it back to us with strings attached. It is not so much the amount of taxes as the bureaucrats that end up pulling the strings.

I eat just as well, in that my lunches are in general quite healthy and balanced, but my lunches aren't nearly as sophisticated.

I have sat down with French friends and actually compared pay stubs, real estate taxes, capital gains, etc. and then added in expenses that Americans pay privately (health premiums, mostly) that are included in the French tax bill. The difference is not in amount paid, it is in value received for money paid.

uhhh... not sure I want to hear the answer, but what is TVP?

textured vegetable protein. yum.

and I didn't even need to look it up, sadly.

My daughter's a teacher on the CA. coast and says that even though they live in fresh veggie land, the school lunches do not include these things. It is as KkatMpls says, all over this land.

My husband and I saw that segment and we were in awe. Ah the French!

I'm with rasmugirl... did someone say choco taco?

Whats wrong with a little TVP? Vegetarian/Vegan recipes call for it now and again and its just commonplace. So... whats a little 25% reduction in the amount of hormones and antibiotics in our kids school burgers? Now, if only the meat part was actually of good quality... I think I'd prefer my kids ate 100% TVP!

TVP is a highly processed food. I'm vegetarian and occasionally use meat analogues but have been phasing them out because they are really processed. Vegetarian/vegan food can be pretty "junky" too.

I live in the subs of Chicago and I won't let my son eat food at the school. Each month when he comes home and hands me the lunch menu with a letter attached to it with the "Guidelines" that they go by for nutrition it is amazing what they actually get by with. Nothing is made, everything is processed crap. Even their "fruit" is a frozen juice bar with added sugar and corn syrup, or mixed fruit cup in heavy syrup.
Our government is crap and it trickles down to who gets paid what and most really don't care about the people and kids of the US. Most Americans are too lazy to care and to really look into what their kids are putting into their bodies and what the out come will be in the years to come. Not only that we are becoming so over populated that we aren't going to have any more farm land to actually have REAL food anymore. Its really sad

is this french week on the kitchn or something?

I'm with you I Love Butter about the corn and soy!!

We live in Switzerland, and my kids go to a private school here (a Montessori) with catered lunches. The lunches are NOT optional; everyone eats them, including the teachers. There are no cheese courses, but apart from that, the food is essentially the same as at the French schools. The kids eat on china, drink water out of glasses, and have cloth napkins.

My son is a very, very, picky eater (does not like vegetables or many fruits, hates, sauces, etc.), but slowly but surely he is being worn down to eat properly, thanks to seeing his peers eat well.

Yesterday, I was watching a French rebroadcast of Jamie Oliver's School Dinners -- the French are saying that they have to do even better, pointing to Jamie Oliver! I don't think they realize the irony... Anyway, they complain that much good food gets thrown out, and they point to an alarming rise in convenience food (kids who eat out, and at home).

As for cost, you would be shocked at how little good food costs: Jamie was limited to 53 pence per main course per student; the French government budgets on average 1.53 Euros. The trick of course, is in the infrastructure -- having lunch staff who can actually COOK and have real kitchens to cook in. It raises your labour and facility costs, for sure. But such a small price to pay for healthy kids.

Yesterday's episode was really astonishing -- Jamie took control over the kitchens of 4 schools in the borough, and after 9 weeks, he met with one of the schools. The teachers, principals and school nurse all reported amazing changes: academically, the kids made LEAPS forward, in every subject -- math, reading, you name it. They were better behaved. And the nurse said that while previously, they had asthma attacks all the time at school, and she had to administered inhalers to numerous students on a daily basis, since changing the canteen food, NOT ONE ASTHMA ATTACK! She didn't have to administer an inhaler to a child once!!

It is only if parents value food, pressure government, and are willing to put their money where their mouths are will things change. Parents love their kids, and most would do anything they could to give them a leg up in the world, so there is hope.

Jamie Oliver is my hero for his campaign; I encourage everyone to watch the original British program -- Jamie's School Dinners -- and become active.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/jme/dvds/info/jamies-school-dinners-complete-series/100235.html

My little son just started preschool.... and upon seeing the other kids have school lunches requested he was able to dine on plastic trays as well.. his result. "Mommy the food smelled disgusting and tasted like dirt!". So I promptly made some veggie soup & packed a tuna sandwich for the next day. Not only are the meals bad, but there is no talk of manners at the tables anywhere. Maybe I need to starting taking French lessons?

I am soooo jealous! Although I have to say I'm old enough that my first memories of school lunch was the smell of homemade rolls baking in the school kitchen in a small rural school where everything was homemade. My last memories were of the awful pizza and the mystery meat and gravy that smelled up the whole school when it was on the menu.

In our area by junior high almost all kids eat school lunch--even two of mine who had been sack lunch holdouts all through elementary schools. Not only is the "everybody eats it" factor in play, the loads kids have in their backpacks are already very heavy, and the rushed bell schedules aren't conducive to making an extra locker trip for a lunch bag. It's so discouraging. My daughter is a dancer and becomes ill from too much processed food so I pack her lunch every day. She says she's one of about 3 kids in a large lunch group that do so. Even without waiting in a lunch line she barely has time to finish and is frustrated with having to gobble her food.

What a contrast.

I'm french and from my experience it's a little bit idealized. I used to work in a kindergarden when I was a student and to serve food to the children.
It's true that the cooks were preparing a lot of meals, that there is fish, cheese and vegetables on the menu but they were also using cans to make them, not just only fresh products from the market. The second part of the documentary is specially an exception. When usually you're asking people about how they felt about "cantine" (lunch at school) they usually say that it wasn't as good as at home or even not good at all.

What a coincidence last 28th I talked about my daughter's lunch bag :) in my blog.
In Spain schools care about it.

It's upsetting what's happening in government food standards. Genetically altered salmon, anybody? Eiw. Without major pushing we can't count on the government to be watching out for our health. It makes me sad for the kids eating lunches in US schools, though I can't say I did much better back then. It's a wonder I don't already have diabetes based on my high-school diet of school lunches, sodas and working part-time at the local McDonald's with a free meal per shift. I think Upton Sinclair's The Jungle needs another go around.

Oh, back in the late 60's and early 70's our country school cafeteria was AMAZING. Homemade bread, tuna salad, chicken stew, meatballs and pasta. Now most of the veggies were canned and there was no salad bar, but there were milk and olives and real plates and forks and friends. It was wonderful.

Just wanted to add that in Spain it's similar to France. My kids get two main courses and dessert. There are always vegetables and fruit and everything is prepared on site. People do pay more taxes than in the U.S. (I'm American, but I've lived in Spain for nearly 18 years, so I can compare) and in general food is given much more importance in Spanish culture than in America, so I think both factors play a role. Unfortunately, things are changing here too and more and more fast food places are popping up and people have less time than they used to for meals, so we may be heading in the same direction as America and end up eating mostly processed food.

Lux in a box, being French too, I second everything you said ! But, having lived a while in the US, it's just another world... when I was at school, like you, I thought that the "cantine" was bad. And it was ! Compared to either my mom's delicious cooking or even my own clumsy one.

Then I went to the US, with my family. My sister and I tried the cafeteria food for a week. When we came home and could not tell Mom what we ate (couldn't recognize it) but that we were quite sure there were neither veggies nor a decent, plain fruit, she sighted and began to prepare lunchboxes.

While there are a lot of things I don't like in my country (let's not get into that...), one thing I'd like to preserve is the cultural importance of good, natural, whole food. After all, we litterally ingest food, and we can be concerned with its taste, its nutritionnal quality and such. In addition, conversation about food is among the ones I enjoy most !

When I was a kid in rural South Carolina, the lunch ladies made real meals every day. They weren't "fine cooking" but they were real food, very often locally produced (there is a wild grape in SC called the "scuppernong" that was often served in season). Now I'm sure it's all pizza, hamburgers and chicken fingers. Such a shame.

I graduated high school in 1990 from a TINY school in the rural midwest... our junior or senior year, we were in a history class. Our young teacher was talking about protests and how that all worked... My entire grade was in that one class and we started talking and decided that we all hated the school lunches and wanted a salad bar. We'd asked for one before but were of course ignored. There was only one cafeteria for k-12... so we'd been eating there for over a decade at that point. As we were frustrated and had just talked about protests, we decided that on one certain day we would all bring our lunches and not eat the school food. Of course, most of us had siblings in the school, who we told of our plan, who then told the rest of the school.... The day arrived, we all brought sack lunches and.... only a few kids ate the school lunch. The head cook was beyond infuriated - (sorry, it still makes me laugh) with no place to store all of the uneaten food. Our poor history teacher nearly lost his job... He finally convinced them that it was not his idea, that he had only failed to mention that prior to a protest, one normally presents a lists of demands and when they are not met, then the protest occurs (an object lesson never forgotten)... End result? We didn't get a salad bar. They did get one several years later, but by then, we were all in college and living on pizza anyways. Jamie Oliver may have started a show, but he was not the first to demand good food in American schools...

One of my favorite guilty pleasures is having a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup for lunch. That is a direct result of attending public schools. The quality of tomato soup I prefer has improved over the years, though.

I rarely ate in the school cafeteria, and carried my lunch only for grades 1-3, and walked home/drove home for lunch from grade 4 through graduation. My son lived close enough to home that by grade three he was walking home for lunch. I do not understand why it is incumbent upon the school system to feed children breakfast and lunch, or summer meals for that matter. A fourth grader is old enough to pack a lunch. Children can and will accept the responsibility---they certainly don't having any trouble finding a snack in the kitchen when they get home from school :)

I ate in french schools from preK to college, there is a large range in food taste and quality but the lunch is always 5 courses and balance and healthy. The meal real price isn't that cheap, it is partial financed by the town and income prorated, resulting in an affordable price. In some very poor block, that's the mainly meal the kids eat. The time surely matter, small kids get 2 hours between the morning an afternoon cession for lunch and 2 recesses, there is usually 2 services and you get about 45/60 min to eat. Kids are kids and won't usually eat all the meal but they have to try everything once. The 2 months planning I think is exceptional but you usually get the week's one the Friday before. Parents and kids usually complains about the quality even if the cook are doing their best, it's only 4 meals out 21/week or 28 as we usually observe a copious afternoon snack not to mention the morning recess one =).

Forgot to mention that vegetarian and vegan and food allergy are less common in France, the only alternatives you get if it's not a self service it's alternative for pork. But it's a society pb, drive me crazy here is that even kid's items are fat free, I not interested in a fat free chocolate milk for my kids, I rather they get the 4 % fat of good whole milk than from chips.

kurniakasih -- my kid picked up that same obnoxious fast food song at his previous daycare. I nearly fell over when I witnessed a (severely obese) teacher leading 3-year olds in a rendition of a song that was literally about "McDonald's, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Pizza Hut!"

At his new preschool I have been asking the administrators to stop serving cookies and poptarts(?!!) for snack. The director is severely obese and the #2 has diabetes, yet they continue to serve this garbage. And here I am trying to teach my kid that sweets are for dessert, not for snack. It's a constant battle.

I have two adult daughters, one obese and one slim. One takes after her dad and one takes after me. Both were brought up in exactly the same way, with more healthy food than probably the average kids their age got. The genetics appear to be a strong factor, but it doesn't help when the schools drive the nail in the coffin. They are in college now but, in high school, a healthy salad/potato bar was only once a week and the vending machines were full of junk and pop (not even sugar-free pop). It's definitely an uphill battle if the genes lean toward obesity.

I am sure you understand that from the earliest age the French must learn about their gastronomy heritage!

Also you may have noticed that the plates are not plastic but ordinary breakable earthenware, they must also learn to be careful making them later to appreciate sophisticated more expensive tableware. And mind you plastic is not safe with hot food...

lhypma: I worked for the past several years in a preschool classroom a lot like Head Start, and my class had family-style meals, as well. They learned to set the table, pass food, serve themselves, and wait patiently with their hands in their laps for everyone to be ready to eat. We also worked on table manners, of course, and wiping up spills, which can happen a lot when a child is first introduced to pouring his own milk. I sat and ate with the children. We talked quietly while we ate our meal, and the children helped clean up afterward, disposing of leftovers, rinsing bowls, and sweeping the floor.

This is a common practice at preschools in this area.

Now I've moved up to elementary school, where children are fed by the hundreds in a buffet line. There are a few cafeteria workers who patrol the room, shouting mostly. At times, it feels like we as preschool teachers worked hard at instilling manners that no longer matter in kindergarten.

I'm a Canadian living in a small town about an hour south of Paris. My two girls, ages 5 and 7, eat lunch at school every day even though I'm at home every day and we live five minutes away from both schools. One of the main reasons they stay for lunch is the quality of the food.

To answer Trish1980, they get ninety minutes for lunch, although I am not sure how much of that is playtime after they leave the canteen.

We are Americans living in Belgium (the French part) and our 16 month old son is about to start going to the creche (daycare)... last week while we were there checking it out they were getting ready for lunch. The ONE & TWO year olds were having salmon, broccoli, and potatoes. I was shocked! And very happy. We eat mostly fresh food, as most people here do, and it is great to know that he won't be eating nuggets and pudding tubes, or whatever they have now!

I am French and the quality of food must have tremendously changed ! In high school, we had french fries almost every day and all vegetables were from cans (not fresh at all), tasteless and limp. I would have loved to have a chef cooking from fresh products and making his own fish broth. And by the way, the kids are not eating snails but whelks. ;)

When I think of school lunches I recall the tacos (beef, naturally) that always had a puddle of grease oozing out of them. Horrifying.

I heard an interview (on NPR, I think) with a school cafeteria worker who said the $2/meal covers everything including the salaries of the cafeteria staff, the appliance and equipment, the napkins and cutlery, the distribution and storage of ingredients, etc. At the end of the day only a few cents are spent on the food itself, so it's no wonder that they have to make it as cheap as possible.

I have no kids and probably never will, but I'm all for paying a little more in taxes so children can eat better at school. After all, they're the generation that will be designing our nursing-home menus.

I grew up in Colorado (not that long ago) and I remember having delevery pizza throughout middleschool (7th and 8th grade) there were other choices but about 90% of the kids had pizza everyday.

In elementary school we had a different meal everyday, some days a reheated pizza was an option and upon looking back I'm sure it was left over from the middle school kids. All the kids obviously chose pizza everytime it came up.

In high school (9th to 12th) we had an open campus so nearly everyone would jump in a mates car and drive to one of the many fast food places near by. (taco bell, wendys, subway, chipotle) if you diddle have a car...blackjack pizza was the only place in walking distance.

In my school district (in Canada), AND where I grew up, school lunches weren't offered. We brought out lunch to school.