Wednesday, October 5
Paradigm Shift
Throughout my childhood, I believed the paradigm that school cafeteria food was actually prepared on location, and food sold to students was nutritious and substantial. But as I grew older, I realized that the meals became more and more artificial. When I heard that BTHS was going to have a cafeteria, I expected a sophisticated, healthy cafe, with a salad bar, soup and sandwiches prepared fresh. High school students require nutritious fuel to work hard during the most crucial part of education thus far. However, I was incredibly disappointed and extremely shocked to find a Sodexho sign at the lunch line. The paradigm was that authority (especially teachers who act as role models for students) cares about and takes action to promote the health of young adults. However, there was a huge paradigm shift for me to find that it was not necessarily true that people of higher positions made the best, educated decisions. Watching the documentary "Supersize Me" supported the paradigm shift that cheap, tasty food is not at all healthy, and also supported that decision-making individuals are uneducated in care of young adults. Therefore, I, along with most educated individuals in the community, say out with the frozen, artificial junk, and in with the fresh, natural fuel! This is clear evidence of a paradigm shift in my own life, and in the community.
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You make some really interesting points. It's so often disappointing when your expectations don't match reality.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, I don't know that the school has necessarily made a poor decision in having more pre-made foods, but rather, they've examined the way to balance taste, healthiness, and cost with the notion that we have 1 main cafeteria worker who feeds everyone in the whole school. If she were making everything by hand, she'd probably have to arrive at the school at 3 in the morning. Fresh, whole foods are best, but they're also quite expensive and time consuming to prepare. If people can't afford to buy lunches every day, then it doesn't matter how healthy the choices are. If they don't taste good, there's a higher chance that people will find other things to eat, so again, it wouldn't matter how healthy the choices are.
Healthiness does come into play at some point (there are healthful choices in the lunch line, after all), but it's probably not the only priority. There are certainly some positive choices, like not selling soda or traditional fried chips (most of the choices are baked), and always offering some kind of salad and fruit option. This is worlds better than what cafeteria food looked like when I was younger.
For this class, never forget to include other perspectives as you draw your conclusions. That said, it's also great to hear your perspective on this. There are certainly some cafeterias out there that offer the kind of food that you're looking for, but don't expect to see this until you're off in the corporate world or some universities -- and expect to pay about 3-4 times as much for it.