Salad Bars in Schools?
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 06.21.07
I must confess that I am more than a tiny bit skeptical, but schools in Lodi, California have decided to embrace the concept beginning in August. It's part of a plan to get kids thinking about healthier, natural choices, and actually getting them to make those choices when it comes to lunchtime. I certainly don't mind admitting that the snack line in my district is quite well attended, and that I'm not quite sure how my 8th graders would receive a salad bar at lunch either. But what if it included some of the ingredients grown in the schools own garden? I’ve read about plenty of schools that have their own organic, community gardens, and I'd be willing to bet that students who grew the stuff would be more willing to try it for lunch than if it just showed up at the salad bar on a Tuesday afternoon. Of course, the real elephant in the room on this issue is the level of hygiene both in and around the salad bar itself. I’ll give you an example that I think illustrates just how big an issue this really works out to be in schools… I recently gave an assignment to my 8th graders that asked them to read a brief article about how seals choose their mates, and then asked them to compare that process with how humans choose theirs in a one-page essay. What I expected was an analysis of how both groups went about the process, including things like flirting, dating, etc… But what I got, however, was an extensive list of the things my 8th graders considered to be most important in a potential mate. And while I instinctually expected that they would put physical appearance, social status, personality, and financial resources at the top of their lists, I was stunned to see that the number one issue for both males and females across every class I have was, in fact, good hygiene. It seems to me that if middle school students put good hygiene before everything else at a time when they are obsessed with the opposite sex, the actual level of hygiene is probably far more of a problem than even I might now expect. Hopefully the sneeze-guards in Lodi will be augmented with constant and vigilant adult supervision, enabling students to benefit from an otherwise terrific idea that could, in fact, gently nudge them to make healthier choices for both themselves and the environment.
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Our school has had a salad bar for quite some time. However, it's problem is that it is stuck in a corner of the lunch room that is very inaccessible during the high volume rush of people that come in. Therefore, most of the students just go for the less healthy main items and chips offered. :P
My Jr. High School had a salad bar. It was a life saver (seeing as I'm a vegetarian). As for how popular it was - it wasn't. I think maybe 3% of the school would use it on any given day.
My High School had a different plan for students that wanted salad, they had a sign up sheet that students could sign up for a salad, the only bad thing is that they took it down after first bell - and many students would forget, or not get a chance to sign up (more people ate salad in High School).
I think a salad bar is a great idea in a school - as long as the school is large enough that they won't be throwing most of the bar away at the end.
We have salad bars here in my school district in Houston. CFISD has like salad bars in middle schools and high schools. Plus, they really get crowded a lot at lunch, and they're looking to expand.
I like the idea of items from the salad bar being organically grown from the school's own garden, put many schools must go through evaluation (in Texas) to make sure that it's actually safe to eat. Testing every school's organic garden would be take too long, and is more work than it should be. But it could be possible one day.
I'm 26 and the public schools here (Lincoln, NE) have had salad bars since I was in 8th grade (13 years ago). They still have them, so there must be some demand for salads...
I went to High School in the 80's and we had a salad bar. And it seemed like it was mostly girls on diets and teachers who ate there.
I am 35, and my high school in West Virginia had a Salad Bar that functioned beautifully. It was on one side of the cafeteria and the hot food line was on the other. The lines split at the door. I can attest that there were almost always as many folks in line at the salad bar as there were at the other line. You payed by weight. This was 20 years ago in a fairly rural area! When are our modern more "health conscious" schools going to get with it? It is a great experiment to see, but it needs to be in every middle and high school in America.
salad abrs are a great idea