MOFB’s “Cut to the Chase”: Don’t apologize for purchasing protein for our kids, Mr. Secretary

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was recently criticized for not living up to the government’s goal of finding ways to get kids to eat more fruits and vegetables. The accusers point out the government agency only spends 23 cents of the school lunch program food dollar for fruits and vegetables, compared to 55 cents for beef, chicken and cheese.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack admitted mozzarella cheese accounts for the largest portion of the school lunch program’s food dollar. "Part of our challenge," Vilsack said, "is to figure out how to make the kids’ choice be the salad rather than the pizza slice." Good luck with that, Mr. Secretary.

When I was a kid, our elementary school had a monitor positioned by the window where we returned our trays – we were not allowed to go to recess until our plates were clean. It did not take long to learn to buy extra milk, as empty cartons held a great deal of asparagus, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and lima beans.

As I understand it, children have many more taste buds than adults, making foods taste stronger. It makes sense. Most of us remember many foods we hated when we were children and yet enjoy now. We cannot expect children to react to foods the same way we do.

In any case, I don’t think Secretary Vilsack should be an apologist for the school lunch program or how the money is spent. Foods with complete proteins cost more than fruits and vegetables, and therefore should have a larger share of the school lunch program food dollar.

Even if the USDA spent the entire school lunch program budget on fruits and vegetables, they could not make kids eat foods they do not like. The trick is to fix foods kids like that are as healthful as possible, like whole grain pizza with tomato sauce and cheese, and toppings including both meat and veggies, and then serve fruits for dessert.

If we are really concerned about what our kids eat at school, we should focus our attention on the vending machines, not on whether the USDA spends more money for proteins than for vegetables and fruit. Many schools receive revenues from companies selling candy, snacks and soda from vending machines in our school cafeterias.

(Denny Banister, of Jefferson City, is the assistant director of public affairs for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.)