Friday, December 03, 2010

The Politics and Passions of Lunch

The food buzz this time of year is all about those high-pressure holiday meals, with emotions ladled generously as gravy, but I invite you to dwell for a few minutes on a more humble meal – the daily lunch.  Of all the American meals, lunch has the homeliest name, and the most incendiary politics.

Food first, and then politics.  Let’s wander down memory lane, shall we?  [wavy dream sounds].  Can you picture your elementary school lunchroom? The clatter, the linoleum, the squirrelly kids jostling in line for milk.  And now conjure the aroma—part over-cooked green beans, part scorched meat-balls, with accent notes of disinfectant and those minty anti-barf granules from the janitor’s closet.  Are you with me?

Now picture what’s on the table in front of your elementary-school self:  Maybe a so-called hot lunch, with Salisbury steak sauce thickening like glue on your plastic plate?  Or maybe you, like me, were a lunch pail-toter, importing evidence of your private life for the judgment of your peers.

Now, I loved bringing my lunch, and remember the thrill of choosing my first lunchpail in 1972, which advertised the psychedelic kids’ TV show, the “Curiosity Shop.” Squeak open those tin hinges, and there lay my family’s unconventional attitude toward food.  While my schoolmates were munching Technicolor PB&J sandwiches on Wonderbread, my lunchbox revealed my mom’s early Seventies devotion to Jane Brody’s Diet for a Small Planet, which committed her to slow-rise grains in that age of instant Jell-O.  So, the sandwiches in my box were often rough brown bread spread with a brooding gray paste of chopped black olives and mayo – delicious, certainly, but straight out of an Edward Gorey cartoon.

My eccentric lunches made me feel a touch superior, frankly, until a new French student named Cyril turned our 3rd grade upside down by importing to our cafeteria smelly, unrecognizable cheeses, and deep purple grapes with SEEDS in them!  Now, in my Colorado suburb, we knew grapes were pale green and seedless, just as salad was a wedge of iceberg with thousand-island sliding down the side.  But this young Frenchman, with a shaggy foreign haircut and aquiline nose, knew how to suck in those wine-colored grapes and spit the seeds invisibly into his curled fist – oh, la-la! – all while winningly repeating our names in his gorgeous accent.  With a zing, I understood that food is passion, and a portal to the unknown.

And that French connection brings us to the politics of lunch, since food activists have been comparing the nutrition, taste, and cost of French school cafeterias with the high-calorie, low food-value of American counterparts, to show we should do better. Parents and food reformers have been working to revolutionize the National School Lunch Program, with a “No Lunch Left Behind” understanding that nutrition is connected to learning, to lifelong habits, and to the cost of health insurance.  (Think type-2 diabetes.) Michelle Obama dug up a vegetable garden to demonstrate that kids can learn to love healthy foods if they’re introduced to them properly.  A voice of the opposition is Sarah Palin, who recently brought 200 sugar cookies into a grammar school in Pennsylvania, to protest a proposed state regulation to restrict sugary birthday treats in the classroom – which she Tweetingly described as the “nanny state run amok.” While some folks whine that food reformers are classist snobs, it turns out it’s not really more expensive or difficult to offer healthy food to our kids.  Food psychologists have proven, for example, that school kids will eat more fresh fruit if it is presented appealingly, in baskets near the check-out instead of hidden in bins near packaged sweets.

Finally, there’s the very personal politics of lunch-box packing.  As in: Who gets stuck with it at your house?  I love to cook, but I have plenty of company in hating lunchbox-packing duty, and maybe it showed.  By middle school, my kids suggested gently that they take over.  And, no surprise: they have a blast together, packing their wacky lunches with music cranking and creative juices flowing. With general guidelines to include protein, veggies, and fruit, they pack whole peppers and avocados to amaze their friends, and spiced chick peas to eat with chopsticks or an antique silver spring-loaded olive-grabber.  One daughter and her pals have instituted “picnic Fridays” at school, with everyone bringing an eccentric delight to share, whether it’s steamed, salted edamame, garlicky goat cheese on crackers, or private family recipes for pasta—all as mind-opening as my childhood encounter with sexy French Cyril and his seeded grapes.

With holiday gifts in mind, there are lots of snazzy, eco-friendly containers for bringing adult-sized lunches to work.  Just Google Bento box or Tiffin box to whet your appetite, and then head to your local fair trade store to purchase one.  Why wait for a holiday meal to practice pleasure?  A beautifully packed lunch is a gift you can unwrap every day … and, channeling your inner grade-schooler, it’s a chance to once again play with your food!

Broadcast by April Lidinsky on December 03, 2010 • WVPE's Audio Archive
Customs & Rituals • Food • Travel • Permalink • Printer Friendly
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