The Best of School Food (And What it Says About Our Standards)
By Deborah Lehmann —

Here’s what the USDA considers a gold-standard school meal:

Entree: Waffle sticks with sausage and syrup OR Jumbo Corndog OR Fiesta taco pocket with taco packet OR Peanut butter and jelly or yogurt with fruit and nut mix

Sides: Cheetos Cracker Trax or Shape Up, raisins

Fat-free chocolate milk or 1% white milk

Salad bar

That’s what students ate last Thursday in California’s Manteca School District, which recently won Gold certification from the USDA for serving healthy school meals. To win the award, schools need to exceed 70 percent participation for lunch and meet additional nutrition standards. For example, they need to serve a different vegetable every day, including dark green or orange vegetables and peas or beans.

The regulations are sensible enough. But I’m still trying to understand why America’s award-winning school lunches include Cheetos and jumbo corndogs…