Tribal school lunches - Montana

[peacetraveler22]

There's a certain childhood rite of passage I never experienced - eating cafeteria lunches. I attended a small, religious school from 5th - 12th grade, surrounded by the same faces until graduation. There were rarely new students who transferred to the school, no new boys to flirt with, or mysterious strangers who suddenly appeared at the desk beside me. In one word, I would describe my school experience as boring. The same can be said of my daily lunches, which my mom diligently packed every morning. Usually, the lunchbox consisted of a peanut butter or ham and cheese sandwich, some type of chips and a piece of fruit. I always envied kids who had the joy of entering the canteen each day to have old ladies with hairnets shovel different food onto their tray, sometimes completely inedible and sometimes a fun game to guess what the mystery meat or slop was. It all seemed very exotic and exciting for someone who was insanely bored being around the same kids and learning environment for so many years.

During my visit to the Native American reservation in Montana last week, I met with a teacher at the local tribal school and ate with the young kids in the cafeteria. The tribe would not let me photograph the students for privacy reasons, but you can see they are eating healthy and tasty lunches. Salad with tomatoes, two servings of fresh fruit, a roll and some type of spicy soup with black beans, corn and ground beef. Btw, last week someone scolded me for using the term Native American "reservation," implying that this is a derogatory term. Perhaps this is the case in Russian, but in English this word has no negative connotation. It is used to refer to the sovereign lands upon which Native American tribes now live in various parts of the U.S., and the Indians I met also referred to their home as "the reservation." Next week, I will write a big report about their lives.

What was your favorite meal? :) Do most Russian children bring packed lunches from home, or eat in the school canteen?

Comments

[rina-grant.livejournal.com]

I used to study at several Soviet schools - most had hot lunches, but one only had a stall where students could buy snacks and hot drinks. But normally, even though food was of, well, institutional standard, it adhered to strict health and nutrition standards regarding the meals' caloric and nutritional content (% of carbs, fat, protein, etc.) It was boring but hey, don't get me even started on French hospital food (I had a few quality stays in French hospitals) - it's absolutely _abysmal_ .

Normally, Soviet-time school meals consisted of a soup (cabbage soup, borsch, chicken noodle, whatever), a second course (usually meat patties, gulash, stroganoff with buckwheat, potatoes, pasta, etc, on the side); sometimes it was - oh horror - fish, always fresh-water with lots of bones in it; I still can't stand fish and it takes all my willpower to eat it when I absolutely have to. It was followed by a very primitive "dessert" - normally a sweet drink like "compote" (a drink of stewed dried fruit) ot "kissel" (runny fruit jelly). No fresh vegetables, but then again, not many Soviet Russians had them out of season, anyway: they simply weren't available. Lots of black and white bread for students to help themselves. The food was extremely basic and tasted bland and institutional but it was sufficient and definitely not as junky as all those horrible deep fried school meals I saw in Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. The meal on your photo actually looks very healthy. Which is a very good thing, considering the obesity epidemic among Native Americans.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the detailed answer. :) Yes, there is an obesity epidemic amongst Native Americans, and a lot of prevention measures and propaganda to avoid diabetes. I saw it on the reservation.