“Each day on our short walk to our town’s scuola materna, my son and I stroll past tiny yards brimming with tomato plants, squashes and citrus trees. A vine of kiwis adorns the entry to one neighbor’s home, and rows of olive trees dot a hillside nearby. Juicy cantaloupes in summer, ripe figs in fall — these are but a few of the mouthwatering choices my son enjoys every day at his Italian preschool.”
This is how Alyssa Blakemore, the wife of an American military serviceman living in Vicenza, begins her story. The text from the Michigan native was published by none other than The Washington Post. It is a narrative of the culinary experience during the six months spent in Vicenza.
She’s been “shocked at how well Italy feeds its schoolchildren compared with the United States - she writes in The Washington Post - American school lunchrooms prioritize convenience over quality. Though the Biden administration’s recent revamp of school nutrition guidelines cuts down on the sugar and sodium, ultra-processed foods remain in the mix. Italy has designed its school lunches with health and sustainability in mind.
” Mrs. Blakemore recounts how "students in many Italian preschools eat from a set menu, with no outside food allowed — so no bag lunches“ and “in either case, the children enjoy a healthy meal — Italian law restricts public schools from serving fried foods.”
For example, she explains, a typical lunch in an Italian public school consists of a first course, a main course, and a side dish.
"Meals are prepared with simple cooking methods to preserve nutritional value. Instead of corn dogs, french fries or potato chips, little Italian learners nosh on cod Vicentina with polenta, raw seasonal vegetables and creamed carrots with rice” and other dishes.
“That might sound a little refined for a 5-year-old, but there is an educational purpose at work. Early exposure to varied foods allows Italian children to develop diverse palates and drives healthy, lifelong eating habits. The Mediterranean diet, linked to lower risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes, is one of the healthiest in the world. Mediterranean diet can cut heart disease risk in women by 24 percent, report says.”
Alice Blakemore recounts similar culinary experiences lived by other military wives in Estonia, Poland, or the Netherlands. In any case, she points out that “Italy still has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in Europe.”
Does that mean those healthy preschool lunches are wasted effort? “I don’t think so. Italy maintains a significantly lower rate of adult obesity than the United States - about 40 percent of American adults are obese compared with just 12 percent of Italians.”
The story ends with a hope: “Italy's healthy and delicious school meals are preparing children for success: the United States could take inspiration from their recipe book.”