How did pizza, of all meals, come to dominate so many school lunch menus?
Financially, schools have to serve what appeals to the children. It’s become a tyrannical need, in a sense, because it’s very difficult for schools to take risks extending children’s awareness of food. If you serve something they’re not familiar with, and they decide not to buy the meal that day, it has a very negative impact on the bottom line. Pizza is also made with ingredients that don’t pose a food safety risk — that’s why so many schools are now using burgers that have been cooked in a factory and then frozen and sent to the schools and defrosted and reheated. That way the liability for any burger-related problem is at the manufacturer’s level. You blame children’s poor lunch eating habits partly on what you call the commercialization of childhood. Why? Well, when I was a child, kids didn’t have money. We got modest allowances for maybe a trip to the corner store once a week, but children today are major consumers in the economy, and the food industry realized that if they can e
