Back when I had a little boy in kindergarten, I fixed lots of ham sandwiches. He’d trudge up the lane after an exhausting morning of educational captivity, and I’d ask what he wanted for lunch. The answer never changed: ham “samwich.” That, along with a glass of milk and some carrots or apple slices, would help him recover from the hard business of sitting still and listening all morning.

By my standards and his, that was a good lunch. It had protein, calcium, fiber and vitamins. At the same time, he liked it, so he ate it. By the school lunch standards of the Obama era, it wasn’t such a good lunch, however. The milk was 2%, not fat free. The sandwich bread was not 100% whole grain, and the ham had too much salt.

During the years my children were in school, they sometimes bought lunch at school, but more often they packed their lunches. Usually the decision to buy or pack had more to do with recess and socializing than the food itself. In elementary school, they figured out that if they packed, they didn’t have to wait in the lunch line, so they could eat quickly and go play. Later on, they wanted to eat with their friends, so they’d coordinate their lunch selections with their friends.

Whether they were packing or buying, I figured my kids were getting a reasonably healthy lunch. In this country, most of us agree that’s something all kids should have, even if their own parents don’t or won’t provide it. What we don’t agree on is what those hungry kids should eat.

Ever since the Great Depression, the federal government has been helping pay for school lunches, leading to some nutritional recommendations that make sense only in a bureaucracy. During the Reagan administration, for instance, ketchup became a vegetable. More recently, the Obama administration decided sugary flavored milk was still OK, but it had to be fat-free. Now that we have a new presidential administration and secretary of agriculture, the National School Lunch Program is creating controversy again.

According to Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue, kids won’t eat whole-grain grits with little black flakes. He says he’ll let local school districts have more flexibility in deciding what foods are appropriate for their students. Former First Lady Michelle Obama, who advocated for stricter nutrition standards during her husband’s administration, responded by saying, “Why don’t you want our kids to have good food at school? What is wrong with you, and why is that a partisan issue?” Surprisingly, after eight years in Washington, she doesn’t realize that if the federal government is involved, spending our tax dollars, any issue becomes partisan.

If it were up to me, no unfortunate school children would be fed grits, with or without black flakes. Also, ketchup would never again be classified as a vegetable. After all, tomatoes are technically considered fruits. Most importantly, parents, not the president, would be in charge of what kids eat for lunch. In my experience, you can’t go wrong with a ham sandwich. 

Keck writes from her farm in Raymond, Ohio.