Here is a no thank you helping.

This was the dreaded phrase around the family dinner table when I was growing up. In my case, it always seemed to come into play with green peas, liver and scrambled eggs.

I once managed to get away with putting two green peas on a spoon and passed it off with my mother as meeting the “no thank you” criteria. I was never successful with liver, which I have since learned is high in cholesterol in addition to simply not tasting good.

I used to think my dislike for certain foods was simply establishing my right as a young person not to like something which didn’t taste good. Now I have taken it as a challenge to try different foods and see if they actually are worth getting to know before passing judgment.

Scrambled eggs, tomatoes, zucchini, and sushi are all things I hated at one time.

All are foods I have learned to like since I graduated from high school in the early 1990s.

I am now one of the Gaffney residents who is actually excited about a new sushi restaurant locating in downtown Gaffney. This could eliminate my monthly 25- minute drives into Spartanburg for cucumber, smoked salmon and eel rolls and edamame beans.

I realize my interest in sushi might be confined to esoteric (select) individuals and writing about this subject is a moot point. Some people would say eating a bite of sushi will only deepen their inimical (unfavorable) opinion about this Japanese delicacy.

But I will simply stop with these fancy words, especially since we aren’t playing Scrabble today.

There are really only two things keeping kids and adults from broadening their horizons in learning to appreciate food — a lack of knowledge and unwillingness to try new things.

Children are allowed by their parents to obsess over this whole idea of “Will I like this?” instead of being encouraged to experiment in the interest of developing a well-rounded diet.

I witnessed this firsthand on my beach trip this past weekend. I watched otherwise healthy kids skipping breakfast and lunch only to snack mid-afternoon on ice cream cones and become grouchy before dinner time arrived.

Now I enjoyed my chips, ice cream and snacks when I was growing up. However, I grew up in a time when family meal times were considered important and eating three square meals a day was expected.

We are right to be concerned about childhood obesity in South Carolina at a time when an estimated 1 in 5 children is considered overweight. Yet we should also make sure kids are eating right and developing healthy attitudes about food at an early age.

Health reports indicate children as young as 5 yearsold are becoming concerned, even obsessed, with their weight and shape. Eating disorders and unhealthy attitudes about food are becoming more common in young children and teenagers.

My friend Aaron and I had our own way of dealing in high school with the no thank you helpings forced on our plate by concerned parents.

We held backyard vegetable basketball wars where the loser had to eat their least favorite vegetable at dinner in front of the other.

My motivation was the horror of staring at a plate with green peas. Aaron was playing basketball to avoid a date with broccoli.

This was our way of raising the stakes and motivating each other to win an otherwise friendly basketball game.

A different prize is on the line for children attending school today.

The social consequences for hungry children was a regular theme in the recent debate on the Cherokee County School Board about whether to privatize its food service. A couple of school board members pointed out school lunch is often the only meal a student is guaranteed with parents working during the day.

The school district has made it a policy to make sure all students are allowed to eat a regular school meal whether they can afford to pay for it or not. As of May, the school district still had $70,000 in unpaid student meals.

This large uncollected balance is among the reasons the school district projected a $900,000 deficit in its food service department this school year. While the district has made several efforts to collect on unpaid meals, there is an unwillingness to allow this to keep students from going hungry in school.

Maybe the hunger issue stems from educators’ need to assume social responsibility in schools for children when their needs are not being properly met at home and in the community.

The answer to childhood hunger and other social issues should not fall squarely on school districts, especially in South Carolina where state funding for a “minimally adequate education” has fallen to 1995 levels.

It’s one thing for a child in an upper class home in this state to have access to good food and discard it because their parents don’t make eating it a priority. It becomes a different story when feeding children becomes a part of the debate on how to balance a $60 million school budget.

Scott Powell (spowell@gaffneyledger.com) covers education issues for The Gaffney Ledger.