June, 2020
Lincoln – The 11-Worth Café in Omaha has been much in the news.
Two of us stopped in for lunch there a few years ago. Our kind of place, we thought. And not far from the house on Mason Street once owned by our ancestors who moved there from Polk County.
We were seated in a booth near a table occupied by two young, thin girls under ten years old and their very wide-bodied grandparents. The grandfather ordered tall frothy shakes for them all, along with a huge pile of salty french fries. He then demonstrated how to dip the fries into the shake: "This is how to eat your fries."
It was enough to make me want to intervene with "Do you want your granddaughters to grow up to look like you?" But I didn't.
When it came time for us to order, I asked for an omelette. "What do you want with that," the waitress asked, "hash browns or fries?" "Could I have some greens?" I replied. "What do you mean, greens?" she asked. "You know, cole slaw, peas, beans, any green vegetable," I suggested. "We don't have those," she explained, "that's not what people want here, so we don't have them." "How about lettuce?" I asked. "I'll see if we have any," she said. She brought out a pale wedge of iceberg lettuce, brown around the edges.
Sometimes we eat lunch in Omaha at the Union Pacific public cafeteria at 14th and Douglas. UP pays attention to employee "wellness" and therefore has a wide variety of fresh foods available. We can't help but remark that that the 11-Worth customers will likely have a shorter life expectancy compared to the UP cafeteria customers.
Along comes the coronavirus pandemic. Who will succumb to it? I'm afraid the 11-Worth regulars are likely to be at much higher risk.
The reason the 11-Worth Café is in the Nebraska news is not nutrition but the "Robert E. Lee" breakfast dish on the menu, which prompted questions of racism. Protesters objected, a social-media war ensued, and the owners closed down.
The relationship between nutrition, Covid-19, and race never came up for discussion, as it might have. They are interrelated.
I was disappointed in a recent Washington Post Outlook op-ed that downplayed the role of nutrition in Covid-19 incidence by race. Those in lower socio-economic classes who live in areas not well served by fresh-food grocery stores and cafés are going to be more susceptible to pandemics; that includes many African Americans. The unfortunate tone of the op-ed was that those who look at the role of nutrition in Covid-19 racial disparities are somehow engaging in "junk science" and the focus must stay on the symbols of racism, like the naming of a dish. But better nutrition is doubtless one of the keys to fighting pandemics on behalf of all, and would help reduce disparities both by race and by social class.
A happy ending to the story of the 11-Worth Café would be a re-opening without the Lee name on a dish and with a healthier overall menu.
