fed up with lunch: the school lunch project

--soapbox begin--

Brace yourself!  Yes, this is another food related post, but I stumbled across something tonight that I just have to share.  I was on Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution page and found a shocking blog about school lunches.  It's called "Fed Up With Lunch:  the school lunch project".  If you have children, want children, love children, or even think that they should exist, you should check this blog out.  

Authored by an anonymous teacher named Mrs. Q., this blog and this teacher aim to reform school lunch.  For the last year or so, she has been eating and documenting what is being served in the school lunch cafeteria.  Menus range from shocking to eh, not so bad.  But I admire this woman for taking a stand and for advocating for reform.  Why must we reform school lunches?  Take a look at these tasty meals:

As you go through the blog you will notice that some of the lunches aim to incorporate fruits and vegetables.  They don't look SO bad.  Bravo.  But take a closer look.  Notice how it is packaged.  How wasteful.  Each food item is served in a paper container sealed with plastic.   And take a look at the food.  Is it even real?  What are these lunches actually made of?  To me it looks processed, full of refined sugar, and cooked to the point where all nutritional value found within a normally healthy food has gone out the window.  

I realize that there are budgetary constraints within our public school system.  I realize that school cooks want to do their job well and provide their students with balanced meals but are limited by time, manpower, appropriate kitchen tools, and the lack of fresh ingredients.  I realize that not every family can afford to bring their own lunch to school.  My family was no exception.  I remember being envious of friends who would brown bag it.  They would bring the coveted Oreos, the bright bags of chips, and the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on soft, white bread.  (Looking back, those meal options might have actually been worse than what I was getting.)  The point is, however, I understand the limitations that schools and students face when it comes to a nutritionally balanced meal.

That being said, what do we do?  Your first reaction might be to do all that you can to ensure that you are packing your child's lunch.  And that's a good step.  As a concerned parent or guardian you have the right, and if I may be so bold, the responsibility to ensure that your child has nutrionally sound food available to him or her.  What happens, you ask, when they go to school and the infamous lunch trading begins?  This is where meals at home come into play.  By creating a culture of healthful food in the home, kids will hopefully have a natural inclination to seek out that which is healthy and familiar.  It's not going to happen all of the time.  Kids are kids.  But if they are accustomed to and enjoy "go foods" (foods that help them "go" and provide energy) as opposed to "slow foods" (foods that are heavy laden with sugars and that are engineered), the chances of them choosing better, increases.

So what now?  You've resolved to continue or to improve upon healthy meals at home as well as your children's lunches that they take to school.   Great!  What else is there to do?  PLENTY!  I feel very strongly that while it is important to take care of our own, it is also equally important for us to figure out how we can help others...especially those that don't have the same types of resources.  Reading this blog almost made me cry.  Not because the writing was especially touching or profound, but rather because I thought of the hundreds and thousands of kids that need to eat school lunches and are basically being served frozen, packaged meals, day in and day out.  Sure, they provide some burnable calories.  Sure it meets the USDA's poor standard of a "balanced meal", but shouldn't food be so much more than meeting a govenmental standard and filling a calorie quota?  Shouldn't it actually be providing nutrition, vitamins and minerals found in whole forms of food, sustainable energy?  Doesn't every child have that right?  YES!  But in order for that to happen, people need to take a stand and speak up.  Change doesn't happen unless we demand it and actually take the steps toward change.

You don't have to be a professional lobbyist.  You don't have to have ties to the government (although that might help).  All you have to do is spread the word and let your voice be heard.  Write letters to the editor, comment on blogs that get a lot of traffic, share impactful Youtube videos on your Facebook page, twitter about a fantastic new site that you discovered, give your legislator a call, write your senator, reach out to the USDA, and most importantly, advocate in your local school district.  Meet with the principal, the superintendent.  Contact the Department of Education and let them know that you want change.  Again, nothing will happen without us taking action.  So get fed up and make a change!

--end soapbox--