"my kids will never not ever eat a school lunch!"
last night one of my FAVORITE chefs of all time, Jamie Oliver debuted his series 'Jamie Oliver Food Revolution' on ABC. I have always been an advocate for REAL FOOD and seeing what is offered up in schools has been not only shocking to me, but as a parent I have vowed that until things change I will never not ever let my children eat a school lunch!
Firstly, that darn 'nutritional pyramid'...well frankly it's a monster created by the DOA to make us think that our kids need to drink copious amounts of hormone and anitbiotic laced milk, and eat poorly(I'm being generous in my wording here)farmed meat and produce. Well...no more! I signed the petition to support Jamie in his quest to improve the health, welfare and lives of our children...will you? Oh, and btw...my kids eat a balanced mostly organic diet, they are rarely ill, and I think thats a testament to the revolution! Oh, and what a dandy way to improve the health of one of the SICKEST most OBESE developed nations on the planet!
Start 'em when they are small and you will build a generation of people who care where the food they eat comes from!
13 comments:
At a local high school, the oil they use to fry various foods gets changed ONCE a year. There are moles and mice running through the cafeteria. This is a posh high school, too. Ick.
YES!!!!!
I send Kiara with lunch from home every single day for this very reason! She "BEGS" me to have school lunch...but that's a battle she will not win! ;)
I agree...Kiara eats so well, she is rarely sick & has a ton of energy! These are habits that must be started as young as possible!
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I used to think how nice it would be to not have to make a lunch for Ellie every day -- have her do hot lunch at school every once in a while. Yeah, not thinking that so much any more...
A couple of interesting links (love the TIME article):
http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1967060,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
I look at Edina's menu and just get depressed -- pizza, fatty pasta, burritos, etc. I would probably be ok with a wrap or salad in a pinch (but why only caeser salad - roughly the least healthy salad around?), but hey, I'm used to packing a lunch for her everyday, so why not continue. I think it's interesting that they note at the bottom of the page -- "Edina’s lunch menus meet or exceed the 2009 Dietary Guidelines which emphasize eating a variety of foods from every group in balance and in moderation."
http://www.edina.k12.mn.us/support/lunches/pdfs/menuMar10Elem.pdf
This is my real dream...
http://www.farmtoschool.org/
ps. she did eat apple slices and an organic banana today though :) with a half a peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread at that.
it's something, right?
i signed. but i suck at being 100% healthy in this household. it's an area i need to improve in, but working full time and caring for her, etc. well- it's tough.
The UK (with Jamie as the model) has a very simple slogan for parents - 5 A Day
That means in total a minimum of 5 fruit/veg a day - basically 2-3 fruits and 2-3 veg.
Jamie rocks, professionally and personally!
What kids get fed in schools is disgraceful. I was appalled when we had the foster children and I would hear what they got. Plus the small amount of time they get to eat is terrible. How can they even begin to digest what they've eaten. We try to do as much organic around here as possible. This year due to keevas digestive issues she has been making lunch everyday but thankfully being at a French school foo is a big part of the curriculum so the menu and quality of the food is very good ( http://fasri.com/FASRI%20March%20Menu.pdf). The chefs are local resturaunt owners and school parents so that works really well for our ability to have an input. I wish all kids could be so lucky. Food is so important for their physical development. I'll sign the petition!
I just checked the menu and it's probably the least exciting yet! Nice thing though, no meal is repeated twice across the year so that's good.
I completely agree with you. For some crazy reason people do not seem to give as much attention to this as they should. I just don't understand why people would not want to make their children as healthy a possible. We have only bought organic milk for the past year and a half and are making other organic changes in our diet too. It's only a small difference in price and so worth it to keep our kids as healthy as they can be. :)
Love this. He doesn't know it...he and Michael Pollan are totally my secret boyfriends.
Wow.....we recorded it last night and spent the morning watching it.....I never realized it was sooooo bad in the schools. And the kids still wanted the god awful chicken nuggets. Talk about conditioning. It almost reminded me of the people on the cruise in Wall E. Growing bigger and unhealthier, following along not thinking for themselves.
The other one to watch is Food Inc airing on PBS on April 21st. That should be a real eye opener!
I have recently watched Food Inc and the Jamie O show and that got me looking in to a lot of other things. So far, we do not do a lot of organic, but I cook mostly from scratch and my kiddos eat real food (and are also virtually never sick). Watching Jamie O, I knew my kids would have scarfed all those decent meals that he made that the school kids were throwing away. They would also eat the pizza though given the chance. ;)
I recently stumbled upon a blog about a teacher eating school lunches for a year and documenting it. Yuck. She has guest bloggers on sometimes and one was an American teaching in Japan and the comparison was amazing! They use table cloths, real dishes, kids serve each other and the foods are real and almost gourmet. The lunches are made and served with LOVE, possibly making the children feel loved and like they matter and are worth preparing a meal for. (reminded me of the Montessori standard a bit) As opposed to here. Just ugh.
Yeah, so you know, my kids are eating at home. But if they were in school, they would also take a lunch! However, that just doesnt help the kiddos who eat at school because it is free to do so and those are sometimes their only meals. So for our kids but also for them, we should still push for change!
I just posted about this tonight and I was going to tell you about it, but I should have known you are already on board with it (lol). He has badges you can download from his site too.
Hugs,
Jonni
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