We live in a great school district and they do a lot with what little funds schools get these days. But one area that really needs help is the school lunch program. Our elementary school has one lunch lady who pretty much opens cans or pre-packaged foods for lunch every day. Sad, huh?
When I came across this video with Chef Ann Cooper (the “Renegade Lunch Lady”), I knew what I needed to do. I sent our school superintendent this email:
Good morning,
I have a health & nutrition website and am passionate about healthy food. I came across something that I’d love for you to look at:
Chef Ann Cooper page – be sure to watch the short video from 2/09 on ABC news.
“This is the first generation in our country’s history that will be dying at a younger age than their parents because of this obesity crisis,” says Cooper. “We have to change this. We don’t have a choice. We really have to make a difference.”
If they can do it, there must be a way we could pull this off here, too. Yes, it costs more, but it costs them more, too, and it’s still happening. I know we’re making cuts like crazy right now, so you’re probably thinking there’s no way this would work. However, in the video they said that since the more nutritious meals have been offered (no processed foods!), a lot more kids have participated, so the government pays the schools more money. I’m sure the answer isn’t that simple, but I still think that it’s at least worth looking into and finding out exactly how they make this happen.
As it is, only very rarely do we let our kids eat hot lunch, but if this program was implemented here, they’d eat hot lunch every day!
If I can get you more information or help to make this happen, I’d love to. Just say the word.
Thank you for your time.
(End of email)
- If you live in a school district where they’re doing a good job at feeding our kids homemade, local, whole foods, let us know how they afford it?! (“How can they afford not to?” This is a better question, I know…)
- Local readers: if our superintendent says he wants to look into this more, WHO WILL HELP ME? I’m sure it will take a lot of us working together to make this happen. Please comment or email to let me know your thoughts!
- Have you seen my other post about school lunches with ideas for healthy alternatives? There’s also a great story there about a school that saw radical changes after sprucing up their school lunch program: “Grades are up, truancy is no longer a problem, arguments are rare, and teachers are able to spend their time teaching.”
- One more video with Ann Cooper
- “Foodless Foods”
- More on kids’ school lunches & artificial additives.
- Concerned about kids diets?
- Do you know any overweight kids? OVERWEIGHT KIDS – 16 Ways to Help.
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Amy 07.02.09 at 8:09 am
Good job planting the seed, Kelly!
I will pray for the supt’s eyes to be open.
It’s promising to see that there are people out there changing the school lunch program. Schools and hospitals need a BIG overhaul.
God bless you.
Amy
Amy’s last blog post..Are We Really Being Honest About our Hunger?
Tina 07.02.09 at 10:50 am
That’s a really great thing you’ve done. My kids aren’t in school yet but I’ve always known I would send them their lunch or have them come home for lunch. It would beneficial to have nutritionally dense lunches for the kids. Children who eat well do better academically and are less likely to have behavorial problems.
I’ve been reading your blog (along with Nourishing Gourmet and Cheeseslave) daily. I am so thankful that you three decided to do your blogs and so happy that I found them!
I have a question about butter and cream. I don’t know if you’ll know the answer but it’s worth a try. I get raw milk from a local farmer but to get the butter is $10 a pound. It’s a bit pricey for me although I’m sure it’s worth it. I get cream from my local health food store. It’s grass-fed, vat pasteurized cream. It’s $5.50 a quart. I figured I would make butter from that cream. But then I got to thinking – since butter is made from cream, couldn’t I just use the cream in my foods and get the same benefit that I would from butter? Or is it the process of whipping the cream into butter that makes butter so benefical for us to eat?
After reading Nourishing Tradition several months ago, I have become obsessed with getting the most nutrition from the food I feed my family.
Thanks!
Kelly 07.02.09 at 11:08 am
Perfect prayer, thanks Amy!
Hi Tina, that’s a great obsession you have!
Yes, you get the exact same benefit from cream as from butter – it’s just not easy to spread cream on bread.
Thanks for being one of my loyal readers, I appreciate you so much.
Kelly
elaine 07.02.09 at 11:31 am
Awesome post! My 7yo niece is a Type I Diabetic and I want my sister to see this!
Since we homeschool, I am the “lunch lady” and just trying to keep something healthy going all the time can be challenging. Thanks so much for the great ideas.
Ren 07.02.09 at 12:31 pm
This issue is near and dear to me- thank you so much for taking action and posting about it. Who knows, maybe we can even get USDA to subsidize healthy food one day!
Ren’s last blog post..Clean Your Plate Challenge
Raine Saunders 07.02.09 at 1:01 pm
Great post! I have been working on our school lunch initiative here in Boise, Idaho for over a year and there is so much resistance in our city (not that other regions don’t have the same problems). There was recently a big meeting with the school district a couple of weeks ago, which I was unable to attend due to being sick, but I’m hopeful that what occurred changed the minds of the rigid bureaucrats who control the school district. Last fall we also brought “Two Angry Moms” to Boise which has segments in it with Chef Ann Cooper (one of my heroes), and our school district still did not wake up. I don’t know what can occur to get through to these people, but I wish you luck in your city.
One thing that is important to note is that many of the communities who have already accomplished great things in their lunch rooms is that many of them did it WITHOUT raising costs (which is always the first objection school officials have about this matter) because they used their money wisely and supported local farmers and food producers. This often is cheaper or costs the same as having a bunch of processed foods shipped from all over the country.
I have a number of school lunch articles on my site. It is my hope that articles like yours and mine will inspire parents and other community members to make important changes in their own communities to make a better future for their children – they are so worth it! This next year, I am returning to home schooling my son (we home schooled for four years already), so we won’t be dealing with school lunches for the time being, but when he attended public school, I hand delivered his lunch to school, fresh, each day (of course we’re only a block away, but I felt it was worth it!).
Raine Saunders’s last blog post..ACTION NOW! USDA Ready to Approve Widespread, Risky Field Trial of GE Trees
Liz F. 07.02.09 at 2:12 pm
Hi Kelly… of course I would help if this iniative got off the ground in our school system. I don’t see myself chairing a large committee or anything like that, but I’m a great little worker bee!
Meahwhile, I’ll keep making my daughter’s lunch as healthy as possible!
Kelly 07.02.09 at 2:39 pm
Liz, you were the first person I thought of, hoping you’d be willing to help! However, I sent this last week and haven’t heard back yet…normally he’s great about returning email, though I suppose he’s probably on vacation.
Thanks for commenting everyone and sharing your thoughts – keep ‘em coming.
Sue E. 07.02.09 at 3:37 pm
Wow!! Great job Kelly!
I clicked on the last video clip from 1/04 entitled: View the clip of Ann Cooper and The Ross School as featured on the “Martha Stewart Living” television show, and it is so inspiring. Wouldn’t it be great to know our kids are eating healthy food for lunch when they order hot lunch? It is so challenging to pack the way we eat in bagged lunches.
Sue E.
Kelli 07.02.09 at 4:24 pm
Dying at a younger age than their parents? One more reason to homeschool.
Jeanne 07.02.09 at 4:39 pm
Liz and Kelly,
In the winter when I was doing lots of reading and researching on nutrition I read a couple of great books on school lunch programs.
I checked them out here at our little library. I haven’t come across the titles in my nutrition notebook, but if I remember them I will let you know. I would also be willing to do some grass root work on changing our school lunch program. My mom was a lunch lady in the 50- 80’s when all food was made from scratch in the school kitchen. Any questions you want me to ask her when I see here in a couple of weeks??
Sheree 07.02.09 at 9:15 pm
Wouldn’t it help save money if they used part of their playground to do a garden for the kids to help work on?
Mary 07.03.09 at 11:09 am
Kelly,
One other person to contact in the school district would be your district director of food services. This is someone that you need to get on your side to begin implementing even small changes. This person is also the one that will know the cost of items and where there are possible cost savings or even equal spending opportunities. In order to present a plan to your district, this person will have the information that you need to show the cost or savings of any changes.
With the economy as it is, you would be surprised at how many students eat their only meals of the whole day at school.
Kelly 07.06.09 at 12:03 am
Mary, that is so sad, yet I know you’re right. Hopefully I’ll hear something back soon from our Superintendent, and maybe he’ll encourage me to get in touch with the food services dept. I doubt they’ll listen to me without his go-ahead, though… Crappy carumba! I just remembered that the school changed all their email addresses recently, I’ll bet that’s why he hasn’t replied yet! I’ll have to go find it and re-send.
Sheree, you would sure think so!
Jeanne, I’ll be thinking of questions!
Kelly