Okay, so Jon and I just finished watching our first episode of Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution." Hubster's a real Jamie Oliver fan. He watches his cooking show on Friday mornings almost religiously. This is good timing for me as I've recently become a big fan of this blog about school lunches in America. It took us nearly an hour to get through the 1 hour program because we kept stopping the show to alternately get angry with/whine about/get excited about/ and plain ol' bitch about school lunches and the program. 
I almost posted a lengthy comment on the FedUpWithSchoolLunch blog today but left it with the fact that a guilty pleasure of mine to eat salisbury steak. But here's my thoughts on what I wanted to say . . .
I work in a small school district in a very rural part of California where a significant proportion of our students' parents work in some facet of the food production world. A lot of my kids grow up on ranches and farms (and even some of the teachers and their spouses farm as well) (did you ever wonder why almonds are considered a "ranch"? I sure do). Many of our students' parents are farm workers or migrant farm workers. Some of my kids' parents work in restaurants or own their own restaurants. (Hell, when Granzella's -10 miles north- burned down 2 years ago, it was on the Sacramento news because it was the largest employer in the county!!!) My superintendent started out teaching in our district way back-in-the-day at the small school on the outskirts where, as a teacher, she was one of the cafeteria ladies for the elementary students. So why oh why are my students eating mindless, boring, nutritionally pathetic and possibly psychologically damaging prepared pre-packaged and trucked in manufactured lunches (AND BREAKFASTS!!!)? California is a land of plenty, a Tir Na Nog or milk & honey if you will. We produce almost 100% of some of the food favorites of the country - like avocados and pomegranates and others. Why oh why do we resort to trucking in our lunches? I know we are trying to feed as mony as possible for as little a possible. Most of my students qualify for free/reduced lunch so obviously we are a higher poverty school. But there's no love in those meals. There's nothing in those styrofoam dishes holding some measly pieces of lukewarm and cello-wrapped entrees with half-ripe fruit that says "I care about you, want you to be successful, and am providing you with nurishment for the belly and soul."
Hell, it's no wonder my students can be little brats and barely get any learning in their brains some days. It's hard to feed the mind when we barely nourish their bodies. I really could go on about this for hours, but it's after midnight now and I probably should put my head on a pillow.
I almost posted a lengthy comment on the FedUpWithSchoolLunch blog today but left it with the fact that a guilty pleasure of mine to eat salisbury steak. But here's my thoughts on what I wanted to say . . .
I work in a small school district in a very rural part of California where a significant proportion of our students' parents work in some facet of the food production world. A lot of my kids grow up on ranches and farms (and even some of the teachers and their spouses farm as well) (did you ever wonder why almonds are considered a "ranch"? I sure do). Many of our students' parents are farm workers or migrant farm workers. Some of my kids' parents work in restaurants or own their own restaurants. (Hell, when Granzella's -10 miles north- burned down 2 years ago, it was on the Sacramento news because it was the largest employer in the county!!!) My superintendent started out teaching in our district way back-in-the-day at the small school on the outskirts where, as a teacher, she was one of the cafeteria ladies for the elementary students. So why oh why are my students eating mindless, boring, nutritionally pathetic and possibly psychologically damaging prepared pre-packaged and trucked in manufactured lunches (AND BREAKFASTS!!!)? California is a land of plenty, a Tir Na Nog or milk & honey if you will. We produce almost 100% of some of the food favorites of the country - like avocados and pomegranates and others. Why oh why do we resort to trucking in our lunches? I know we are trying to feed as mony as possible for as little a possible. Most of my students qualify for free/reduced lunch so obviously we are a higher poverty school. But there's no love in those meals. There's nothing in those styrofoam dishes holding some measly pieces of lukewarm and cello-wrapped entrees with half-ripe fruit that says "I care about you, want you to be successful, and am providing you with nurishment for the belly and soul."
Hell, it's no wonder my students can be little brats and barely get any learning in their brains some days. It's hard to feed the mind when we barely nourish their bodies. I really could go on about this for hours, but it's after midnight now and I probably should put my head on a pillow.
1 comment:
Well said. Now you have me craving some food that does say "I care about you, want you to be successful, and am providing you with nourishment for the belly and soul."
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