Comments on: The Lunchroom Rebellion

By: Mollie the Wonder Dog

Mollie the Wonder Dog — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:49:34 +0000

WELL, THERE CAN BE NOTHING LIKE COMING INTO A BLOG A COUPLE OF YEARS LATE IN THE PIECE, BUT NEVER MIND.

A FEW USEFUL COMMENTS, IF IT’S STILL PERMISSABLE TO MAKE THEM:

1) FIRSTLY, HURRAY FOR YOUR EFFORTS,
AND, TO LEND SOME BALANCE,
2) I THINK THERE IS NOTHING AT ALL WRONG WITH GRILLED CHEESE, NOR DOUBLE HAMBURGERS FOR THAT MATTER, PROVIDED THAT THE CHEESE IS BONA FIDE, THE BREAD HEALTHY, THE “GRILLING” not DEEP-FRYING, AND THAT THE MEAT IS PRIME USDA BEEF, LOW ON FAT AND WITH FLAVOUR TO BRING IT UP TO BURGER-MAKING PAR.

WELL, IN THE BATTLE AGAINST OBESITY AND LOVE OF FOOD WE ARE ALL OFTEN WELL-STEEPED; EQUALLY SO, IN THE FIGHT TO MAKE PROPER OR IMPROVED FOOD CHOICES.

TO COIN A PHRASE, IN BOTH MATTERS, “GARDE LA FOIS GRAS!”

MOLLIE THE WONDER DOG, JULY 2009

By: time for dinner « salty femme.

time for dinner « salty femme. — Thu, 03 May 2007 20:33:49 +0000

[...] In August, the NYT magazine visited the issue in the School-Lunch Test. Last month, the education issue of the New Yorker Magazine came out, and in it was an article about another attempt at alleviating the “school lunch problem,” detailing efforts to improve school lunches at a few Berkeley public schools. The Lunchroom Rebellion profiles chef Ann Cooper, who revamped the lunch program at a private school in the Hamptons and was then hired to work on lunch in Berkeley. And just yesterday, the NYT summarized the same issue as it is taking shape in England (Glorious Food? English Schoolchildren Think Not). [...]

By: maureen

maureen — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 13:24:14 +0000

Thank you Ann! My children attend a small, catholic school where the parents work daily as volunteers. It kills me to see how this “food” is made. The government cheese is practically plastic and they want 3 slices per sandwich?!? We have a new program in place this year, but the government regulations and cost prohibit truly healthy food from being served. Keep up the fight.

We all need to get on board to change the regulations in 2009. We spend far more on a war that is unjustified than we do to feed our children. This is crazy.

“I want Oprah to pick this up! I want school lunch to be an election issue in 2008!”
I will write to the Oprah show today and ask friends to do the same.

By: MetaFooder » Blog Archive » Renegade Lunch Lady

MetaFooder » Blog Archive » Renegade Lunch Lady — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 18:49:22 +0000

[...] The Lunchroom Rebellion prevously in the new Yorker, archived by a helpful blogger. Cooper, who calls herself “the Renegade Lunch Lady,” was hired last fall to revamp the city’s dismal school-lunch program. She is small and tightly wound, with shoulders bunched from lifting weights. She has bright, defiant eyes, unruly brown hair, and a raspy alto that tends to break when she gets excited. In the kitchen, she moves with quick, stiff-legged strides, nipping at heels, barking out instructions, and sending her large, slow-moving colleagues into bewildered stampedes. She is, in short, a typical chef, landed in a world where real cooking is almost unknown. [...]

By: T. from CT

T. from CT — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 22:08:05 +0000

Ann, I absolutely applaud what you’re doing! I especially like that you go to battle against the craziness of how the government works with its stupid subsidies, stupid rules, conflicts of interest. Bravo!

I really like your attitude:
* “I never met a rule I didn’t want to break,” she says. “Especially stupid rules.”
* “I want to sue the U.S.D.A.!” I’d heard her say, her eyes gleaming.
* Last year, schools got about seven hundred million dollars’ worth of meat and dairy products, and less than two hundred and fifty million dollars’ worth of vegetables. Cooper blames this imbalance on the Department of Agriculture, which uses the program to buy up farm surpluses and stabilize prices. “The U.S.D.A. is the marketing arm for agribusiness,” she said. … “How many ways can you say conflict of interest?”

THANK YOU!

By: Dee

Dee — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 19:48:31 +0000

Keep going and hang in there! I love your attitude and I love your perseverence. It’s tough now but revolutions take time. I have a 4-year old and it’s not easy. Does he eat ALL of his vegetables? No. If he had a cheeseburger on one side and a salad on the other, I guarantee he’d take the cheeseburger. But he eats fruit like there’ll be shortage one day, has never had white bread at home, and does eat some vegetables. I look forward to the day he’ll eat broccoli (he tells me he will when he’s grown up – you know, at 5). But for now I’m thrilled that there are people trying to make changes and improve school lunches so that maybe (just maybe) it will be better than it is when he gets there. Thank you.

By: Diane Darby

Diane Darby — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 12:04:40 +0000

Dear Ms. Cooper,

Thank you so much for taking on the daunting challenge described in the September 4th’s “New Yorker”.
You are doing very valuable work. Unfortunately, it looks like you can expect to be rewarded only by the intrinsic worth of what you are doing, and the joy of knowing that those kids you are serving are being nourished much better than they ever have been before.

It is so exciting to see an idealistic person really make a positive difference in this all too exclusively material world, a material world where “fried shapes” are increasingly the main ingredients.

Thank you again, and I hope you can gather all the troops you’ll need to continue and expand your mission.

And to Alice Waters, who is paying your salary;

Please Ms. Waters, keep paying it!