Susan Rubin & The Two Angry Moms
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Menus are meaningless!
In the 12 years I’ve been advocating for better foods in my kid’s school, I’ve learned loads. For one thing, menus are meaningless! Recently I took a look at my middle schooler’s menu, saw a stir fry that seemed harmless and sent my child off to school with lunch money. She tells me that she had a giant pretzel, some noodles and a flavored water. Not exactly what I was hoping she’d have for lunch that day.
The week of October 15-19 is National School Lunch Week, sponsored by the School Nutrition Association. We’d like to encourage you to join us for a Lunch In during that week. Experience with your own eyes, ears and taste buds what your kids are doing for lunch 180 days a year. Click here for a check list and a humorous essay written by BSF Advisory board member, Kate Adamick.
Common sense will tell you that menus don’t mean much in any dining establishment. What matters is what the food is like when you sit down to eat it. As parents and advocates, we need to sit down and eat the food our kids are eating in school to truly assess whether it supports their health.
Last March, BSF board member Geri Brewster and I attended the Mayo Clinic’s Obesity Summit. We learned that most parents across the country have no idea what is being served in the cafeteria. The USDA encourages parents to visit the cafeteria and have lunch with their kids. This is truly the only way that parents can know for sure what their kids are eating.
You don’t need a degree in biochemistry or nutrition to know if the food being served in your child’s cafeteria is good to be eating on a daily basis. It’s really about common sense. Parents are the real customers in the cafeteria. We’re the ones who pay for lunch. Our bottom line is the health and well being of our kids.
We hope you’ll join us for the LUNCH-IN and tell your neighbors too.
Please send your stories and digital photos of lunch, both good and bad to photos@angrymoms.org As our kids get sicker and fatter, it’s time to start a national dialog about what is going on our school cafeterias. Parents hold the power to make a difference. See you at lunch!
[...] Take your Parent to Lunch Day: October 15-19 is National School Lunch Week. Our favorite "Renegade Lunch Lady," Chef Ann Cooper of the Berkeley Unified School District, suggests that parents visit their kid’s schools and see what they are eating all year long. (Chef Ann) [...]
Hi Ladies,
I have been outraged by the lunches our kids receive at school ever since my 3rd grader started school. I’ve always packed her lunch since day one for fear of what she might eat @ school. I’ve been wanting to start a crusade against our current school lunches and to make a change. Do you have some advise on how I can go about it?
Sincerely,
Andrea Ballard
Fishers, IN.
I was unhappy with the same lunch’s my 1 year old recieved in daycare. I have switched him to a daycare where parent’s provide the meals. We pack them everyday. I am really worried for when he is old enough to be faced with all the bad choices and pressures.
As a homeschooling mother and freelance health and nutrition writer, I am always appalled at what I see on the lunch menu at my son’s school. My son is dual-enrolled (or attends part-time) in the afternoons at our neighborhood school. Our homeschooling time occurs in the mornings, so he receives his daily meals at our home, before he goes to school. Because of the education I have given him at home, my 7-year-old son now understands the importance of eating good food and never asks to eat the hot lunch at school.
I would encourage parents to check into alternatives to just sending your child off to eating hot lunch everyday without a choice. Pack your child’s lunch if they attend school daily. If your state allows dual enrollment, check into homeschooling your child part-time so you have more control over meals. Push for food advocacy for the state you live in. I wish our school district or even our state was involved in school lunch reform. When they do, I’ll be one of the first people to head it up! This web site is great. Please keep up the fantastic work!
Sincerely,
Raine Saunders
Boise, ID
http://www.agriculturesociety.com
Thank you for your inspirational message. My son has been diagnosed with ADHD and I am aware that alot of his condition is related to diet. At home I do everything I can to make sure my children eat whole, nutritious foods. I have cut out HFCS, and as much gluten and preservatives as I can. My main problem is that I am a low-income single mother of four and my children receive free lunches at school.Receiving free lunches for my children has been a huge financial help, but I cant deny that I am so apalled at the junk my children are being fed. I want so badly to figure out a way to get my voice heard for the sake of my children’s health, where on earth do I start?My children’s school district is huge and I am not sure how to go about getting the administrators see the seriousness of this issue.
Thank you,
Alyria Salazar
Broomfield,Co.
I am happy to say that only six months after my original posting we are hosting the premier of “Two Angry Moms” in Boise, Idaho on October 15th at Timberline High School Auditorium (701 E. Boise Avenue) from 6 – 9 p.m. After much perseverance and hard work, as well as the generous support of community members and local businesses such as Earth Pure/Next Gen Vending and the Boise Co-op, we have brought this issue to the forefront of our school environment and are also working with people from our local lawmaking community to present a bill to the legislature this next session. Co-producer of the film Amy Kalafa will be joining us as well as other speakers from our local community. Our work and progress has been both challenging and exciting toward a positive end of bringing better food for our children and improved health for the future. Please join us if you are in the Boise area. For more information, please visit the web site below.
-Raine Saunders
http://www.agriculturesociety.com
I’m all for homeschooling. I was homschooled up till about the 6th grade. Went to public school only after my mother couldn’t school myself and three younger siblings and handel the household things when we were older. This is absoulty a wonderfull thing I have read about. I am now a young mother and even though my son is too young I am really considering homeschooling him if we are able to. Im all for this guys!!!
we live in one of those towns with a reformed menu–but from my view it is still crappy food– i just wish everyone could bring their own food — nix this wholeidea of a school cafeteria…..it is expensive and cool to eat the school food vs food from home…just one more opportunity to eat expensive crap IMHO.
wondering if we could just change that and somehow make it cool to bring food from home.