Imagine the world without anger, without greed. We have the power, the tools, the skills and the resources right now to build a peaceful world, where people live in harmony with the Earth and each other. This blog explores ways we are doing just that, one post, one change, one day at a time. Join me. Tell your stories. Ask for help. Spread your ideas for making the vision real and, well, ordinary.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Would you eat this?

School lunch: Yum or yuk?
Image courtesy Mrs. Q
It's very challenging to teach students when they are eating school lunches that don't give them the nutrition they need and deserve. Oftentimes what is served barely passes muster as something edible. And after a meal high in sugar and fat, they then must pay attention in a classroom.

Looks like this meal falls into the category of "food-like substances," as author Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food)In Defense of Food book coverlikes to say. Wouldn't you agree?

Mrs. Q, a teacher, got fed up with inattentive children who were hungry, hyper and ... hungry, especially after lunch. She decided to look into what they were eating. Then she took it a step further.

For the rest of 2010, Mrs. Q is eating the same school lunch her students, the majority of whom qualify for subsidized lunches, wolf down (or not) in the cafeteria every day. She's often hungry after lunch. Sometimes she's downright disgusted. She finds some of the food inedible. She says she would not feed this food to her toddler.

If we are going to build Ordinary, we need to pay attention to what we're feeding our children. The Fed Up: School lunch project is a good place to start.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.
All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

3 comments:

Hayden said...

I checked out her blog the other day and have to admit, I was laughing. Not at what the kids eat, but at the thought of adults having to do it. We should make our senators eat in a school cafeteria every day for a month - we'd see changes!

Wanda said...

Amen to what Hayden said.

Laughing Doodle 2022 said...

I agree Hayden. Everyone that has anything to do with funding for schools should eat the same lunch our kids do. I bet if they did, they'd only eat it once!

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