Monthly Archives: April 2010

Guest Blogger: Meatless Monday

MEATLESS MONDAYS IN OUR SCHOOLS FOR OUR KIDS AND PLANET
By Elizabeth Puccini
I’m a Mom in the New York City Public School System, which serves 850,000 school lunches a day.  When my son started pre-K last September and I first took a look at the schools’ lunch menu, these were some of the meals I saw:  Chicken Nuggets, Sweet and Sour Pork, Hamburger, Beef Raviolis, Mozzarella Sticks, and Pizza.  I was struck that every meal on the menu was either meat or cheese based.  Animal protein, in the form of meat or cheese, is the main source of saturated fats, which raise the level of cholesterol in your blood thereby increasing your risk of heart disease.   I also knew that animal production for food consumption contributes more to global warming than all forms of transportation combined!  With 50% of children between the ages of 2-15 already having fatty streaks in their arteries (according to a study by The New England Journal of Medicine), what I saw was a menu that was making our children and planet sick.
In New York City parents can form a wellness committee at their school and request to meet with their SchoolFood manager from the Department of Education’s Office of SchoolFood.  The SchoolFood manager’s job is to try and accommodate parents’ requests regarding changes they’d like to see to the lunch menu.  Fortunately, my son’s school already had a wellness committee, and so I joined.  When the parents on our committee voiced our concern about the preponderance of meat and cheese dishes to our SchoolFood manager, and asked if we could have Meatless Mondays that would feature more plant-based meals, to our delight, he said yes.  We then received permission from the principals of our schools and, starting in October 2009, our schools were the first in New York City to have Meatless Mondays.
Since October, we’ve tried to expand the meals offered on Meatless Mondays and even had a taste test with our students to find out which plant-based meals they prefer.  For the month of April our Meatless Mondays feature vegetarian chili with rice, black-bean burritos, African gumbo and veggie burgers with a side of beans.  All these meals are cooked with fresh ingredients in our school kitchen.  We are still trying out other plant-based recipes, so that we have a medley of tasty, nutritious meals to offer our children.
Our goal now is to have other schools join us on our Meatless Monday campaign, because we believe all children should receive the health benefits of eating plant-based meals on Monday.  Meatless Mondays is also a great educational tool, because the first question a child asks when they hear about Meatless Monday is, “Why no meat?”  That question starts a conversation about why it’s so important to reduce our consumption of meat both for our health and the health of our planet.  The children at our schools have been extremely responsive to this message and have enthusiastically embraced Meatless Mondays knowing they are doing their part to reduce global warming.
If you’re a parent in New York City and would like your school to go meatless on Monday, please go to our blog nycgreenschools.org to find out how to do so.  The Baltimore City Public School system, which serves 85,000 students a day, already participates in Meatless Mondays, joining an international movement of individuals, organizations and cities making the commitment to lower their meat consumption and to enjoy a plant-based diet on Monday.  If you’d like your school to take part in this exciting campaign, go to meatlessmonday.com and contact them for how to get started.  I believe that together, school by school, classroom by classroom, we can make the difference for our children and planet.

Feedback and a sneak preview…

I’m looking for your thoughts. Since this blog has evolved into more than just a daily chronicle of school lunch at my school, I want your feedback on what you like, what you don’t, what you want more of and what you want to see less frequently. All comments that are personal attacks will be elited I mean deleted. Only genuine criticism please.

1) What’s your favorite thing about the blog?

2) What bugs you enough to want it changed? (I have already made a note of laying off the “paranoid” tone)

3) Is two posts per day too many? For example, oftentimes I have one guest blog and one daily lunch post per day. Sometimes I think it’s an overwhelming amount of content.

3) I try to have one “op-ed” blog post of mine per week. I think that’s just right. Do you want more?

4) Which guest blogs do you like the most? I have not solicited any guest blogs. I have been lucky that people contacted me wanting to be a part of the project. Are there a certain type of guest blog that you would like to see more of? Specific people that you want to hear from? I could try to actively seek out certain kinds of contributors.

5) Are the Saturday “Open threads” valuable?

6) Anything I’ve missed that you’d like to comment on?

Sneak peak of things to come:

  • Announcing my summer plans this week…
  • More specific advice about what you (teacher or parent in particular) can do
  • “Schoolyard confidential,” a new feature exploring teachers and the school environment

Guest Blogger: Homework and obesity **Updated**

**Update**
Hello from Mrs. Q! Our guest blogger “Jack” emailed me with a comment and I invited him to write a longer piece with his idea. And so that is what it is: his idea. I like welcoming different perspectives to the blog. I love that this blog post has sparked many comments and little discussions.

Even within my house, Mr. Q vehemently disagrees with “Jack,” whereas I believe that when we are trying to wrap our heads around big problems, we should question everything. Certainly TV and videogames are huge in our fight for children. Maybe I need more blog posts from the anti-TV and anti-videogame contingent (of which I am a card-carrying member). But aren’t we already familar with their negative influence? (If you want to enlighten me further, email me)

Thinking about homework, with its good and bad points, is a new way of conceptualizing its effect on children as it relates to obesity. I personally think busy work should not be given as homework. I like project-based work because what do you actually remember when you grow up? The research project you did on dolphins in fifth grade. And much of that learning sticks with you (in the form of facts about a subject). Critical thinking skills should be encouraged, not just filling in the blanks. But of course I send home rote homework too. Drilling basic concepts page by page can be very important for many learners, but parents need to be involved.

Thanks for all of your comments!
**End of Update**

Childhood Obesity: A Hidden Cause

First off, a thank you to Mrs. Q for inviting me “Jack” to write this post. I am not sure how many of you readers saw the article recently posted on Yahoo regarding school lunches, childhood obesity, and military recruiting. Most of the time when I read stories like this, I like to read through the comments as well. It gives me a better idea of what other people think about a particular issue.
One theme I saw in almost every comment was some variation of “kids need to stop watching so much television, playing Xbox and using the computer and go play outside.” This is a very valid point. With schools cutting back on (or eliminating) PE and recess, kids are getting less and less exercise. Obviously this is part of the problem, however it is not just about kids watching television and playing video games. There is another issue causing kids to spend less time exercising.
Many people forget that as kids are given increasing amounts of homework, more time spent being sedentary as well. That’s right, in my view HOMEWORK is a contributing factor in childhood obesity. To me, sitting on one’s butt is sitting on one’s butt, regardless of what is being done during that time. The thought didn’t even cross my mind until I read a column about it a few years back. My son is only 1 year old right now but when I asked my friends and relatives with school aged kids, their kids were averaging about 45 minutes-1 ½ hours a day doing homework; sometimes even up to 2-3 hours! What astounds me most is that I am hearing stories of kids in kindergarten and first grade being given homework. I can’t recall having any homework until 3rd or 4th grade. And even then, it was maybe 2 or 3 days a week. As these kids get older, there are more demands on their time (after-school activities, friends, chores, part-time jobs) but they are also being given higher amounts of homework, so they get even less exercise. Now, I am not saying that kids don’t watch too much tv or play video games too often, but that is only part of the overall problem. Kids need more time to run around and play and generally…well, be kids. Giving them more and more work to do will only hurt them in the long run.
All these factors, PE/recess being cut, school lunches, a lack of healthy eating habbits at home, a sedentary lifestyle, and probably some others I forgot, are conspiring to make our kids heavier and causing this increase in childhood obesity. We all, teachers, parents and school administrators, need to work together to try and curb this problem before it gets even more out of hand.

Open thread: Waste

With Earth Day having just passed, waste is an appropriate topic. I’m talking about food waste AND plastic and paper waste. It’s hard to see kids throw away parts of their school lunches. Sometimes it’s things they haven’t touched because there isn’t time to eat it and they just don’t like it. Not only is it a total waste of money, but there are people in our community who experience hunger and who could eat that food.

And then we’re throwing away so much plastic (sporks included) and paper. It’s mind-blowing when you consider how fast that adds up. And it’s all single use items that go straight into our landfills. What can we do?

Day 66: pasta

Today’s menu: pasta with meat sauce, green beans, breadstick, banana, milk

Delicious! I love pasta and the sauce has a uniquely appealing taste. Mr. Q asked me how it compares to a basic frozen pasta from a microwave meal. I think it’s better than a frozen meal, but Mr. Q finds that hard to believe. I wouldn’t change a thing about the school’s pasta at all. I even got a little giddy when I saw it was being served. And I used the breadstick to mop up the leftover pasta side.

The green beans were soggy and fell apart on the spork. I like a crisp green bean steamed for just a short while. I love a little crunch. Banana(!)

In a few minutes I’m going to be live-tweeting Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (last show of the season — don’t know when it’s returning). I don’t tweet spoilers in case you are watching it delayed. I really like watching the show (no surprise there). Live tweeting is fun because I can interact with people watching it at the same time. Join me on twitter if you are interested.

Guest Blogger: Another teacher steps up

Robert Courtemanche blogs as Teach_J at his site http://www.teachj.wordpress.com/. His blog focuses on teaching resources for journalism and media tech. teachers in secondary schools.  He has been teaching for 15 years and blogging for three. 

I’ve been enjoying Fed Up With Lunch for more than a month now and answered the call to guest blog.  I am really interested in the way that we decide what to feed our students and how often they eat the same meals.  And I also wonder about the healthiness of the meals we serve.
I chose to eat one day in the cafeteria.  I don’t usually do it, and when I do I take the option, like the Coach in Mr. Holland’s Opus, to cut the line.  At my school (a large urban public school in a metro area in Texas) we have exactly 26 minutes to eat lunch.  Coming from the world of television 15 years ago, I was appalled that I didn’t get an hour for lunch.

Unlike Mrs. Q, I got to choose my day and pick a day I might enjoy the food.  So, here was my lunch:  Potatoes Au Gratin, Foot-long Chilli Dog, Crispy Vegetables, a Red Apple and Strawberry Milk.  I could have had a Green Apple and Plain or Chocolate Milk as choices.  
I found the lunch of fairly good quality.  The potatoes were tasty, but a little watery.  I’m sure it is hard to make this for nearly 2,000 kids.  I’ve made this dish myself at home and had worse results.  The footlong was filling and not bland. I’ve had just as good hot dogs at many high school sporting events.  The veggies were cold and crisp and the apple still crunchy.  My milk was cold, but came in at 210 calories, which does seem a little high.  I think it is great that the label says fat-free (skim) milk, but also that corn syrup is the second ingredient.  Not so good.

I was able to chat via email with both the director of student nutrition and the secondary cafeteria manager.  They both mentioned the fact that our school no longer fries any foods, we use whole grains in many products and many items are made from scratch.  One of the healthiest options that are available are the pizzas made with whole grains, low-fat cheese and turkey pepperoni.  Sodas are no longer sold on campus and nearly all snacks are low-fat and reduced calorie varieties, such as baked lays chips.  
The quick three-week food rotation of the meals helps them with food costs and meal preparation training.  I know from when one of my newspaper students did a story on the cafeteria several years ago, the cafeteria is run on a not-for profit, not-for loss basis, by a contracted company.  Between the demands of federal and state mandates and the costs associated with running such a massive kitchen, the margins for error are small when it comes to cost overruns.  
After reading this blog and watching the ABC show Food Revolution – and now reading the emails from my district nutrition specialists – I’m more convinced than ever that the USDA guidelines are still messed up.  I think our cafeteria staff have nearly as many demands and mandates as we teachers do.  And they are under nearly the same kind of fire as we are.  Many of these directives seem to make it harder to cook healthy.  And if the government wants to get serious about healthier lunches, then the funding must come too. 

Anonymity, ads, and Mr. Q

Anonymity revisited

Thank you to the readers who support my anonymity. To those who are offended by my paranoia, well, it is what it is. If I get found out, the project collapses AND things get very hard for me professionally. However, when the project is over, I will out myself. I want control over when my own identity comes out. I would like to be the one to tell the principal versus being called to the office and questioned like a criminal. In either scenario, wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation?

So if I seem paranoid now, it’s because I feel like the project and the blog hinge on me not being found out. But once I’m not eating school lunch every day, I will come out, take any potential lashes, and move on with my life.

That being said, I’m going to try to be a little less paranoid.

Ads

I still am not crazy about the ads. I put ads on the blog mid-March. I was torn about it, but I did it. I find the Adsense ads to be unobtrusive, but my husband thought I should try an in-text ad company called “Infolinks.” Mr. Q thought that the in-text ads were even less obtrusive than Adsense. So for about two weeks those were up. But I didn’t like them that much and when I received a very nice email from a reader about how the infolinks are annoying, I removed them. 

Unfortunately having ads gives the impression that I’m doing this “for the money.” Well, that is not true. You should know that I haven’t even gotten a cent off the ads thus far and when I do it won’t be that much. Just to make things perfectly clear: I want to donate ad revenue when I finish the project. I’m not rich and could use the money, but I want to do the right thing. After I cover my expenses (I do pay for the school lunches every day), I would love to be able to make a donation to my school for equipment in the lunch room. We’d have to make sure they can accept it due to school rules and district regulations (sad but true). How cool would it be to make enough money with the blog to be able to buy my school a salad bar? Then we’d have to fill it with salad…but I can dream!

Mr. Q

A twitter follower @allysm wanted Mr. Q to do a guest blog post. I laughed, but I asked Mr. Q what he thought and he said, “Sure, I’ll think about something to write.” Let me tell you this because you don’t know him — there is a lot he could say.

Mr Q wants to change it up and decided he wants to take questions from the readers. Here’s your chance to ask Mr. Q anything you want! Please put questions below in the comments.