Monthly Archives: November 2010

Day 139: chili and paper ingredients

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Today’s menu: chili, tortilla chips, corn/carrots, fruit cup

Do you spy what I spy? Yep, a paper tray. I really couldn’t believe my eyes. I gasped. Styrofoam is the go-to when there’s a dishwashing issue or if the lunch ladies put together a lunch for me when they see me enter the cafeteria (before I grab an orange tray). I know, what service! I have to say that the plastic trays stack up quickly in my room and I don’t get back to the lunchroom that often…certainly not with a conspicuous stack of orange trays. On the other hand I have saved all of my styrofoam trays for who knows what (postcards possibly!).

I’m hoping that paper will be the permanent substitute for styrofoam when there is need for a back-up lunch trays. I’m thinking it’s way more expensive to offer paper, but at least it breaks down in a landfill unlike polystrene. Hip, hip hooray for paper!

The chili was good and easy to eat with the chips. Everything went down in about 10 minutes…or less. Today I was so immersed in my job that I forgot all about my internet-alter-ego. All of a sudden when there was a break, I remembered with a jolt, “Oh, I’m Mrs. Q…” I have to say that sometimes I just want to go back to normal…

In a big hurry today so I didn’t take a lot of pictures

I’m listening to the Omnivore’s Dilemma on audiobook while driving to work. It’s not for the faint of heart: the book is interesting, but I feel like it is exponentially more depressing than Food, Inc. He brought up labeling briefly and mentioned that some companies will print on packages “and/or” because it gives them latitude with ingredients based on cost. For example, if one ingredient goes up in price, they can use a substitute that is cheaper to maintain a consistent low cost to the consumer and without changing the packaging.
I thought to myself, “wouldn’t it be interesting if I could find a product with ‘and/or’ in the ingredient list?” Well, today was my lucky day in more ways than one!
“and/or”

It should be noted that chip bags, chocolate wrappers, and branded containers are not made at the same place as the food that they hold. In one of the cities I lived in as a child (I moved around a lot), there was a medium-sized printing factory (big employer for the community). When I found out that the factory printed things like Snickers and KitKat wrappers on big sheets of foil/paper/whatever but didn’t produce the chocolate inside them at the same time. I was young and it was one of many does-not-compute moments (picture: dog cocking head to one side).

We know it’s difficult it is to get ingredient lists for school food. They aren’t distributed to parents, they aren’t posted in the cafeteria, and they aren’t on the school district’s website. But then there are companies like Frito-Lay who print ingredient lists with “and/or” and they make it even harder for people with food allergies. I tried to do a google search for information about any food labeling acts. I feel like a couple years ago there was an act in front of Congress about more standardized food labeling, which was defeated due to food companies’ lobbying efforts. I could only find the FDA’s website. Labeling should be all about the end consumer, not a company’s convenience!

Open thread: Lunch with Mrs. Q

Open threads, ,

Blogging is great, but one of the downsides is that this is all my content and it’s one-sided. I put something out there and then readers comment. With comment moderation in place, most discussions rarely get much traction. I think we have created a decent-sized community, but your voices are constrained because I control everything on my own blog.

Let me backtrack a second and tell you about a conversation I had with a couple tweens/teens in my husband’s extended family who visited us this summer. They couldn’t stop talking about Nerdfighters. I’d never heard of this quite large and pretty cool social movement (doesn’t mean much that I hadn’t heard of it because I’m not very savvy about tween/teen interests). I looked into it and found Ning. Ning means “peace” in Chinese and they help people create social websites.

I’m launching a social network called “Lunch with Mrs. Q.” The URL is http://schoollunch.ning.com/

The perks:
1) You can start a discussion
2) You can write a blog post
3) You can comment freely
4) You can upload a photo or video
5) You can interact directly with others
6) You can chat online with members (and me when I’m online — I’ll go online most nights when I’m drafting blog posts).
7) We can create events or pre-planned times to chat online.

NOTE: Anyone can join but you abuse it and I will delete your profile, banishing you from the community.

Lunch with Mrs. Q has the possibility of being an amazing way to interact freely or a spectacular bust, but I wanted to give it a whirl. From now on, I will direct all open thread posts to the lunch community…so what is today’s open thread topic? Well, that’s up to you… see you over there later tonight!

Day 138: popcorn chicken and lunch lady conversations

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Today’s menu: popcorn chicken, peas/carrots, bread (kids took two slices), pear

I have to admit I was a little crestfallen to see the popcorn chicken. Like I’ve said before I try not to look at the menu to keep it a surprise as well as to approximate the experience of non-reading students, but they are posted in the school. I do pass menus posted right by the door of many classrooms and so I get a chance to see what is coming up. But I see the menu items’ names with unseeing eyes. The meals’ labels register for a split second and then they are forgotten.

A couple of the popcorn chicken thingys were fused together so I could get a look at their spongy interior.

Inside it looked more like mashed potatoes than chicken…
The pear was good!

I chat with the lunch ladies almost every day. I want to share what they have told me over the past month or so. One told me about getting burnt on the big ovens and warmers. They all have battle scars (anyone working in food service does). Then she said with a half-smile and a shrug, “[They] pay me to serve, not to cook.” My heart broke in that moment.

Another told me, “I can’t believe you aren’t getting fat eating all of these lunches?! I had to stop eating them because I gained too much weight.” Funny, right? (My weight has not gone up or down over the course of the project)

Yet another told me, “All of these kids…are my kids. If I’m having a bad day, I don’t let them know so that they don’t think it’s them.” That tells me so much about the relationships they build with the kids at my school and the inherent relationship we have with the people who feed us… it’s so valuable. For the kids that lack stable homes (once one of my colleagues had a class roster with eight kids in foster care), building that connection with lunch room staff affects their education in a positive way. As someone who frequently hangs out in the cafeteria, the only problem with not serving the kids one day is that they notice. When I don’t see the regular faces, I wonder where they went to.

I want lunch ladies to receive more credit for the work they do for kids every day. If you don’t think what happens in the lunchroom affects a child’s education, you’d be wrong.

***

Thanks for your sweet and encouraging comments from yesterday. I wrote what I did not to defend myself, but to clarify what I said. I don’t want my words to be misinterpreted and I try not to offend when I can (some topics are inherently prickly). Like some of you suggested in the past, I think it might be best for me to start a different more personal food blog next year so I can express myself more freely and devote this blog to school lunch info exclusively. I’m overwhelmed at the idea of two blogs, but it could be a better way of managing the personal information many of you enjoy reading and that others of you dislike hearing about. Thoughts?

Day 137: sloppy joes and average joes

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Today’s menu: sloppy joe meat, rice/beans, banana, cookie, whole wheat buns
Never underestimate the power of hot food. The sloppy joe meat was good. It was a restorative lunch. Getting the banana today was a sweet bonus. 
From the banana’s perspective there is a lot to think about!
***

I develop my nightly post in my head while driving from school to daycare to get my son. Yesterday I was thinking about the exchange I had with my friend, who happens to be a co-worker and janitor. What I should have included in my story yesterday was that I had a very different chat with another co-worker, a teacher, about the bagel dog. Her response was to shrug. She didn’t care that the students eat bagel dogs, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets as their best meal of the day. I also had a different chat with yet another teacher who told me that she could not afford to buy organic fruit and veggies for her family. I respect that.

Part of why I appeared to be astonished by my conversation with the janitor was that in my mind it was in contrast with other conversations I have had. We chat every day, but it was refreshing to connect with him specifically on food issues. I was encouraged that he was so into what I am into when I haven’t always found that to be the case with other people in my work environment.

I write these posts immediately after my son goes to bed. Sometimes I have very little energy left. If you don’t blog you don’t know that daily blogging is a challenge for a working parent. I get sleepy when I’m rocking my son to sleep. Then I have to wake myself up before I come out to the front room/play room/my desk area to file my daily report with the bureau…who aren’t always kind critics!

One of the many things I forgot to include in yesterday’s post yesterday was a setting…

Mrs. Q, Janitor, School
A medium-sized woman turns off lights and closes large door of classroom with a little peeling paint and old chairs and desks. She is tired, hungry, and a little sweaty after a long day with the students on her feet. She looks back into her room, scanning to make sure it’s ready for the next day. The nice stuff she sees was all purchased out of her own pocket.

Man with a garbage can on wheels offers a smile and a wave,
“Hey, how are you?”
Mrs. Q smiles back and waves, “Ready for home. How are you doing today?”
Discussion of health, food, organics happens as well as an exchange of the gossip…
Mrs. Q, “Have a great night. Say hi to your family for me.”
Man, “I’ll send you that link on Facebook.”
Mrs. Q heads out to the parking lot where she gets in a Ford that happens to be the exact same make and model as the janitor owns (I know that only because he saw me in my car and shared that with me).

***

My paternal great-grandfather abandoned his family. Overnight my grandfather became the man of the house and in charge of his mother and six siblings. So he left school in 8th grade to work and support the family. Grandpa started working as a stock boy at a local department store sweeping the floor. He married young; he and my grandmother (who also left school) had five children in five years. My dad was their first child. The family didn’t have any money, but my grandpa worked his way up in the department store. My dad got a scholarship to college, which he proceeded to lose when he failed out his second year. He went back home, worked a hard labor job to earn enough money to pay for his schooling and by the grace of god, he got his grades up and got his scholarship back. My dad was the first person in the family to get a college degree. He became a math and science teacher (that was his first career).

On my maternal side there were farmers as well as a great-great-grandmother (I could have too few or too many greats, it’s fuzzy) who as a girl sold fish in the streets yelling, “Fresh fish!” Later when her own sons wanted to taunt her, they would smirk and say “Fresh fish!” My maternal grandfather went to college (first one in his family) because of the GI bill. My grandmother went to college too but entirely self-financed because her parents wouldn’t pay for their daughter to go to college, only their sons. My grandfather became an accountant and my grandmother worked at…well, I’ll save that story for another day…

Haven’t most of us come from meager means? You know: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” I love that poem. If you go back far enough in anyone’s story, you are going to find poverty, exhaustion, hard work, just like what I detail above from my personal history books (and that’s only one little part of me). You’d have to look pretty hard to find an elitist among my family. It’s certainly not me.

Day 136: pizza and the janitor

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Today’s lunch: pepperoni pizza, frozen fruit cup, carrots

Another styrofoam tray to truck home. Today I brought my stack into the house. Yes, up until today I had them sitting in my classroom stacked up by my desk. Earlier this year when I had styrofoam trays, I brought them home to use under my husband’s plants. (He has been experimenting growing every seed he can pluck out of every fruit and vegetable that we consume. Most recently he grew a pomegranate plant!)

The fruit cup was frozen
The pizza tasted ok, but I was ravenous by the time I ate it. Today I only had five minutes due to another commitment. I ate the pizza, but I didn’t have time to eat more than a couple carrots, so they had to wait until after work. After eating the pizza, I waited for the “effects.” Today after lunch the only thing I felt was crushing exhaustion when I got home. 
pizza with pepperoni “cubes”

***

Any teacher knows that it’s wise to stay on good terms with the janitor or the “engineer” as they are now called. The principal and the head building manager (and many support staff) are all critical to a teacher’s daily quality of life.

I like the janitor that cleans my room. He is your average kinda working class guy. We chat almost every day and on the days when I’m just running out quickly, I wave bye to him when he’s in other classrooms. He is really chatty so I know a ton about him and his family. Sometimes it’s hard to break away from him!

We talk about health a lot. I don’t know if I am someone who attracts these kinds of conversations (he doesn’t know about this project), but I tend to get into brief discussions about food and nutrition with different people throughout the day. Months ago my janitor friend stopped eating red meat and drinking milk. Today he told me that he has started to eat only organic fruits and veggies and that he only lets his family drink organic milk. He started telling me about the antibiotics that they give to cows, “I’m going to get you the link to the website my friend showed me.” Then I started talking to him about feedlots for cattle. Dude!

Whoa. I happen to work at a school with a “foodie” for a janitor. Go figure! Is this kind of stuff going mainstream?

Day 135: cheese ravioli

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Today’s menu: cheese ravioli, spinach, bread, applesauce

The cheese ravioli looked and tasted exactly like a Michelina’s microwave meal. I say that as a compliment. I spent years eating microwave meals for lunch (and for about half the week my husband still does).

Compared to yesterday’s meal, this meal is positively refreshing. Pasta has always been a comfort food for me. I consider it to be deeply satisfying. I think that the people making the food went back to the drawing board with the pasta – compared to cheese lasagna cheese ravioli is significantly better.

I paid $3.00 for today’s lunch, just about what I would pay for a Michelina’s. In fact, I missed my bi-weekly trip to the bank and had to bum $2 off of my husband before leaving for work. Before the project I never paid attention to how much cash I carried around. Now I make sure I have singles because I don’t want to burden the lunch ladies with making change. They have enough to do and certainly no time to make change for a lazy teacher!

I started in the middle and worked my way out

Those little globules are actually green not yellow.
They are spinach juices!

Yesterday I had a headache after lunch. Today I didn’t. I’m wondering if the hot dog did it? Both days I ate wheat and today I also had lots of cheese. Today’s lunch was meatless. Both days I drank about the same amount of water. Curious, but it could be unrelated.

***

I’m going to cut it short tonight to focus on cleaning my desk, my house, and my car. I have let everything slide. I even missed a credit card payment, which I have never done before. I have been blogging away all of my free time.

Maybe I’ll have a chance at going to bed before 11:30! Here’s hoping… I’m working on exciting stuff and I hope to share it with you by the end of the week…

(Surprised that nobody commented on the glaring typo in the title of yesterday’s blog post. I am in need of rest!)

Day 134: bagel dog and my dysfunctional relationship with food

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Today’s menu: bagel dog, fries, fruit cup, ketchup
I was starving by the time lunch came. I had a nice breakfast this morning (eggs, bacon, and carrot/ginger gf pancakes) so I was surprised at how hungry I was.
I walked through the entrance of the cafeteria and it smelled oddly good. I asked one of the lunch ladies what was on the menu and she said, “corn dogs.” I thought, “Alright, a new menu item, going the wrong direction towards processing, but I used to love corn dogs.”
Then she opened up the warming box and out came the bagel dog. Ah, “corn” dogs.
I paid and carried my lunch back to my room thinking, “Well, this is not what I want to eat today.”
I took my first couple pictures and examined the wheat breading of the corn dog. I have not let bread or breading cross my lips all weekend. I tore off the least soggy part of the bread (at the very tip of the bagel dog) and tasted it.
Wheaty. Delicious. Ah, this is what wheat tastes like. I miss it.
You know that I’m hard up for some good wheat when breading tastes amazing to me. As good as I feel eating a low gluten diet, the upkeep is intense. My husband has been incredibly supportive of the gluten-free diet. I do believe Mr. Q is a saint. I’m going to undergo more testing to make sure that I have an issue, because honestly I don’t think I can go pure gf without a certified medical reason. It feels unnecessarily dysfunctional. It’s easy to avoid wheat in the obvious products, but when it’s hidden as fillers? Too challenging and tough on my family. Stay tuned for the results (in a few weeks)!
Did you ever wonder about the lowly hot dog?
I’m listening to the audiobook, “Omnivore’s Dilemma” while commuting to work. The premise is fascinating: Michael Pollan traced the origin of four different meals from fork to the land. In the book Pollan states, “Everything you eat can be traced back to a living thing, even a Twinkie.”
Take a moment.
A Twinkie? Used to be alive? Is it still Halloween? Everything we eat came from a plant or an animal. I feel stupid that this simple statement rocked my world so. I mean, of course we don’t eat inanimate objects, but sometimes it feels like we are eating non-food substances. Um, wait. I am!
After hearing that this morning in the car and then buying my school lunch, I had a hard look at the hot dog. Why is the meat swirled around the center? How is it made? What did the cows and pigs eat which make up that meat? Corn? Is it truly a “corn” dog?
My school lunch’s journey tracing back from my spork to the land is mighty convoluted, no? The processing seems totally overboard. What are we doing here?

The weird beauty of garbage
I think that’s it for the night. I’m wiped out. Looking forward to launching some new features on the blog this month! Look for an announcement soon!