Monthly Archives: February 2011

In the News: Let’s Move!; Food Corps; and Cocoxochitl

The First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign turned a year old!

Here’s to the First Lady for all her hard work to raise awareness about food and obesity. I believe that too often in our country real food is invisible and talking about obesity is taboo. It is commendable that the First Lady chose to tackle such a complex and controversial problem when she could have easily gone a different direction. Kudos to her — great job!

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What is FoodCorps? Their mission “is to recruit young adults for a yearlong term of public service in school food systems. Once stationed, FoodCorps members will build Farm to School supply chains, expand food system and nutrition education programs, and build and tend school food gardens. The ultimate goal of the organization is to increase the health and prosperity of vulnerable children, while investing in the next generation of farmers and public health leaders.”

Well, Food Corps just announced they are recruiting! Click here to read more about who they want and their recruitment video was just released on youtube:
 

 
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Cocoxochitl

 
Speaking about school gardens…want to meet someone obsessed with them? Try Cocoxochitl out of Los Angeles. He tweets and tweets and tweets. I’m consistently overwhelmed by the quantity, and quality, of information he shares on Twitter every day — not to mention the money he is raising exclusively on Twitter for school gardens across this country.
 
Would you do me a favor and pop on over to The Shorty Awards and nominate him in the “Green” category? Since it’s a Twitter award, you have to “tweet” your vote here. He is number two in the green category right now and could use an extra push. He told me that if he wins this award, he will be able to fund more school gardens. Plain and simple.

Note to self: Blissdom conference recap

Why do people go to conferences of any sort? I’ve come up with three main reasons:

  • To be better at something
  • To be inspired
  • To meet other people

All three were covered while I was at Blissdom, which was almost two weeks ago…I’ve been developing this post for a little while.

But anyone considering attending a conference about blogging, needs to know: you might have to be bold (Note to self: go for it school lunch girl!)
I attended this conference having met only two attendees (out of 750 people) in person. I was alone a lot. But I was never lonely.
I made it a point to constantly mingle. Looking back I realize that although I hung out with the two people I knew randomly throughout the conference, I never ate one meal with them. (Note to self: seriously?)
I talked to lots of people, not just bloggers. At lunch on the first day of the conference, I was meandering through the crowded room with my plate trying to decide where to plop down and eat. It was so a school lunch cafeteria moment! I saw an open spot at a table with some semi-famous bloggers. I avoided it since I wasn’t feeling quite that bold.
I looked around and found a spot at a table right in front of me. Two women to my right introduced themselves and said that they were PR people in kitchen design. Initially I thought to myself that they probably would have no interest in hearing about school lunch and my blog (Note to self: the universe lives to prove you wrong). They were both interested in my project, especially one of them who is in her mid-twenties, cooks and subscribes to her own CSA. We had an amazing conversation (Note to self: don’t assume anything).
I met couponing bloggers (I will be having a couponing guest blogger at some point), I met mommy bloggers, I met food bloggers, I met famous bloggers, I met famous tweeters, I met crafting bloggers, and I met food bloggers. I even gave away at least 100 “Mrs. Q” cards and on my desk I have a big stack of cards I got from others — now I need the time to go through them. It was terrific to talk to so many people (Note to self: people have always made you happy).
How do you define inspiration? I tried to use the internet to help me:
Yes, this is what all conferences should do for people
I was inspired by all of the conversations I had with people I met as well as the content of the conference. Brene Brown spoke, which blew my mind (I blogged it). I bought two of her books (one for my mom, one for me) and she was kind enough to sign mine to “Mrs. Q” (Note to self: Do that for the rest of your life. Ok, it’s decided.)
I met and talked at length to Chookooloonks. We could go out to coffee twice a week and not run out of things to discuss. The first thing I told her when I met her was “you have a beautiful voice.” She’s a magical person. And I bought her book too.
And Scott from UnMarketing. WHOA. There are no words for what he taught all of us in attendance. That guy knows social media. Does he know Twitter? Holy cannoli, does he ever! And I bought his book too. (Note to self: good thing you stayed at a cheap hotel!)
Telling people that I went to a blogging conference makes people wonder about me. But I guess they were already concerned when I ate school lunch for a year. I am learning not to worry and just to do (Note to self: don’t stop taking risks, ok?)

Book Club and Titanium Spork Award

How many of you have decided to join me in reading Free For All? What do you think of the book so far?

I learned facts and statistics just from reading the introduction. My yellow highlighter is by my bed…wait a moment, my toddler has absconded with it… At first I thought it would be heavy reading, but it really isn’t. But I have only gotten through the introduction and the first chapter.

The first chapter covers when Dr. Poppendieck, the author, volunteers in a school cafeteria for a week. If you ever doubted how much work lunch ladies do, you should read this chapter (it’s no surprise that she puts it in the first chapter). For me it wasn’t new information: I see lunch ladies working hard all day, every day. Although I don’t know the machinations of what happens behind the counters, I see enough of the lunch line to know two very important things: 1) It’s a tough job 2) Lunch ladies care about the kids. Period.

Dr. Poppendieck goes on to talk about Breakfast in the Classroom, which she witnessed firsthand. I have not seen it yet, but according to recent news reports it’s coming. I don’t believe having breakfast in the classroom will mess up the morning routine greatly and I really want the kids to eat something first thing in the morning. Dr. Poppendieck explained in the book that there were positive benefits like reduced visits to the nurse in the morning, decreased tardiness, and reduced disciplinary action in the morning (p. 36). The teachers were unanimous is their concerns about the quality of the food (exactly as I blogged about last week). I’m excited to see how this will play out in my real life…

Dr. Poppendieck also covers a little bit about the offer vs serve approach (p. 40), which I’m sure she will go into in more depth later into the book. It is mandated in high schools (came about in the 1970’s to reduce waste, which makes me laugh) and that is how kids can choose to eat pizza and fries every day and still have a federally reimbursable meal.

I like how Dr. Poppendieck says “I knew so little to begin with…” — that’s exactly how I feel and why I’m excited to read the book. She’s taking me down a road that was new to her once too. This should be interesting!

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The winner of December’s Titanium Spork Award is Dana Woldow! She won by a landslide! Ms. Woldow is a mom on a mission in San Francisco. Read up about her on CNN.com, on greatschools.com and an essay contributed on The Lunch Tray last fall. Thank you so much for what you have done for children!

Please comment below for your nominations for January’s Titanium Spork Award!

Lunch Wrap Up #5

It was a weird week. For two days the three of us were stuck inside with the dog because of the snow. But I was thrilled to be cocooned in the house, nice and safe.

All week long my son was sick with a cold and by Friday he had spread his germs to me. You know that feeling when you are getting sick and with every passing hour you get worse? That was me on Friday — at work no less. I’m feeling better now after getting a ton of sleep overnight.

When my son gets sick, he stops eating well…I’ll tell my tale of woe below…

I organized our lunches by day since we ate some meals together! (for new readers, it’s all gluten-free/dairy-free because of our tummies)

MY SON — MONDAY

Corn pasta, salmon (baked with salt and olive oil), peas, sliced pears, applesauce, chocolate coconut milk yogurt, bar

His caregivers told me that he didn’t eat everything. I know that when we made the salmon on Sunday night, he couldn’t stop eating it. Oh well. The daycare menu was ground beef, hash browns, diced pears, diced carrots with fruit and cheese and crackers for snacks. I don’t object to those foods, but since I have seen them I know that the hash browns are not fresh, but oval-shaped and the fruit and veggies come from cans lined with BPA.

ME – MONDAY

Leftover chicken in a onion/tomato sauce (from my mom & her Silver Palate cookbook) with rice and lentils, passionfruit/mango yogurt with blueberries and an orange.
How lucky am I that my mom comes to visit with a meal every now and then over the weekend? One of you suggested that I look at the menu to see what my students are eating to contrast the meals. I can’t do that. I avoid passing glances at the cafeteria food. I ate it 162 times and towards the end it felt like school food prison. I can’t look at even look at it now ðŸ™‚
MY SON – TUESDAY
Chicken noodle soup, passionfruit/mango yogurt with blueberries, sliced avocado, snackTAXI with crackers (rice vegan cheese not picture), sliced apples to the far right.
I sent soup with him because he was sick and he normally loves pasta soup. They have a microwave at daycare. Again they said he didn’t eat much. Boo. The other kids at daycare ate cod nuggets, mac and cheese, applesauce, peas with fruit and ice cream as snacks.
ME – TUESDAY
Half a can of chicken noodle soup (“gf” brand), half an avocado,
crackers, apple and a KIND bar

I poured my soup into a microwaveable container at work (The “fuel” container is not microwaveable). I bet it would hold the warmth inside for a few hours, but I don’t have time in the morning to heat up my soup before I leave for work. Little known fact — keep the pit in the avocado because it slows its browning! At work, I just dug out the avocado with my spoon.

MY SON – WEDNESDAY (snow day #1)
Bacon (not pictured), hard-boiled eggs, fruit salad (blueberries, apples, pomegranates)
My son was sick and so he didn’t eat much again. He ate a lot of bacon, but declared that he didn’t like yolk, only wanting the white part. Then he refused to eat his apples or blueberries, just pomegranate seeds.
ME – WEDNESDAY (snow day #1)
Fruit salad, hard boiled eggs, bacon
After he declared he didn’t like his yolks, I ate mine and left the egg white out — just in case he wanted it. Do you do that too? I stop eating parts of my meal when I think he might be interested in eating some later on. He also ended up with most of my pomegranate seeds!
MY SON – THURSDAY (snow day #2)
Chicken hot dogs (brand pictured below), cheese and crackers, bread with honey on it (not pictured), green beans.
I made chicken hot dogs. My husband told me, “You know, he won’t eat those. He doesn’t like hot dogs. I don’t know why you bought them.” And our son didn’t even take one bite. His lunch consisted of a little bit of cheese and a few crackers with a piece of bread with honey on it.
Here’s what I tried to feed him.
ME – THURSDAY (snow day #2)
So I ate a hot dog, peanut butter/honey bread, and green beans for lunch. I used my bread machine to make the bread (Bob’s Red Mill gf/df brand)
MY SON – FRIDAY
Mac and “Chreese” with lima beans, chocolate yogurt with blueberries,
egg & bacon, sliced apple, pretzels

Again he didn’t eat very well, but it sounded like he did better than he did at home. Even though he’s eating different food than his friends, he has always eaten better there than at home regardless of illness. Never underestimate the power of peer pressure. His friends at daycare ate ground beef with pasta and tomato sauce, diced pears, peas, with snacks of fruit and ice cream.

Here’s what we like — it doesn’t take like mac and cheese.
 It’s different, but I find it pleasant.

ME – FRIDAY

Homemade pizza with kalamata olives, anchovies, 
roasted piquillo peppers (from a jar), egg, apple, and a KIND bar
I made pizza on Thursday night. My husband said it was good, but he missed the cheese… We’re big into anchovies on pizza ’round here. My husband and I discovered this when we traveled to visit some of my relatives who live very, very far away. They put anchovies on their pizza. To get rid of the overly saltiness the fish, soak them in a little milk before putting them on the pizza. I did that for a long time, but I stopped when I realized that I liked them salty. My son was not terribly excited by the pizza, only eating the crust, so I didn’t send some in his lunch.

Foodie sound off: Oatmeal makes me gag

When my grandfather was a boy during the Great Depression (he was born in 1920), he would complain about having to eat oatmeal every morning for breakfast. Here’s what his mom would say to him,

“You’re going to eat that oatmeal or I’m going to shove it down your throat!”

He would tell that story and crack up before he even finished that sentence. In fact, if he was feeling more spirited than usual, he would start laughing so hard he would seem to run out of air and start crying. Getting oatmeal shoved down your throat didn’t seem very humorous to me, but he got such a kick out of telling that story. He’s such a jovial person, I loved watching him tell a story that ended with him wiping his eyes.

Needless to say, he hated oatmeal and never gave it to his own children. My mom does not like or eat oatmeal.

But I like oatmeal. It doesn’t make me gag. My favorite flavor is maple syrup or brown sugar with raisins. That just screams YUM to me.

When I blogged about breakfast in the classroom, you guys commented that you, or your teenage kids, didn’t like eating breakfast and that the thought of eating it made you nauseous. That’s something I never considered, but I totally get. Why do you think people are nauseous in the morning?

Ironically, on Friday I completely forgot to eat breakfast. I was driving to work and realized that I didn’t have my usual bowl of cereal or even brush my teeth! I grabbed one of the KIND bars I carry in my purse and scarfed it down. Actually I wasn’t feeling very good and by the end of the day, I was totally bogged down by the fog of a cold. So that’s my excuse!

What’s your least favorite breakfast food? Your most favorite?

Free-Range Social Media

I’m living in a space right now that will cease to exist. Two different realities at once.

It’s like being being newly pregnant when you don’t tell anyone until you deem it “safe.” For some, that’s as soon as they find out. When I was pregnant with my son, I waited to tell most people until I was halfway through.

Typical. I’m pretty good with secrets.

But with every secret comes intense feelings. Joy and fear with a pregnancy. Most days I feel a lot of turmoil regarding my life as Mrs Q.

Having a secret identity is not glamorous. It’s hugely stressful.

So when I went to Blissdom and heard Dr. Brene Brown speech about shame, it resonated with me. I found her blog Ordinary Courage a few months ago, but right away I could tell she was the kind of person I’d like. When it was announced late that she was speaking, I knew it would be powerful.

Why would a speaker address a bunch of bloggers about shame? Because she defines shame as the fear of disconnection. Isn’t that what most bloggers fear? According to Dr. Brown, shame is about feeling “not good enough” and “not worthy of connection.”

Many “in real life” people will find out about this blog later this year. I like to think that most will have positive reactions, but some might feel betrayed by this rather large thing I did…without breathing a word to anyone. I really hope that they will be able to keep in mind why I ate the lunches and blogged them: for the kids.

Anyway, Dr. Brown launched a new movement in blogging while she was at Blissdom. It’s called Free-Range Social Media:

I love this. Dr. Brown is advocating “No cages, no copying, no cruelty.” Cages refer to bloggers restricting themselves and not allowing their own natural growth through exploration of lots of topics because of fearing loss of readers. “No copying” is self-explanatory (that’s a message to the TWO fake Fed Up With Lunch facebook groups!!) and so is “no cruelty.” I really love the discussions we have on this blog — it’s a political blog that’s for sure so keep all your interesting comments coming! 🙂

Dr. Brown encouraged sharing of these rules. I think they are worth spreading. If you want to get a taste of her talk at Blissdom, you can watch her TEDxHouston talk below: (My own blissdom recap post to come next week…I’m slow, I know)

Breakfast in the classroom

courtesy: dchunger.org

Breakfast in the classroom is an effort by school districts and the USDA to help kids eat something before the school day starts so that they will perform better academically (some research here). Breakfast is offered in most school cafeterias, but to eat breakfast you have to come early, before school starts. Getting to school on time, much less early, is a huge challenge for many families.

The reason I’m bringing this up is that Chicago Public Schools recently announced that they will participate in the free breakfast program for all students. It’s starting next month.

I’m thrilled when I see kids lining up for breakfast, but I know participation is low compared to the high participation in the school lunch program. Occasionally I’ll ask my students if they ate breakfast that day. Many say no. One student in particular often has terrible morning breath (a sign that she hopped out of bed and came straight to school). In the past I asked her if she’s ate breakfast and she has said no. This particular student qualifies for reduced, but not free, school lunch. I know her family works and they are running to get out of the house in the morning. I can’t imagine trying to get multiple kids ready for school — one toddler is challenge enough.

On the other hand, I can’t imagine sending my child to school without breakfast. At the very least I would press a granola bar into my child’s hand, but that is assuming that families have money.  Even when my son was eating daycare food and participated in their morning cereal routine, it was a rare day that he didn’t eat something at home with us (my husband and I both eat breakfast). In fact, most mornings the first thing he does when he wakes up is to demand food (his current favorite: “peanut buhder mana” — peanut butter spread on a banana). His usual breakfast is oatmeal or cereal and with fruit, if we have it handy. By the time he gets to daycare, he could care less if the other kids are eating because he’s full.

I think eating breakfast in the classroom is a great idea. Making time in the morning to eat should be something we instill in young people. It appears that many parents don’t make time for breakfast in the morning. Either the families are staying up too late watching TV, playing video games, or surfing the net (guilty as charged) or eating in the morning is not important to them. Does no one care about breakfast anymore?

It’s a symptom of something. I believe our nation lacks the robust food culture that other countries take for granted and which their children absorb simply by being part of society. If food is not taught in our schools and it’s not taught at home, kids don’t have much of a chance to learn how to eat in a way that benefits their bodies over the long haul.

The logistics of breakfast in the classroom make it a little more challenging. There will be a breakfast for every child but individual children can opt out (at first I thought every child had to get a breakfast — now that would be wasteful). Having large quantities of food trash in the classrooms instead of the cafeteria could lead to bug problems (yes, I’ve seen cockroaches in my room). I think the biggest disadvantage is the potential loss of instructional time. But the truth is that there is a lot of “business” to take care of in the morning — attendance being the most important. The first fifteen minutes the kids are settling in to their day, putting away their coats and backpacks, turning in homework, and saying the pledge. Throwing breakfast in the mix could make it more chaotic. Still I think it’s important to power students up with food. So for me disadvantages are minimized — these kids need to eat to learn.

However, what they eat is just as important as eating the meal itself. A sugary breakfast may not make things better for students in terms of focusing mid- to late morning.

For me, it comes down to this: Is it better to eat something for breakfast than nothing at all? My answer: some food is better than no food when you’re a hungry and growing little person. Thoughts?

Further reading:
Breakfast at School: Fast and Healthy Food for Thought (additional research)
From the USDA – 10 Reasons to Try Breakfast in the Classroom (pdf handout)

Product Review: KOKO Lunch

You had me at hello…

I stumbled upon KOKO Lunch bags and I almost fell out of my chair. Such a simple concept: a stylish, eco-friendly lunch purse. This style is called “Megan.”

At first glance, maybe it’s simply a cute handbag…but with red silverware?

   
That’s what’s inside — it’s insulated!

 It can fit a lot of stuff — I tried out my easylunchboxes.com gear. It’s very deep so it could fit multiple containers stacked up and even a water bottle, although it may be tough to close with a water bottle standing up straight.

My son was fascinated by the interlocking silverware

 PVC free
I love this bag — it’s perfect for someone working in an office who needs to have professional-looking lunch gear (not a plastic bag). Owning this purse is a luxury for me! This is a Canadian product, but you can use their store locator to find out where you can find it in the US and online.
What I liked about the lunch bag:
FCC full disclosure: I received one free KOKO Lunch bag to review. I was not given any cash compensation for sharing my opinion on the product. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely mine. If I claim or appear to be an expert on a certain topic or product or service area, I will only endorse products or services that I believe, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.