Today’s menu: pizza, salad, grapes
My feelings towards school lunch pizza (which reportedly contains 62 ingredients) can be summed up in three words:
LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIP
First, I hated it. Then I started liking the flavor. Now, I can’t stand it.
Similar to how I felt about a boy named Mike in eighth grade. Mike was mean to me and then nice to me and then told me another boy liked me. I loved Mike. I hated Mike. I liked both Mike and the other boy. High drama after school while waiting for Bus #222. Lots of chasing.
Now as an adult I finally know: Mike liked the other boy.
I’m in the unfortunate group of “those-with-impaired-gay-dar.” Oh, there has been heartache…
Getting back to the pizza, there has been high drama in 2010. I can’t wait until I end our toxic relationship!
The salad was really tasty. I hate to criticize REAL fruit, but some of the grapes were mushy. I know the kids like grapes and it’s REAL fruit, so I hate to complain. A+ for effort!
Also, I’m stopping December 17th because that is the last day of school in 2010. My original goal was to do this in the year 2010. The project is oddly over two school years…just goes to show you this was not professionally planned or premeditated.
***
THE CHILD NUTRITION ACT PASSED TODAY!!!
Thank you to everyone who called their representatives. I know it’s “only” 6 cents per meal, but it’s still the best thing to happen to school lunch in a few decades according to what I have read. I think there are a lot of people who are disappointed that there wasn’t more money or major changes in regulations or “a big shake up.” Hey, I give it an A+ for effort!! We are headed in the right direction. This bill almost didn’t pass. If it hadn’t been for the “lame duck” session (which is maybe it’s not so “lame”), this would have sat in committee for who knows how long. This is a victory and we need to celebrate it.
***
I have really appreciated all of your positive comments. I get the occasional negative comment and I rarely delete them because, well, they can be hilarious. This comment came in and I couldn’t stop laughing. Do please enjoy it with me:
Interesting choice considering Sarah Palin recently brought cookies into an elementary school in Pennsylvania to purposely defy all the healthy talk about school food. Thoughts on that?
*eye roll* what a bunch of bs. I cannot wait until you and your project go far away. And stop begging your readers to support this and that. I’m really sick of helping this waste of space we call a future. You’re like the Sarah Palin of blogging: popular with the soccer moms and so self serving. GO AWAY.
You're not at all like Sarah Palin, which is partially due to the fact that you are easily ignored if someone doesn't want to hear from you! I love reading your blog and if I didn't, I would unsubscribe. Obviously that commenter hasn't figured out how to do that yet.
I have a Mike in my life, too!
Was there only one grain today?
I have enjoyed your blog every step of the way. The light you are shedding on the issue of health and nutrition (especially regarding children) is fantastic. Don't let any nay-sayers make you think otherwise!
LOL. That negative comment is epic. Who reads blogs if they don't agree with them? TROLLS.
Mallory – I've recently figured out that pizza can count as two grains depending on how much wheat is put into the crust/dough mix. Odd.
Oh boy – I am refraining on pulling out my can of whoop-ass on that commenter. First, she is forgetting that she took action to open your blog and read it. More than once. Second, this is SO not about you. It's about every kid in this nation eating the food that our government endorses.
Loved your story today too – awesome!
About SP's defiant behavior – I am so disappointed (but not surprised). Selfish of her to promote her own agenda despite of the rules. Makes you wonder how her kids behave at home. "Sorry mom, I don't like my curfew, so I'll stay out until 5am."
It's too bad that you are ending the project! I have enjoyed it, every day.
I've also wondered about taking pics of MY school food, since it's super yummy and home made.
I will miss your posts…..sorry to see your project end……but I know you will not miss that chemically concocted cellophane sealed stuff!
WHAT! You're ending it? Ah! I love reading about your lunches
Just Better Together
I just have to say I really enjoy your blog. I read it every day because I find it very informative. Oh! and I am NOT a soccer mom. I don't even have children and I can't stand Sarah Palin.
love your blog, HATE sarah palin….and what about food safety?? took 70 years for them to update anything on that…i'm sure the people who have lost children, parents and grandparents to tainted food are relieved that it has finally been addressed, a little bit anyway…but according to glenn beck and his ilk, it's the apocalypse…what strange, strange times we live in…
Aww. Have you thought about what you will be doing after Dec. 17? This blog will be missed! 🙁
But it is kind of funny about that commenter. Trolls, as previously mentioned. Although they do have the right to disagree, I don't think that "whining" on your own blog is something to be complained about… simply close the browser window and move onto other blogs that might have a better/similar outlook.
Wonder how you're part of the serve-serving crowd when you're trying to be part in something that doesn't even affect you that directly… *rolls eyes at that commenter*
Love our blog and hate haters! I was just thinking yesterday about how I was sad that you'd be done blogging after Dec 17. Or that the project is over? I don't know what your plans are for blogging after that. I didn't find you till this past summer and was sad I hadn't found you sooner! I have gone back and caught up on your past stuff. I tell many people about this blog. I try to spread the knowledge! Thank you SO MUCH!
I love your blog, if people don't like it, why do they read it? seems simple enough.
I had a "mike" in my high school years. Found out about a year ago why he wasn't interested in me. apparently I have no "gaydar" either. LOL.
Keep doing what you are doing.
And Sarah Palin is obnoxious. You are not.
ROFL regarding that comment: clearly a happy person with no hang-ups and an opinion!! 😉
Thanks for bringing much needed attention to an issue that was long forgotten. Im not even from this country and saw the problem from the get go, hopefully more and more people will awaken and see the damage.
Enjoy your weekend Mrs.Q.
Congratulations. Really. This is a huge accomplishment! Many people can't keep New Year's Resolutions, and you DID IT!! I've been reading all year, and I'm proud of you. Two weeks left!
Even if you are done eating school lunches, I hope you continue blogging. I enjoy reading about the school lunches and finding out what they give the children. (Not that I enjoy the actual food they give them.)
Anyway, I do enjoy the part of the post after they school lunch pictures. Maybe you can keep posting opinions, thoughts, guest blog, links.
I've learned a lot from reading blogs like this and others that encourage healthier eating. Good luck with your detox from school lunch. I'm sure you'll feel much better.
I have loved your blog & hate to see it coming to an end! I can say you have been one of my favorite blogs. If I have time to read no other, I always check yours. In fact, you inspired me to blog also.
Have you considered a new blog for 2011? Maybe your journey as you discover more nutritious cooking at home or whatever. I hate to see you go away from the blogosphere entirely, but do understand the end of this project (In fact, I hope my blog will soon end also. . .given it's subject matter!). Just a tho't.
wanted to add that i too have enjoyed your blog immensely, though i rarely comment. i have been following it almost since the beginning and will miss it. good luck with whatever your next project is.
having been a vegetarian for 16 years, i already knew a lot about nutrition. it comes with the territory, since i'm constantly asked how i get protein. however, it has been very interesting to watch your journey.
i'm glad the nutrition bill passed. however, i'm skeptical how much it will accomplish. look at how many fruits and veggies your school offered, but how few the kids actually ate. schools must cook and present fruits and veggies properly for the legislation to have any real effect on students.
finally, you are definitely not like sarah palin. you can form actual sentences and know about current events. plus, you have your bit of celebrity for good. the school district she visited is near my city, so she was in the local media for a while. i wish someone at that school had told her to stay out of our local issues.
"Self-serving" is the opposite of what this project is about.
Oh, and I'm definitely NOT a soccer mom. (I'm a college student!)
That is a very funny story about Mike!
I understand that you will no longer eat/blog about your school lunches after 12/17, but will you wrap things up a bit after that date for all of us?
OK..that post made me laugh along with you!!! Your blog will be missed. Will you be starting up a new one???
I wanted to say that you've had a wonderful blog here. Excellent idea. What's your next project? 😉
The one thing that I think needs to be taken away from this is that, no matter what the schools do to provide for our children, we are inevitably responsible for their health and well-being.
I volunteer a lot at my son's school. I spend a lot of time with first and second graders and see how they eat their lunches. Those that have packed lunches seem to eat what they are given. Those with hot lunches – no. They pick and choose. I see TONS of fresh fruit and other "healthy" choices being pitched out.
Even though the school can provide these healthy choices, they cannot force the children to eat them. It all starts with us as parents.
My son doesn't get hot lunch, because I know he wouldn't eat half of what's in it. So he gets a packed lunch, and he knows what he is required to eat (suffering through a few grapes or a carrot stick – he's a fruit and veggie hater at the moment). I can't expect the school to make sure he eats well. We need to take care of our kids first, and let the school be a "supplementary" helper.
Hahahahahahahhaha!!! The Sarah Palin of Blogging? I am not even sure what that means.
And you aren't exactly the only person trying to work hard for our children's future. And don't like 98% of all parents want to do good things to improve their children's lives over their own?? Sounds like that commentor is in a real bleak funk. Maybe Xanax would help.
Just chiming in to say I'll miss your blog as well. Thanks for your entertaining and enlightening posts. In your own small way, I think you helped get that bill passed. Every bit of awareness about childhood nutrition that gets put out into the world helps!
6 cents per lunch. I've heard that it is going to cost districts at least twice that per lunch to implement this. How is that helping matters? I just wish that instead of passing more legislation with more red tape, that they would let the local districts have more control. Call me a skeptic, but I have a feeling the majority of $$ that is allocated for this bill will not be spent for the betterment of our children.
[Sarah Palin voice]Ya, well I betcha you can't see Alaska from your house![/Sarah Palin voice]
Sorry, just thought that comment was funny and not entirely comprehensible.
I'll chime along with the others that hope you will continue to write about school lunch issues even if you aren't eating it every day yourself. Two things I'm interested in:
1. The lunches at your school seem to have improved this school year. I wonder if you have been found out and improvements made because of that. I'm interested to see how the lunches go once the project is over, if the same effort is made toward having salads and fresh fruit, for example.
2. I'm interested to see how the .06 per meal funding increase changes the lunches your kids eat.
No matter what you do, I wish you the best! Thank you for this year, it has been very informative.
I was wondering Mrs. Q,
Was the the french bread crust pizza? My school that I attend, when I was in the younger grades we had pizza rarely, but it was excellent and in the shapes of circles. It was really good bread too. Now That I am in middle school we just get regular pizza slices. My school has many options. we have sandwich stuff we can make, salad bar, cereal, hot and cold food, bagels etc. Do you ever have just a plain bagel for lunch?
OK, I just had to address the commenter in your blog. I am absolutely rolling my eyes right back at him/her. If you were Sarah Palin, you would have quit in the middle when it got hard 🙂
I have really enjoyed your blog – it has brought so many issues to my attention that I would never have come across otherwise. I've actually been thinking about becoming some sort of activist or running for city council or the school board to try to make some sort of an impact. Now that I know so much more about what goes into school lunch and so much of our food, I feel weird just sitting behind a desk all day while the government just lets it all happen.
Anyway, I will miss your blog, and I hope you will do something else (after a much-needed break, of course)! Take care, Mrs. Q!
I'm still really dissapointed at what schools are calling a "salad". A bag of iceberg lettuce with 4-5 tiny shreds of carrot has virtually NO nutritional value and hardly any fiber. That's not a salad! And it shouldn't be declared this great awesome nutritious addition to a pizza meal. If schools are going to do salad, do it right!
I wanted to chime in to *ditto* a previous comment.
I read your blog everyday and I DON'T have children. I never plan to have children.
So why would I read your blog?
Because your children are the future of our country even if they are not my children!
Seems obvious to me but not to everyone apparently(hint hint nudge nudge – your uninformed commenter)
Perhaps not everyone is concerned with the future of the human population but only concerned with their tiny window of time in the midst of it?
Honestly, I'd rather eat the school cafeteria pizza than from any chain restaurant – Domino's will always taste like drywall/cardboard, Pizzeria Uno's been cutting too many corners, and last week, I had a Pizza Hut pizza for the first time in a LONG time inside a Target – let's just say for about a week, I was passing iced tea.
By the way, I've never had pizza served in a fancily-designed box like in the picture when I was in school – I'd eat that pizza just to admire the box!