Tag Archives: banana

Day 141: hamburger and "year round" school

School Lunches, , , , , ,

Today’s menu: hamburger, whole wheat buns, broccoli, banana, ketchup

I’ve had this meal many times before just like most of the other lunches I’ve eaten. I was a little surprised to have broccoli again today considering I just had it yesterday, but I think it was a last minute substitution. It was in sharp contrast to the broccoli from yesterday. That broccoli was brighter in color and this poor broccoli looks like it had a hard day.

It’s mystery meat but no surprise to me!
Trashy trash

my finger snuck into the shot…
now I’m going to have to cut it off so as not to out myself
***
Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day so there is no school for me. I know many schools don’t cancel school for this holiday, but my district does. Then on Friday the teachers have a professional development day so it’s a non-attendance day for students yet again. I feel like there are a lot of professional development days on the calendar, especially in the first half of the school year. I feel some guilt over it because I worry the students aren’t getting a lot of academics at home. Selfishly though I like my teacher inservice days because I do learn something (not always, but most of the time) and I can get a lot of paperwork and organizing done in my room.
A reader sent me a link to an article: Year-Round School Gains Ground in US. I discussed this before on the blog, but I wanted to revisit it.
First of all, “year-round” school is a misnomer. Basically, it’s just a shorter summer. In my district there are already many schools doing it and it only means that summer vacation is just about six weeks long instead of 10-11 weeks. Those other weeks off are sprinkled throughout the year. One of my friends works that schedule and she told me she loves it. She is single, at least 25 years older than me, and travels all over the world with any spare time she has. She has always wanted to travel in the Fall, but she never could because she was working. Now she gets a two-week break in September/October and can jet off to exotic locales all four seasons.
But the change in the school calendar is being put in place not for teachers to take vacations: it’s so that students benefit from a shorter summer off. I see regression in skills come September. Many of the students I work with are not getting a chance to do much with themselves over the summer. Even with a plethora of park district programs available, my students’ families can’t afford them or if they can, they don’t have transportation. My students play too many video games at home. It’s surprising how many people have multiple gaming systems. I may never understand that as an adult, but I do remember being obsessed with my friend’s Super Mario Nintendo game in fifth grade. It’s powerful stuff and luckily for me my mom banned video gaming systems from the house. It seemed positively Draconian, but now video games at home are even more ubiquitous.
I think that another reason “year-round” schedules are powerful is that children have trouble with transitions. I also have difficulty with the dramatic transition from crazy school days in June to boring laundry at home. Alternately the build-up of my anxiety with the start of school in August is overwhelming (although I might be a special case). Regardless, if kids are in school more often, the transitions would not be as big and potentially scary.
The article mentions at the end that many ELL (English Language Learners) spend the summer months immersed in their home language and that the transition back to English can be challenging. I would say that the typical child with average abilities and literate and supportive parents can handle going back and forth in two languages. It’s the kids with special needs who are learning two languages who can’t readily slide between the two languages.
One of my coworkers is of Mexican descent and speaks perfect English and Spanish. I asked him if his parents spoke Spanish at home and he told me that they didn’t. So I followed up, “Where did you learn Spanish?” He replied, “My siblings and I spent every summer with abuela and I learned how to speak Spanish because that’s all she knew.” So shortening summer in his case would have meant that he lost out on an amazing experience with his abuela (grandma). Changing to a “year-round” school schedule is not a plain and simple decision.

Day 137: sloppy joes and average joes

School Lunches, , , , , , ,

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 133: cheeseburger with a side of twitter

School Lunches, , , , , , ,
Today’s menu: cheeseburger, whole wheat buns (not pictured), banana, baked beans, cookie
There’s today’s lunch. I grabbed the cookie not the buns. I ate the patty, the beans, and the banana:
My trash
I chatted with the kids about this lunch and I got the usual “tell-her-what-she-wants-to-hear” spiel (that’s one of the reasons why I ask so rarely – plus I don’t want to grill them about their lunches every day):
Scene: Mrs. Q, little boy, little girl
Mrs. Q: “What did you have for lunch today?”
Girl, “Cookie, milk, banana, beans, and…”
Boy, “A hamburger”
Girl, “With cheese.”
Mrs. Q, “Oh ok, and did you eat it all?”
Girl, “Yes!”
Boy glaring at her, “No you didn’t!”
Girl, “I ate the cookie, the milk, the banana…”
Mrs. Q, “Did you eat the beans?”
Girl, “Yes!”
Boy, “No you didn’t”
Girl, glaring back with no comment.
Girl, “I ate the hamburger!”
I just don’t know what to believe!
***

I do a lot of tweeting (my husband calls it “twitting,” which sometimes seems appropriate). No one has ever asked about how I got into Twitter, but I want to share the story.

A few weeks ago I blogged about my friend who got me into blogging (in 2004 I started a personal blog read by only my mom and my sister, which I updated through last year). Well, that friend is the exact same person who introduced me to Twitter. She got an account pretty early on. I looked around on Twitter after she told me about it. It didn’t seem like it was my thing so I didn’t get an account at first. I didn’t want to give status updates to people I didn’t know. But after a couple months, I figured I would get an account too, mostly because I wanted to follow people who were famous (Mark Bittman, Rick Bayless, Yoko Ono, Venus Williams, Andy Roddick, Al Gore, Dooce, Anderson Cooper (side note: yum), Augusten Burroughs, Oprah, and on…) Yes, I have a personal Twitter account that I used for a short while with about 150 followers. It’s a protected acct, but don’t worry: I no longer tweet there (too busy for two accounts).

I started a Twitter account for Fed Up With Lunch because I liked that Twitter had a broader scope than Facebook, but it was more “anonymous.” Since I am anonymous, that feature lined right up with my initial goals. I thought about starting a Facebook account for this project, but I didn’t want it to be found by my coworkers who are on Facebook. Although there are tons of people on Twitter, only 2% of my real life friends are on Twitter compared to 98% of them are on Facebook.

Now I use Twitter more than I use Facebook. I still don’t have an official Facebook account for the blog project (but there are two imposter ones — shaking my fist at weird strangers!). I’ll probably start up a Facebook account for the blog, but I’m still in no hurry.

I enjoy tweeting because it’s fun to connect with people who are interested in similar topics (food, education, school lunch, parenting, etc). They are people I would never have met without having a Twitter account. Also I credit my Twitter account for making Fed Up With Lunch a successful blog. It’s the PR department!

Recently (10/16) one of my tweets was on the front page of Twitter. That was really cool. It was a quote that was retweeted more than 30 times: “Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.” ~Dwight D. Eisenhower  Too damn true!

Day 124: Pizza and National School Lunch Week

School Lunches, , , , , , ,
Today’s menu: pizza, banana, carrots
School pizza…again…not my favorite. I had been avoiding large quantities of wheat, but with pizza there’s no way around it. I ate the whole thing! I felt pretty good for about three hours and I thought to myself, “My anti-wheat ideas must be wrong because I’m doing fine.” Then about 5:00 pm I had a grumbly tummy…off to the bathroom I went! I think that I have to do the Enterolab analysis to find out what is up with me.
A fresh veggie and a piece of fruit?! Thank you! Styrofoam though? Yep, sometimes the trays aren’t available and the lunch room staff like to give styrofoam to the teachers.
***
It’s National School Lunch Week — Hug a lunch lady!
I enjoy chatting with the lunchroom staff when I get the chance. These are caring people who work hard every day to feed hungry kids. Certainly lunch ladies are the most undervalued people in the school. I rarely see them take sick time either (I should know, I’m down there every day).
We start valuing the people who feed us and then we’ll start valuing our food and ourselves.
***
School Food Focus send me some encouraging information today:
To demonstrate their commitment to improving the health of the nation’s schoolchildren, some of the largest school districts in the nation have banded together to participate in Better Beef Days, serving sustainably raised beef to students during National School Lunch Week, October 11-15, 2010.
These four districts, all members of School Food FOCUS, made the decision to serve “better beef” during this annual week of school lunch awareness to show the food industry and government authorities that schools want more healthful, more sustainably produced and regionally sourced food for their children.

School food service professionals work hard every day to serve high-quality food to schoolchildren and offering sustainably raised beef helps to reach their goals of nutritional and culinary excellence. This group of large school districts is demonstrating to the public that there is substantial interest in beef with a desirable environmental and nutritional profile. This coordinated endeavor is a significant step in efforts to enhance the food served to children nationwide.

What’s better about this beef? The four districts have chosen to serve various types of “better” beef – from local and grassfed to all-natural and free of antibiotics, added hormones, and preservatives. For more detail on each district, see below.

The participating FOCUS school districts, with more details on each, follow:

PORTLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS (46,785 students) will serve locally sourced grassfed beef hamburgers from Carman Ranch in Wallowa, OR on locally sourced Shepherd’s Grain whole-grain buns in all 85 schools across the district on October 13.

OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT (38,826 students) will serve all-natural, antibiotic-free, added-hormone-free beef hot dogs from Coleman Ranch in all 98 schools district-wide as part of its “Ideal Meal,” alongside antibiotic-free chicken, locally baked cornbread, and on locally sourced whole-grain buns on October 14.

SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT (131,541 students) will serve Applegate Farms grassfed beef hot dogs, courtesy of Applegate Farms and Whole Foods, in 18 schools (serving about 36,000 kids) on October 14.

DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS (78,352 students) will serve locally sourced, sustainably raised beef from Callicrate Beef of Colorado Springs, CO in haystacks (tortilla chips topped with chili and low-fat cheese) on October 13, and in spaghetti with meat sauce on October 14, in all 142 schools across the district.

School Food FOCUS is a national initiative that supports large school districts with 40,000 or more students in their efforts to procure more healthful, more sustainably produced and regionally sourced food to help children perform better in school and maintain healthier lifestyles. FOCUS aims to transform food systems to the direct benefit of children, farmers, regional economies and the environment, and is funded by a generous grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

***
Lastly, I’ll give away the reusable shopping bags from last Friday’s giveaway in tomorrow’s post! Thanks for waiting patiently!

Day 121: tex-mex (and a lunch packing update)

School Lunches, , , , ,

Today’s menu: tex-mex over brown rice, green beans, a cookie, a banana (and I somehow grabbed a muffin — it’s not on the menu)

So as I was going down the line today, I grabbed everything and I got an extra grain — the corn muffin. It wasn’t on the menu and I’m not sure why it was there. But anyway, there you go.

I’ve mentioned before I like the tex-mex and I’m really pleased that this year the menu contains more descriptive words so that I know a little more about what I’m digging into. Today the menu informed me that the meat was turkey and that the rice was brown.

I was able to eat the tex-mex bowl, the green beans, the cookie, and half my banana over the lunch (there was a mushy spot in the middle and I couldn’t go any farther). I saved the muffin for after school. I didn’t feel the need for an after school snack today, which is not typical. I usually indulge in a Kind bar while driving home (my favorite is the Kind Plus Strawberry Nut Delight).

There is always a lot of trash

***

Packing my son’s lunch and snacks for daycare took an unusual turn when the director asked me to write a letter explaining that my son gets his own food and then getting a doctor’s note saying it’s ok.

I was floored. I need to have a doctor’s note to provide meals for my son? I’m assuming it’s a liability concern. I still was a little peeved. I wrote the letter they wanted for their file and I have messaged my doctor for a note. I wonder if he’s going to think it’s a weird request…

Packing my son’s lunch has been a great choice from him and the family. The menu got weird this week: one day it was nuggets, a blueberry muffin, pineapple bits and peas. I have been trying to mimic their lunches just with healthier options from home. I never realized how many pre-packaged muffins they ate at daycare. I have been getting up early and baking muffins for his lunch. I thought it would be a hassle, but it’s kind of fun and the side bonus is that I get a fresh muffin for breakfast.

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to imitate the daycare’s lunches, but sometimes it gets ridiculous. This week was  nuggets twice!! I just can’t endorse nuggets twice even if they are sent from home. So I sent pasta with sauce and broccoli. I slice up a fresh piece of fruit so that he doesn’t get something out of a can. This week I chopped up fresh pineapple, asian pears, and fresh mango and sent it along.

My son has been sick constantly ever since he started in a daycare center (around age one — we had a different childcare arrangement previously). We have a home nebulizer and he is on a daily medication for possible asthma. After getting very strict on his diet a few week ago, removing (not just reducing) processed food, reducing cow’s milk dairy products to almost nothing, and substituting fresh, organic foods, I cautiously think these changes are making a small difference just after a few weeks…. Fingers crossed!

***

I’m going to BlogHer Food and I will be speaking on a panel. I’m excited and nervous. They have promised to protect my identity. I will receive no payment (I’m taking paid time off to attend for myself, not trying to “double dip” by taking a vacation day and getting paid for outside activities. It’s on the up and up!). You can follow what I’m up to on my Twitter stream as well as what people are tweeting using the hashtag #blogherfood. If you are going, make sure to say hi to me!

Day 92: pizza

School Lunches, , , ,

Today’s menu: pepperoni pizza, carrots, banana, goldfish

For the first time ever I became nauseous while eating a meal. I was about halfway through the pizza and I felt sick to my stomach. I don’t think I was in danger of actually puking, but it was not a pleasant sensation. But I moved forward and finished the pizza. Thankfully I feel fine now.

The goldfish are upside down because this is not an advertisement for goldfish. In fact, today I ate white cheddar bunnies (Annie’s brand) and those crackers are crack. I am not a cheese cracker person (I don’t eat goldfish or cheese crackers) so this is high praise. I gave the goldfish to a coworker.

***

Did Ronald Mc*Donald visit your child’s school this year? The character goes around to schools and does a little talk about “reading.” Great message, but what do the kids *really* remember? Reading or fries? Just saying.

Also I really like the Ronald Mc*Donald House(s). In fact, I have a relative who was involved with them for a long time. You know, they do great things for families. I think they could change the name without anyone noticing. Like “Mickie D’s House.” Isn’t it ironic that the Ronald Mc*Donald House supports families with children who have cancer, but their food if consumed in large quantities might lead to cancer?

Day 82: popcorn chicken

School Lunches, , , , ,

Today’s menu: popcorn chicken, tater tots, bread, banana, milk

The words “popcorn chicken” should never be written together. When is chicken like popcorn? It’s unnatural. Anyway so they tasted salty. I slathered everyone of them with bbq sauce and the tater tots got smeared with ketchup too. I then got out my own stash of peanut butter and spread it on the bread.

***

One of my students who always brings his lunch said to me, “Today I’m hungry after lunch.”
I must have looked puzzled because he added, “I didn’t eat my sandwich.”
I asked, “What did you eat today?”
“Popcorn chicken.”
Mrs. Q: “How did you get popcorn chicken?”
“I traded for it.”
Mrs. Q: “So you traded your sandwich for popcorn chicken?”
“No, a fruit roll-up.”

Mrs. Q: “What did the other kid eat for lunch?”
“The fruit roll-up and the rest of his lunch.”
Mrs. Q: “So like the tater tots, bread, and banana?”
“Um, yeah, but not the banana.”
Mrs. Q: “What happened to the banana?”
“He threw it out.”

Mrs. Q: “So what did you eat then?”
“Popcorn chicken, juice box (from home), and chips.”
Mrs. Q: “Just curious, what kind of chips?”
“My favorite: Funyuns.”

I had to laugh because otherwise I might have gotten sad.

Day 78: pizza

School Lunches, , , ,

Today’s menu: pizza, carrots, banana, ranch dressing, milk

I normally don’t grab the ranch dressing since I don’t need it to eat my carrots. But I did today. Definitely not necessary for me.

Doesn’t the pizza look good in the second picture? I think it does. The pizza wasn’t terrible today. And a banana? I saved that for later. Today I had only 15 minutes to eat so there wasn’t time.

***

I feel imaginary pressure to get these daily lunch posts out to you as quickly as I can. It’s like I’m filing the daily school lunch post with the bureau.
“Here’s what they ate today,” STOP
“It’s a jungle out there,” STOP
“Hope to file another lunch report tomorrow,” STOP
“If you don’t hear from me, I was found out,” STOP
“Over and….” Transmission interrupted
Sometimes life gets in the way and I can’t blog right away when I get home. So this week the lunch posts are after 8pm.

***

Today we were talking about countries we’d like to visit.
I told some students, “I want to go to Japan one day.”
One student pipes up, “I want to go to China.”
I ask, “Why do you want to go to China?”
“Because I like dumplings.”