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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Food for Thought

Last year, sometime, I was at the library. I was thumbing through the magazines they were giving away and I found a Time magazine which was focused on childhood obesity. Since I tend to be pretty health conscience I picked it up and took it home. A large part of the issue was talking about school lunches and how incredibly unhealthy they are. It gave 3 samples of a normal days lunch for students in a public school and then gave the nutritional break down. Yikes! I was disgusted by the amounts of processed foods that many students today are consuming! My thoughts on the subject were sparked again when my friend Nikki posted this blog post. In which I left way too long of a comment. :)

My children are homeschooled so it isn't like I have to worry about what they are eating when they go to school but it does make me a little upset that schools are okay with feeding their children junk.

I came across a blog today that I find totally fascinating! Fed up with Lunch: The School Lunch Project is a blog by a teacher at a public school who is eating a school lunch every (school) day in 2010 and documenting it. Here is her agenda, if you want to check it out. My first thoughts as I was scrolling through her site was the incredible amount of waste with every single lunch! Back when I was in school we got a tray and they scooped our food onto it for us. But it seems (at least at her school) things all come pre-packaged.

I am encouraged to see a number of schools starting to take notice and trying to do better. If you have a child who is in public school or about to start I would encourage you to check out their food options.




If you have about 20 minutes here is an great TED talk by Jamie Oliver

~A

3 comments:

Marie said...

My mom always made our lunches for us in elementary school. On pizza day I remember we bought the lunch. Yeah nothing was pre-packaged back then...just slopped on the tray!

I commented on Nikki's page that a bigger problem might even be that recess is getting cut so short.

Steve, Amanda, Kyle , Owen, and Madilyn said...

It is definately sad that we send our kids to school and hope that they are getting a well balanced meal. I guess like Marie, I was lucky, we always had a sack lunch. And I definitely agree, that child obesity is from more than just food, lack of exercise does it too. I remember as a kid all we ever wanted to do was play outside, now-a-days it seems as though kids stay indoors playing video games and watching tv. It is really sad.

Amanda said...

Agreed, ladies. It seems as though schools are trying hard to stimulate children's minds (almost to the point of unhealthy stress...but that is a different soapbox!) but neglecting their bodies. And I don't want to sound like the schools are totally to blame. Parents certainly have their part to play too!