Re-Defining School Lunches
my mother is going to retire next year after teaching 1 and 2nd grade for 35 years. She now wants to become the school cook and feed students REAL food a la Alice Water's Martin Luther King School. I remember reading somewhere that there is a good book about re-defining school lunches but cannot seem to locate it. Was wondering if anyone from the SE community could point me in the right direction. I would like to get it for her for Christmas!
thanks guys and girls!
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9 Comments:
Have you checked out Jamie Oliver's Jamie's School Dinners? The DVD of the first season is available at Amazon UK but not Amazon US. I don't think it's ever aired in the states. It's worth watching.
Raphael at 4:10PM on 12/14/07
Tell your mother congrats that is truly a courageous feat and one that's been long overdue.
As for books, Chef Anne has a few http://www.lunchlessons.org/html_v2/books.html
but i think that most of the best information is already on the web (not really a present i know)
this is a really great site with some interesting ideas: http://www.ecoliteracy.org/programs/rsl-guide.html
and Alice Waters lists a whole bunch of websites and books here:
http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/how_res.html
hope this helps
avryan at 4:32PM on 12/14/07
Chef Ann Cooper worked with Alice Waters. She just came out with a book that would be right on topic for this. Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children
ExpatChef at 4:48PM on 12/14/07
Wow - that's a lofty goal and definitely a worthwhile one. I wish her the best of luck. Our kids deserve someone like your mom! Tyler Florence tried to "rehabilitate" a school cafeteria but frankly, I don't think the workers' hearts were in it and it failed. If everyone's on board, hopefully it will set a new and hopeful precedent.
We should start by removing Coke and Pepsi machines from schools. Kids will drop 10% of their weight after that action alone.
chiff0nade at 7:32PM on 12/14/07
I think if they got the kids out of the house for 30 mins a day they would not have weight issues. Kids don't go out and play much anymore. They are on the computer, xbox, nintendo, gameboy etc and not out getting excercise.
I drank coke in high school for breakfast and lunch and dinner (old coke not new coke) and I was skinny as a stick. I had to walk everywhere or ride my bike because (SURVEY SAYS) my mother was not my personal chauffeur. Mini vans have DVD players in them so while you are being transported to school you can watch a movie? What is that about? It is not an international flight for crying out loud.
This is the place where I tell you I had to walk 5 block to catch a bus to go to school in a catholic girl's kirt in the freezing cold.
Parents are why the kids are fat not just because of the soda. It is what they allow their children to eat and how they manage their physical activity.
Open the back door and throw the munchkins out into the backyard!!!
Couch potato nation. I expect Karen will jump in any time now.
When I came home from school I had a piece of fruit a hunk of bread and some cheese. Also I drank a lot of coke (old coke with sugar not new coke with corn syrup) when the coke was gone we drank orange juice which is loaded with sugar.
I digress, here is a list of books about the topic some looked very informative http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/103-5700982-2347011?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=school+lunch&x=13&y=23
America has taken convenience over quality thats why school lunches are what they are. When I was in school (long time ago) the lunch ladies made good food. I might add they were people's mothers that I went to school with mostly. Go figure.
JerzeeTomato at 8:14PM on 12/14/07
Jamie's School Dinners did air on Food Network in Canada. Might also be available from Canadian Amazon.....
Maureen at 9:29AM on 12/15/07
I hosted Ann Cooper for a book signing and presentation at my restaurant, and while I admire her work tremendously, it's easy to see that she's not a parent. She doesn't have to deal with the arguments, tantrums, etc that many parents do, regardless of their intentions. It is true that many parents have no intentions other than to keep their kids fed. But many do. Many want their kids to be free of HFCS, eat whole grains, eschew fast food and enjoy a diverse variety of foods. I know that I do. But man, it's hard. I can't simply instruct a group of students to eat what I would like them to, then go home to my child-free life. She does work with the kids and goes about menu planning in some sort of quasi democratic fashion, and that works wonderfully in her school system. But we try this at home, and the results are less than perfect. For one, my kids would never talk back to their teacher, but seem more than content to let me know how they really feel. And don't get me wrong: my kids don't eat junk food; they don't drink soda - they love sushi of all things. But the list of favorite foods is a short one, and veering from the list can be a parental nightmare.
But do get the book, and check out Ann's calendar of school menus.
zapatista at 4:43PM on 12/15/07
I was thinking about this issue this evening, starting with my own dinner. I was peeling potatoes for an individual serving for myself and was struck by how difficult it would be to prepare that fresh for hundreds of students. It got me thinking - I know schools rely on packaged, processed foods now but what did they do before that? I realize there was a time when most kids probably brought food from home, and before that even when they went home for lunch, but what about the in between time between now and then? Smaller schools? Or was the school lunch really born out of the processed food revolution? A bit off topic, but I'm curious if anyone knows.
KBear, bravo to your mom. For teaching, first of all, and for taking on such a project when she could just stay at home with Oprah :) Bless her heart.
LizNYC at 11:47PM on 12/17/07
It's not that it's hard, Liz, it's that it's expensive in terms of labor costs. It's entirely possible to put together decent meals for hundreds every day if you have a large enough staff. But most public school districts aren't getting the funding they need for academic classes, much less for lunches.
thepictsie at 7:23PM on 12/18/07