What I am going to do about food at my son's school

I realize that this has been my personal blog, and that, beyond my mom and a few friends, I really have no readers, which is fine, it is my life.  However, I am overwhelmed at the issue of what my son eats at school.  He is less than 2 weeks in and his pooping has already changed from eating processed food, he is pooping less regularly and instead of being a good consistency it is either hard and painful for him or runny and gross.  It never really smelled disgusting before and now it does.  I have noticed the difference in his poop and children who eat processed food before, this does not seem like a good direction.  (I'm sure my few readers wanted to discuss poop, at least B would think it was hilarious) On top of that I already see him struggling with impulse control, especially with hitting other kids, either for attention or because he doesn't know what to do with his emotions.   This is always a struggle for him, but I have noticed many times the correlation between him consuming sugar (juice counts!) and these issues.  He has enough trouble with it, I don't want to set him up for failure by giving him juice and a "bagel" pocket with jelly first thing in the am.  This is not a good snack for him or any other child and I find it appalling that I didn't even know he was getting it.  This snack was not listed in the school's menu, nor was the fact that they give children a morning snack mentioned...in fact when I asked about this snack, which my son had described to me very accurately, and I described as a bagel pocket filled with jelly (exactly what it was) at the first PTA meeting, school officials told me he must be talking about bagel pizzas (I won't even start on the problems I have with that!)

However, all of that being said, I know that this school has the best interest of the children at heart and they do many things that I respect, and more that I am sure I will learn about as the year progresses.  I know that school lunch (and breakfast, and snacks) are truly needed by some students, and may be the only meals those children eat in any given day.  I just found this out last week, but my son's school recieves title 1 funding, which means lunch (and breakfast and snacks) are given to all students based on the community's income level.  On a practical level this means I can pack all the food I want for my son, but I can not control wether he chooses chocolate milk or the schools pbj for lunch over what I packed.  I have asked him to choose regular milk, and have explained to him why and so far he seems willing to do that, but I know that won't always be the case.  It seems unfair that I can help my son make these choices, but some children won't even know what choices they are making.  I even brought up some of these concerns with my sons pediatrician at his 5 year checkup and she was under the impression that food at schools was getting better.  It is not.  Unless we are all educated as parents, as educators, as citizens about these issues nothing will change.

I wanted to wait to begin speaking out at the school for issues I see as important until I understood the structure and routine of the school, but this is too pressing a matter to wait.  What we feed our children is just as important as any book they read.  If we are filling their bodies with things that will make it harder for them to concentrate, give them terrible sugar crashes, put them at risk for awful diseases, how are we helping them learn?  I will be speaking out at the very first public opportunity I get.  In addition I foresee all sorts of problems with convincing administration to look at these issues when they have so much else on their plates, and little money to address such concerns.  I will be using this blog to record research and links as I start to compile information about these issues.  I am also going to start a non-profit organization, specifically aimed at supplementing the cost of fresh, real food and trained staff to plan and prepare meals in public schools.  I know that this will not be easy, but from here on out this will be my good work, for my son, for all children, for the future.

Daily Lunch Box

This is actually a lunch from last week, before my camera died and I couldn't find the charger.

Fresh Mozzarella Cheese, on pumpernickel bread, with a drizzle of olive oil
Raisins
Snap Pea crisps
Tomatoes (they are in season, and all of their deliciousness is to be found at the Farmer's Market! I am thinking of some gazpacho I want to make!)
Edamame

This lunch was a bit of an experiment...and one that didn't really go well.  B has decided that he does not like tomatoes!  Alas! Alack!  Who is this son of mine?  Surely this is only a phase and he will come to his senses soon!  He also didn't eat the edamame or the cheese!  The edamame I can understand, but why my son refuses delicious Mozzarella cheese I could not tell you, especially since he eats every other kind of cheese imaginable!  He did eat the bread though.

Thoughts on Food While In TN

No photo here.  I am down south visiting my parents, both of whom have type 2 diabetes.  For all of my thoughts on food and pictures of what I serve my son, I live in a place where most of the parents and children I hang with take it as a matter of course not to feed their children fast food and high-fructose corn syrup.  You would probably be ostracized from the play-group if you gave your child a sip of soda, but here all of those things are a way of life for children and adults alike.  I am not making a blanket, biased statement, I am saying this based on very unscientific observation and a lot of reading.  I don't think there are any parents who set out to feed their children (and themselves) poison, but they (all of us really) are victims of not just un-education, but actual mis-education, an under-funded, under-staffed FDA put up against companies with massive ad budgets.  Even the companies serving organic are part of the system.  They just discovered lead in juice, in brands running the gamut from organic to big company, and no one knows how it got there!  What chance do our children have of growing up to be healthy in this environment?  To borrow the words of Jamie Oliver, we need a revolution!

Also, I just found this blog, a lot of interesting articles.

Daily Lunch Box

Banana
Broccoli
Snappea Crisps
Cheese Tortellini with olive oil and Parmesan cheese

This was another popular lunch...though B did not eat the broccoli.  The  banana is a lot, and I usually try to avoid sending them with his lunch.  Though nanas do have some good stuff in them (and they are delicious!) they also have a lot of sugar! which makes B a little crazy.

Daily Lunch Box

Sliced Jack Cheese
Broccoli
Sesame Bread Sticks (these were an experiment, B keeps begging for those gross, little, chemical-laden Snackables, the ones with the fake cheese spread and bread sticks, which the grocery store displays at kid eye-level. Anyhoo, before I let my rant go to far, I tried to make him his own, and made a sort of pimento-esque cheese spread for him, but he, of course, refused to eat it.  The breadsticks I bought to go in his fake lunchables he likes however.)
Blackberries

This was super easy to throw together, the only thing that even took a tiny bit of doing was steaming up the frozen broccoli.  Successful as well.  B ate almost everything.

Daily Lunch Box

Jack Cheese
Hard-Boiled Egg
Strawberries (now at the Farmer's Market!)
Red Grapes
Snap Pea Crisps (oh my god, if you have never had these, go out and buy a bag right now, delicious for children and adults alike)

This lunch was a little heavy on the fruit and nary a grain in sight, but B ate almost all of it...except for the egg yolk, came back perfectly intact minus the white.  How did he do that?

Daily Lunch Box

Whole wheat cheese tortellini w/homemade basil & arugula pesto
Green Beans
Blackberries

My sister says she likes my blog but that the Daily Lunch Box is a little boring...here's the thing though, I think about what my son eats a lot.  I feel like in this fast food, pre-packaged, chemical laden atmosphere you have to.  It's not like you can trust marketing, or even the FDA to protect your family from stuff that's bad for you, and I want to do my best to nourish him so that at least that is a part of his life and not something he has to figure out on his own.  My point, I'm damn proud of the food I put together for him and I want to look back at this and feel a sense of accomplishment.

If you want just a little web-browsing about the things we eat here are a few links (nothing new, all this stuff made the rounds a while back, but worth looking at)

Jamie Oliver's TED speech
Fed up with School Lunch -- a blog where a teacher eats her school's lunch every day -- has a lot of great education guest posts as well
Michelle Obama's Let's Move Campaign
Gluten Free Girl -- I love how Shauna and The Chef make food so joyful
101 Cookbooks -- one of my favorite sites for cooking inspiration

Daily Lunch Box

Cream Cheese & Cucumber Sandwich on Raisin Semolina Bread (from our favorite baker at the Farmer's Market....what is their name?)
Pea Shoot & Cherry Tomatoes with Brianna's Poppyseed Dressing (I love this stuff, it makes me want to eat salad for every meal, alas, though I got B to eat this exact salad the evening before and beg for more, he didn't touch it!)
An Apple

Daily Lunch Box

This seems to be left-overs week.
Annie's mac & Cheese, with peas (from dinner last night)
Grapes
the last of the Cranberries, and graham cracker bunnies
Veggie Bootie

I couldn't get all of the food in the photo if I put it in the lunch box, here is what it looked like all packed and ready to go.

Daily Lunch Box

Sharp Cheddar with mustard on whole wheat bread
Veggie Bootie
Cherry Tomatoes
Pickle from The Pickle Guys

Okay, not my best effort.  We had a long weekend over here at Casa Brooklyn: great, fun, but long.  My sister and I threw a huge KY Derby Party on Saturday (we are from Louisville, home of Churchill Downs, and have the party every year)  I spent a lot of last week cleaning house and finishing up some projects around the place (pics of the house in coming days....) I was so inspired by the cleaning up that I decided to have a stoop sale on Sunday....perhaps over estimating my energy, but I made $17 (totally worth the like 20 trips up and down our 3 flights of stairs!) and got rid of some stuff.  Anyway, long story short (don't really know why I say that, it's a long story longer, LOL) both B and I overslept a bit this morning and were just rushing (or I was rushing, and trying to get my 3 year old to rush, an iffey endeavor at best) to get out the door.  Got down the stairs and realized I had not only forgotten to bring his lunch, I had actually forgotten to make it! So this was a throw together, mostly leftovers from the party.  He didn't eat the tomatoes.

Daily Lunch Box

Some sort of mushroom focaccia from the farmer's market, I added some marinara sauce
String Cheese
Grapes
Peas

The night before we ate some of this bread to see if B would like it, of course he gobbled it up, but the next day his lunch came back, all the sauce licked off but the bread intact. Sigh.

Daily Lunch Box

Hummus--this is Sabra brand
7 grain wheat crackers from Kashi
Sliced Cucumber
Baby Carrots

This came back with what appears to be about 1 bite of the hummus, 1 carrot, and most of the crackers gone....I don't always understand what he eats out of his lunch. Most days I try to send things that I know he loves, like he loves this hummus, but it doesn't seem to matter...hmmmmmmmm.....how can I get him to actually eat these things. Admittedly I am sending him with more than he usually eats, and extra choices...maybe I should send him with just the right amount?

Daily Lunch Box

Cheddar Cheese on whole grain bread with mustard
Veggie Booty (Baby Boy's version of Cheetos, I swear these are like crack to him, he can gobble a whole bag)
Strawberries
Carrots

Obviously the strawberries are not in season in the US, however B begged for them at the grocery. The baby carrots are just from the grocer as well. I should say, though I buy a lot of our produce at the local green market, I keep on hand frozen peas, baby carrots, and broccoli at all times. They are go-to veggies when B won't eat anything else.