A Show Worth Checking Out

I happened to catch the last half of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on Friday night and thought it was well worth watching. It's a new reality show on ABC and it's all about what our kids eat. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver first set his sights on transforming school lunches in his home of Great Britain and now he's turning to America. Apparently, he is quite convincing because Great Britain has just invested over $1 billion to improve their school lunch program.

Image via Wikipedia

If your kids are in the pizza, burgers, and chicken nuggets stage (whether at home or at school), it's worth checking out. Most shocking was the scene where they show kindergartners a variety of fresh vegetables and ask them to name them. While they could all name french fries in a heartbeat, they looked as if they had never seen a potato! It's sad to see how far processed food has taking us from the raw ingredients.

The show airs Fridays at 9pm. If you want to check out the premier, click the link above.

Write for Better School Lunches

I was not a big fan of school lunches as a kid. I still remember that nasty Chicken Chow Mein that they seemed to always serve. Pizza Fridays weren't bad, but I was definitely happier most days to bring my lunch and buy a milk for a dime (hard to believe it was a dime!)

School lunches may have improved on taste (don't all kids like chicken nuggets?), but from a nutrition perspective, most schools aren't doing the kids any favors. According to Slow Food USA, schools are reimbursed $2.68 for each free lunch which, after overhead, translates to $1/lunch. Cheap is good, but if it's leading to the later high health care costs associated with obesity and diabetes, the real costs are much higher.

With the Time for Lunch campaign, Slow Food USA is urging Americans to sign their petition and write Congress to call for the Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act of 2009 (voting has been delayed until early 2010). The Act would provide an additional $1/day to fund the lunches. It also provides $50 million to link local farms with local schools - that money would get poured right back into the communities and would support the small, organic farmers that I am convinced are necessary for our long-term nutritional needs. I've just finished reading the section about "big organic" vs. "small organic" in The Omnivore's Dilemma (by Michael Pollan) and it was very convincing on that point. Definitely a book worth checking out if you want to know more.

If you care about what we're putting into our kids' tummies on a daily basis, I encourage you to learn more.

Alternatives to Juice Pouches?

My last blog post seems to have generated a lot of interest so I'm doing a second on the same topic. Of course, most of my blog readers are still emailing and calling me with their comments so you can't see them here. I would love for you to comment on the blog so others can see your thoughts so my next blog will be a quick primer on how to post.

In the last two days, I've heard from parents, teachers, and doctors about the juice pouch controversy. It seems to be one of those topics that you can't stop thinking about once you realize the magnitude of the problem. According to Terracycle, who is working with the manufacturers, over a BILLION juice pouches are used every year! No matter how many purses and pencil cases come out of that through upcycling, that is still a ton of waste. So, what are the alternatives? I'll give you my thoughts, but would love to hear yours...

Green - First of all, when you're home, why use the single-use containers at all? Kids are fine drinking out of cups, right? When you're away from home, use drinks that come in recyclable containers. Treetop apple juice cans are one low-cost alternative. Crayons is a new entry in the kids' beverage market with all-natural drinks in easy-to-recycle cans. They are still a bit on the pricey side, but I have heard the company is working to find a more affordable price point. You can find them in the natural foods aisle of your grocery store.

Greener - Eliminate single-use containers altogether. Use those aluminum water bottles and fill from bigger containers stored in the fridge. Of course, many of those containers are also plastic so make sure you recycle those.

Greenest - Juice machine, anyone? I'm not claiming to be this good, but maybe some of you are. Or, what about the simplest and cheapest option - TAP WATER! Each of my boys has a SIGG water bottle which I would normally show here, but the water bottles are at school right now so I can't snap a quick pic!

How do you eliminate the waste from kids' beverages?

Greener School Lunches

180 school days times two children = 360 packed lunches in my household. That's a lot of lunches! While my greatest challenge remains finding healthy food that my children will actually eat, another struggle is how to avoid all that plastic baggie waste. For me, I try to keep the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle mantra in mind with their lunches.

My solution was helped by the fact that from an early age, my kids refused to eat sandwiches. Why, I never could figure out, since they will eat bread, meat, and cheese separately, but that's another story. My default answer became a thermos full of last night's leftovers. This way they get to reuse the leftover food and we get to reduce the overall waste factor, by not using a plastic sandwich bag. The thermoses have contained everything from chicken and veggies to soup to spaghetti.

For all the other items (fruits, veggies, crackers, etc.), I use reusable plastic snack containers. Truthfully, these are the same ones I've been using since they were babies with their first snack of Cheerios, but they do the trick. They also each take a reusable water bottles and plastic silverware. I used to send them with cloth napkins, but those came back unused everyday, so I gave up. Who was I kidding? Little boys don't use napkins of any kind!

I'm happy that we skip the plastic baggie route most days, but we still have room for improvement. One of my kids gets a small can of apple juice each day, while the other buys a carton of milk. While these items can be recycled, I don't think that's currently happening. The school did just send out a notice on reducing its carbon footprint, so I'm going to make a note to follow-up on their in-class recycling options. They also each usually get a small yogurt (hiding under the carrots in the picture). I tried converting to home-packed containers of yogurt that come from the larger tubs from the store. It would be cheaper and there would be less waste, but I haven't sold the kids on that idea yet - their favorite flavor/brand doesn't come in the big containers. Ah well...

There are many options for going green with school lunches including reusable sandwich wraps, but I have yet to try these. I think it's all about what works for each family and our plan seems to be working for now. Anyone else have other tips or tricks?