Food is a social justice issue. When healthy food is priced such that only the privileged can afford it, there is injustice. When families are forced to choose between paying for necessities such as rent, utilities and medical care and buying healthy food, there is injustice. When family-run farms that raise healthy foods are squeezed out of business by corporations that mistreat animals as a matter of course, there is injustice. When governments or companies limit the ways people can grow or raise their own food, and when children become obese from a steady diet of cheap, starchy, refined foods, there is an injustice.
In this TEDtalks video the Renegade Lunch Lady, Ann Cooper, says we send kids to school with a message that they should learn there. If we give kids “bad” food at school, she says, that is what they learn. She looks at what we are teaching kids by what we serve through school lunch programs, and she answers the questions raised more recently by Jamie Oliver about how schools can find funding to give kids nutritious meal choices.
Are you trying to teach your kids about healthy eating? Check out Ann’s healthy meal wheel. It isn’t always easy for kids to put things into perspective when they look at the government food guides (Canadian or American.) Ice cream is a dairy product, right? I need 2-3 servings of dairy each day, so I can eat three ice cream cones and still be healthy, right? Wrong!
Ann’s meal wheel is drawn so kids can understand how much of a given thing they should eat in a day, because the healthy whole grains and vegetables are really big on the diagram. Hamburgers and ice cream cones, unlike the serving sizes we see in our dépanneur or grocery store, the local fast food restaurant or even the school cafeteria, are pretty small next to the grains or beans or broccoli.
I also love Ann’s approach to teaching kids about healthy foods in school: get the kids to grow the ingredients, have them sample them and cook with them at school, serve the same healthy foods as part of the lunch menu – and then send home the recipes! How many times have you received a nutrition newsletter from school with all kinds of fabulous ideas about how to get kids eating healthy foods, and then the lunch menu a week later is full of cheap, processed foods that the school can prepare in a hurry? If everything the school serves is pre-packaged, how can they expect you to get your kids to eat the apple or the carrot sticks you packed for them? How can they expect sprouts and watercress on a whole wheat tortilla to stand up next to a meatball sub with cookies or pudding for dessert?
And the comment about recess after lunch? Pure genius! Of course kids are going to rush through their all too short lunch “hour” so they can go outside and play. Heck if most of the kids are already outside, the lunchroom staff are probably going to hurry them because they have to maintain their supervision ratios. Make the kids run around first, then give them a reasonable time to eat and send then back to class. They’ll get their exercise and sunshine, and they’ll work up an appetite. They’ll actually eat lunch. And they won’t be crashing before the dismissal bell rings.
Parents, back to school time is almost upon us in Montreal. The annual elections for governing board, PPO and Home & School Association will be coming up before you know it. If you want to do something good for your kids, get involved somewhere – or at least support the people who will support social justice and positive change for the kids. Schools can’t just dump the required curriculum, but they have a good deal to say about when kids eat and what gets served in the cafeteria. This is where we can begin to make a difference for the next generation. This is where we can begin to create healthy schools that will turn out healthy kids.
This content was originally posted to one of my other blogs, Education in Montreal.
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