School Lunches

       I didn't have the option of eating school lunches until I began attending George Washington Junior High School in the autumn of 1971. Until that time I went home like most everyone else at Willard and ate whatever my Mom was offering that particular day. It seems quaint to look back on this time when a stay-at-home Mom would make lunch for her children, and sometimes their friends, too. Some people blame school lunches for the obesity problem we see now with children. They have a point if you consider all the energy we burned during our lunch hour, where now the kids must sit and probably watch TV or play on their computers. It doesn't take a math whiz to calculate the fact that if these same children lived when I grew up then they would be outside much more of the time and burning many more calories than they do now. This is not a slap at these kids in the slightest. They have been dealt a hand and now are being forced to play it, even as the pounds add up at an earlier age. 

     Our school lunches at GW were probably no more nutritious than the ones being served today. Kids then as now could decide for themselves to just eat ice cream and tater tots and throw whatever lunch they brought in the garbage can. The big difference is the seven years of walking home for lunch which I experienced and the children today don't have as an option. This is where the problem lies, and it won't be changed easily because of all the two-earner households we have today. We can't send the kids home to make lunch for themselves so we have to provide lunches in the schools. Here's hoping that we can better educate our kids to make more nutritious choices and save the tater tots for special occasions. English Chef Jamie Oliver has the right idea and if you have a chance to catch his show Food Revolution you will probably become hooked on it like I have. He is literally spending his own cash to promote a campaign to get better food into homes, schools and communities all over America and give our kids a better future. Check it out because I don't see the return of a stay-at-home Mom revolution beginning anytime soon so we better grab what we can and see if we can make it work.