BlogHer Book Club: Lunch Wars

Apparently this is the week of books. It's coincidence that I've had two days of BlogHer Book Club books come up, but it's kind of neat, too. There is a new format to the BlogHer Book Club to some degree, where it isn't always reviews on the site but rather reviews on our own blogs and then much larger - and very interesting discussions - on the BlogHer site. I'm really interested to see the discussions on our current book Lunch Wars by Amy Kalafa.

Personally, I was really excited to read the book. I care a lot about food and what I and the wee ones are ingesting. (I've given up on my husband when he isn't at home!) We do a lot of organics, and I cook from scratch as much as possible. On top of that, we avoid a lot of foods - anything "fake" including sweeteners and dyes and corn syrup in all its form, among others. Not surprisingly, that means that I pack a lunch for the wee one every day. They get a "main course" that is frequently leftover from dinner the night before or a sandwich, a fresh fruit and a fresh or frozen vegetable.

I was really looking forward to what Amy had to say about school lunches and how to improve them. I'm not sure what I was expecting exactly, maybe more of an expose on the lunch program and how much its failing. Instead, she focuses on what we as parents can do. While there is some data on how wrong most school lunch programs are (and no, we don't ever buy them). There is information on how overly processed they are and how they aren't serving the needs of our children. I love some of the quotes from the USDA about how obesity is now the problem the school lunch program is facing and not malnourishment, which is what it was when the program was first developed. The history that Amy weaves into the book to truly get a realistic understanding of the politics behind it and the history of the program provide a great base to do something.

The book is essentially a how to manual. How to go about changing the school lunches in your schools to make them healthier for our children, while ensuring they're something that they will still eat and enjoy. There is some great discussion around the challenges facing the school lunch program - did you know the average program has less than $1 to spend on the students' lunch after taking into account other costs? No wonder so much of it is prepackaged over processed crap that meets the letter of the law with regards to requirements but definitely not the spirit.

Amy has a step by step guide with real life stories and plenty of encouragement to make a difference in your community from how to build the coalition to how to approach the leaders in your communities and more. It was impressive to see so much useful information in one place, but I know I don't personally have any more energy to go change the lunch program in our district - partly when we don't participate in it anyway (it's $4.25 per lunch for my son!) and partly because I'm volunteering so much elsewhere and partly because I'm focused on getting Mister Man to his therapies (including during school time) and to their after school activities. I just don't have the bandwidth to take anything more on, but I would absolutely love to see this take root in my community.

This book gives me hope that it can be done. I am planning to write a note in the front of my book: I read this book and I wholeheartedly support the need for change in our school lunch programs. I am passing this book along to another community member to share this knowledge with them. Below that I will sign my name and ask everyone who reads the book to do the same. It's the small part I can do to further the movement, and I have so much hope after reading this book.

That said, I know a lot of parents want to keep the flavored milks in schools (Do they know what's in it? Do they know what the alternatives are?) and are ok with eating the prepackaged processed foods for a variety of reasons. In many ways, I am in the minority. Where do you stand in the Lunch Wars?

Weigh in here, and join in the discussions on Lunch Wars with BlogHer Book Club.

Win a Hallmark card pack as part of their Get Carded campaign
Win a Purse Perfector purse organizer - trust me, you won't know what you did without it

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a copy of "Lunch Wars" for review purposes. I am also compensated as part of this campaign, but as always, all opinions expressed are my own - just check out some of my not so positive book reviews for proof of that!

Just Call Her Winona Ryder Junior...

There are times when I'm glad I go through the wee ones' backpacks nightly. I rarely miss a field trip notice or a homework assignment - though that isn't to say they don't get lost once I've seen them once. On Friday, I pulled an extra special note from Little Miss's backpack.

Ummm, excuse me?

What meals account? We don't have a meals account. There is no deposit there, so how could it be in arrears?

Little Miss doesn't eat hot lunch. I pack her a healthy and yummy lunch every single day, and never once have I forgotten. She can't eat the hot lunch anyway because she's dairy restricted, not to mention that they are generally foods I don't want her eating anyway. And for $2.50? Yeah, I'm definitely packing her a lunch.

This must be a mistake. There are three girls in her class with her name; somehow this must be meant for one of them, not for Little Miss. Right?

I mean, I know she's brought home her lunch untouched or with just a few bites taken several times, but she goes in fits and starts of eating, so there were no red flags raised, especially since she'd eat her full lunch once she got home from school. After all, she has snack, too, and I feed her a pretty big breakfast. Right?

After fifteen minutes of careful questioning, my little sneak admitted to having eaten hot lunch at school without having paid for it. She couldn't remember how many times she did it or what she ate when she got it, but she knew it was maybe more than one time. She didn't really like what she ate, but ... she wanted to be like the other kids who got hot lunch.

She knew the lunches cost money that she wasn't paying (they have a little "credit" like card that she knew didn't have any money loaded on it that they use to pay). She knew I'd find out. But she did it anyway.

I sent her upstairs to count out $7.50 to put into an envelope to take to school to pay for her lunches, and she's promised to never do it again. I don't know if I trust that, though. And I'm not sure what else I shouldn't trust.

I've already had a conversation with her teacher - who had no idea that she was buying lunch. The teacher is going to pull her card so that she doesn't have this option anymore. I still have to call the lunch staff to explain this to them, however, as pulling the lunch card is not standard practice apparently.

Someone help me through the teen years with her. Did I mention that she's five?

I am also giving away a Progresso Souper You Debut gift pack here.

Oh, and while you're at it, I finally set up a Facebook Fan page for my blog (and corrected the link here - oops!). It's way overdue. Go like me on Facebook if you would so I can get an official username - once I get enough likes. You can also follow me on Twitter, too, if you're so inclined.