Grow Your Own: Suburban Gardening: Does a Healthy School Lunch Affect a Child's Behavior or Learning?

Monday, February 13, 2012

Does a Healthy School Lunch Affect a Child's Behavior or Learning?

My daughter is 42. When she was in school I insisted on a boxed lunch. Why? I wanted to make sure she got a good meal. I did not trust what she would be fed in school. We did not qualify for free or reduced lunch and I could not see paying for the garbage they feed the children. She did not agree with me. She did not think it was cool to carry a lunch box, even if all the other kids wanted her lunch. She had a cool lunch box. I filled it with really good food that she traded for the lunches made in school. The other children really appreciated the food I made her. In the middle school, her principal even commented on how good her lunches looked and smelled. By middle school she was selling her carefully prepared meals for money. What can I say? She was very enterprising.

The average American
school lunch?

When I attended Dwight Morrow high school in Englewood, New Jersey, there was a collection of round ladies wearing hair nets behind the petition separating the kitchen from the lunch pick up area. The smells that filled the cafeteria were very much like the ones from home. When one selected mashed potatoes, one knew they were going to eat mashed potatoes. Macaroni and cheese was made with real cheese, eggs and butter. It was good. Turkey squares were the favorite of all us all. I think they were served on Thursdays, especially near Thanksgiving. We looked forward to them. There were real green vegetables. Of course, we knew that some of the vegetables came from a can, but they were still palatable and made by ladies who waved to you from the kitchen. It was a balanced meal based on the FDA's basic food groups.

Spinach w/turkey bacon, mushrooms

There has been a lot of coverage given to school lunches in the news today. Perhaps it is because of the interest shown to the subject by our First Lady, Michelle Obama. She and Rachel Ray teamed up to visit schools and made an effort to revamp school lunch regulations. Jane Black of All We Can Eat wrote, "More than 500 chefs gathered at the White House today to join Michelle Obama's newest effort to fight childhood obesity, Chefs Move To Schools."

Public domain image:
http://www.wpclipart.com/food/Food_Pyramid.png.html

Across the country parents and communities are talking about school lunches. For years, educators and medical professionals have agreed that a lunch laden with carbohydrates do nothing to stimulate a child's brain activity. Included in this blog are Dr. Oz's Shopping suggestions. The human body turns everything on the school lunch plate above into sugar. The styrofoam plate is also a problem if the macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes are served hot. The tray is also not biodegradable. It will sit around on the landfill for 100 years, maybe even forever. Some schools are beginning to go green, but until the trays are piling up in front of our doors, some people will never listen. These trays have no recyclable value. Why are we continually giving students mixed messages? We can't talk Green Team in one breath and serve them unhealthy meals on styrofoam trays while we speak. No one wants the used trays. They are totally NOT recyclable. Why are companies still making them? If the schools stop using them, there would no longer be a market for them. So why, you ask are our children still being served globs of carbohydrates on them? Ask your local Board of Education.

From my garden

We must all become involved in keeping the earth green and clean. Every school should have an environmental club or class that focuses on the effort to save the planet. Every child should and every parent must protest the use of styrofoam lunch trays for school lunches. It is bad enough that the food served on them is processed to the point that it no longer has any nutritional value. What ever happened to the old adage, "you are what you eat." Think on that for a second or two. Is there no wonder that today's children seem to have more and varied behavioral problems. There are people all over the country who are making the effort to get it right. That is behavior that we should emulate. It is time the New Jersey State Department of Education started to understand why New Jersey has been nicknamed the "GARDEN STATE." More of that fresh produce must begin make its way into the daily lunches in our cafeterias. We must use every strategy at our disposal to support our children as they endeavor to close the Achievement GAP so prevalent in today's educational system.

New Jersey Nutrition and Wellness

What are folks saying about School Lunches?

Success Stories: They got it right

CHOICE: Citizens for Healthy Options in Children's Education
Tray Talk: New Salad Bar Offers California Students 18 Feet of Fresh Choices
Success Stories: Waste Free Lunches
USDA: Food and Nutrition service success stories
School Lunch Success in Austin, Texas: The Official "Whole Foods Market" blog.

STYRENE: Increase your knowledge of this potentially dangerous product on which your child's food is served daily.

Alternatives to Styrofoam

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Original Garden Committee Members

The Louie Bacoat Historic Community Garden was made possible by many different groups of individuals who worked hard, who donated money for materials that made the vision possible. The County Personnel was very responsive in the donation of soil, large machinery and labor. The Garden is sustained the same way. We are a group of lifelong learners. Left to Right: Betty Griffin, Esther Babb, Curtis Caviness, Kevin Lake, Richard Stanard, Wayne Hamer, Valerie Hamer, Lucy D. Walker, Crystal Brown, The Gainey Family

Teamwork = School and Community Together

This group of teenagers pitched in at a moments notice. Community donors and volunteers supplied all of the lumber and other materials needed to build the garden. City Council Members, A School Board Member, Members of the Environmental Commission and Families pitched in to build the garden. A construction firm noticed our dilemma and volunteered to build the first 25 boxes. Volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints contributed time and Carpenters to assist in building the remaining beds.

Gardening is the most rewarding manual labor on the planet

In July of 1990, I received a call informing me that my Mom had passed. It was raining. I went outside anyway. It was very warm and the smell of the warm earth was very soothing. I weeded my flower beds and thought about my Mother. She had left the hospital against Dr's orders. She wanted to die at home. She worried about her cabbage, beans, tomatoes and the various other vegetables that she was growing. Her physicians agreed that work in her gardens kept her spirits up. She was in her massive garden sitting on her little cart rolling herself up and down the row as she picked green beans and other vegetables daily for 3 weeks. She passed quietly late one night in the arms of her companion. She wrote her will on the back of an old envelope giving her small farm to whomever would live in the house and care for the land.

The Louie Bacoat Historic Community Garden

The Teaching Garden at The Louie Bacoat Historic Community Garden is dedicated to contributing to the sustainability of life within Englewood and beyond. There is NO PLANET B. Our children must teach their children to preserve the one we have.

The Louie Bacoat Historic Community Garden is supported and maintained by a Village of Lifelong Learners who have volunteered to aid in the STEAM Education at a Community level of the children in Englewood. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) We support the concept of creating and maintaining a year round School Garden at each School in Englewood and work towards that end in a partnership with the School System.

Pre K and beyond are welcome as we share this journey of moving towards bringing residents closer to nature while incorporating elements that will help them succeed in school. We partner with the Schools and members of the Community to help children understand the value of;

- working together as a community,

- preserving the Environment while

- growing their own food,

- eating healthy

- fighting obesity

- malnutrition and

- giving to those less fortunate.

Everything that we are depends on maintaining a healthy planet. All life depends on the capacity of humans to grow and maintain the land in a clean and healthy way.

We are on a quest to improve the Environmental conditions on our School grounds and in our City. We hope to be instrumental in the formation of a sustainable NJ School System . We are encouraging EPSD to take constructive steps towards becoming a United States Department of Education Green Ribbon School District.

Cabbage: Another of the World's Healthiest Foods

Protection Outside

Be careful of the natural elements and other living things when working, entertaining, or playing in the yard. Chemicals & poison end up in the ground water. They kill the good bees, bugs and helpful garden life. use organic solutions and try not to change your ecosystem. Those same chemicals get back into your tap water.They may cause potential harm to you, your children, your pets and other wildlife. Protect your eyes, skin and hands while you work. Put "off" on your clothes, not your skin. If you have a small yard, use a manual mower.