I'm working summer school this week, which is relatively quiet: the kids that are here need to be here, so no one's coming to complain about being sick, and the days are too short to have recess on the playground, so no tetherball accidents are possible. You're probably wondering why I am working at all, and the answer is that there needs to be a registered nurse in the district in case something does pop up, and I volunteered to work a week of it. It's nice to be able to get paperwork done in peace, and I closed my middle school office in such a hurry (more on that later) that I have plenty to sort through still.
The principal was wheeling a cart past my office today, and then backed up as soon as he saw I was in. "Check out why we have an obesity problem," he said. I went out to see what he was wheeling: brown bags of carrots and bananas. Confused, I said those look better than the average school lunch I see, and then he clarified. "These are the leftovers." The kids - all here during summer school are recipients of free lunch - had already eaten, leaving all the fruits and veggies to go to waste.
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So what else was served for lunch? Studies have noted that a child's 'unfamiliarity' with new foods could be a reason for non-consumption. I confess ignorance with the exact situation described above; can these kids really be *that* unfamiliar with the standard carrot or typical banana?
ReplyDeleteIn m experience: No. They aren't unfamiliar. They will be given sweets/fast food/junk as soon as they leave school (and declare they are "starving.") So they skip the boring carrots and banana. Kids are pretty practical. The ones that do go hungry, eat their veg/fruits. The ones that are fed but given junk, they hold out for the junk.
ReplyDeleteWhat else was served for lunch: a pre-packaged, preservative-laden "peanut butter and jelly sandwich" one might call it. It's actually an "Uncrustable" and it's what it sounds like: basically two pieces of white bread without the crust with a lot of sugar squeezed between them. I won't give them the benefit of a link, but trust me, it's gross. They got that and a small package of animal crackers - also sugar and preservative-laden - along with the fruit.
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