When I asked what her choice for 2012 would be, she was ready. “Having kids eat healthier is a great thing,” she said. “But trying to do it in a one-size-fits-all manner has never, ever worked.”
Law school is on the horizon for this fencer-immigrant-chef-student. Anna’s lobbying skills combined with her determination and common sense promise to make her one excellent attorney.
The blog’s been abuzz this week. A few links of interest:
where’s the beef
Where’s the Beef?
Yesterday BlogHer published a post you first saw here about the new public school lunch standards, Where’s the Beef?: Public School Lunches Lean on Meat. If you’re all about food and farm (And who isn’t? We all eat, right?), I’d be much obliged if you’d click over to read and comment. Your interest and engagement shows there’s an audience for stories like this. BlogHer recently updated their reach from 40 million to 50 million women a month. That’s a lot of groceries…
caped crusaders
Comic Book Capers
Did you catch the Vice Presidential debate? My esteemed Finding (Un)Common Ground co-blogger Lisen Stromberg and I commented on the matchup. Was it young man vs. old man? Rude vs. polite? Seasoned vs. green? Or the Joker vs. Robin?
Voter Prep Video Earlier this week, I changed my Missouri driver’s license to a Kansas driver’s license and registered to vote here. I video blogged about it in The Adventure and Responsibility of Voter Registration. Here’s a preview (It’s okay to laugh as I’m still learning how to vlog!):
yankee doodle
Teachable Moments During Election Season This past Tuesday, BlogHer published my story about engaging kids in the political process. Media literacy, parenting, and politics collide in You Can Watch Election Coverage With Kids. It’s an honor to publish in this forum about such important topics!
Abortion Showdown Looms Life issues plague our country. Abortion is the elephant in the room this election. Watch for Lisen and I to take opposite stands on the issue first thing this week on Finding (Un)Common Ground.
Checking Out
Everybody feel all updated now? God willing, I’ll be back around mid-week with more in store including the first of the Instead of Hot Dogs recipes and Words to Remember from a famous Greek philosopher. Have an excellent weekend.
Praise the Lord; praise God our Savior!
For each day He carries us in His arms. Psalm 68:19 NLT
Translation: lots of fruits and veggies, not so much meat.
My friend Katie blogged about the new federal standards and why they don’t work for her family. Other women began blogging about the standards, too. They started a Facebook page called Sensible School Lunches to dialogue.
I pay taxes that support public schools and these programs. So do you. We pay regardless of whether or not we have children enrolled. The well-being of the children in a community is important to the community as a whole.
That makes us all stakeholders in this.
The new federal standards recommend children in kindergarten through fifth grade receive more than six cups of fruits and vegetables for lunch per week, but only eight to 10 ounces of meat or meat alternative for lunch per week.
You read that right. Per week.
That’s roughly two ounces of meat per lunch.
Two ounces of meat per lunch didn’t sound like much to me, but I wasn’t really sure. My son and I headed to our local market to find out.
Two ounces (.125 pounds) of raw ground beef is about one meatball. Enough for a small hamburger or a portion of spaghetti sauce. Not bad.
2 ounce meatball on scale
Consider the chicken leg. It’s overweight at .31 pounds (4.96 ounces).
chicken leg weighs more than 2 ounces
Two slices of bacon is fine, but a two-slice limit wouldn’t go well at my house.
2 ounces = 2 slices of bacon
At another store, we determined one hotdog would pass.
ballpark beef franks, 1 hotdog = 2 ounces
So would a package of lunch meat like this.
2 ounces of oscar mayer chicken
My son enjoyed our investigative reporting. But as I snapped photos of Oscar Mayer, I wondered what the menu changes meant in real life.
Will children really eat 1/4 cup of jicama and 1/4 of pepper strips as suggested for the Monday menu, assuming they know what jicama is? How about Tuesday’s suggested 1/2 cup of broccoli and 1/2 cup of cauliflower?
Who are these kids? We try at our dinner table. We really do, but it’s a win if the child ingests more than one green bean.
please do not climb on cow
By the time Friday rolls around, the weekly allowance of meat on the sample menu has been depleted. Cheese pizza is the suggested fare. Why not front-load the week with this deficit and participate in Meatless Mondays?
Let’s say a child eats his veggie-rich lunch of jicama and peppers with two ounces of turkey and one cup of fat-free milk, but is still not hunger-free. How will that child perform in class?
What if that child’s only meal for the entire day is school lunch?
The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act updates public school menus for the first time in 15 years. It’s a commendable start.
The emphasis on fruits, veggies, whole grains, and low-fat milk is terrific. Still there are questions that need to be addressed for these standards to succeed in real life.
Giving local schools more say in what works best in their communities with their students makes the most sense.
Local schools are also better equipped than the federal government to network with area farmers and ranchers to supply foods, another goal of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.
There’s work to be done. Please contact your elected officials. Visit Sensible School Lunches to learn more and to dialogue. Bloggers, consider writing your story about this topic and sharing it there.
He always does what He says—
He defends the wronged,
He feeds the hungry. Psalm 146:7 The Message
And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for. A link to the Wendy’s commercial that inspired this post’s title: Where’s the Beef?
