I remember reading an article about a school in Queens where the cafeteria workers were trying to make foods that the kids, mostly immigrants, would eat. ... The cafeteria worker in charge of ordering the commodity foods was able to exchange and trade around a bunch of stuff to get a giant container of curry powder, but it took a whole lot of finagling.

I read that article too! It was really fascinating, and sad, because it was sooo difficult for them to work around the stuff they were given. I think that same article talked about how only a few of the cafeterias in the school system had actual kitchens (with like, stoves and ovens and stuff) and many only had, essentially, microwaves. So a lot of places couldn't really *cook* anything, which meant they were super limited in what they could make.

There are wines that aren't vegan? I had no idea. Oddly, the idea that some beers aren't vegan is vaguely pinging me, but the wine thing is making me go "bzuh?". Do tell?

Several of them have been denounced on conservative talk radio as socialists trying to indoctrinate our children.

Is it bad that, at this point, this makes me MORE likely to go for an idea??

TYRANNYFASCISMHITLER.

...I read this first as "TRANNY". And then as "TYRA". Clearly my brain is SO TOP MODEL.

Marines doing the cha cha slide

shrift, that is hilarious (and they are kind of hot). But please note, I am not asking. And they are not telling. No sirree bob.

I also love that they were stumped by the "Charlie Brown" portion of that song. Last wedding I was at, we got to that part of the song and went "....uh...."

Oh Jamie Oliver. The food may be "going to kill your childrens early", but your GRAMMAR is going to kill my listening to you early!

guess who was up until 3am?

not me.

Guess who was in bed by 9:00pm, but then got a call from work, had to go back into work until 1:00am, and then had to go back into work at 8:00am this morning?

That's just wrong.

Off to the farmers' market!

Timelies all!

Going to take my car to Jiffy Lube today. Otherwise, housecleaning, laundry and TiVo.

Nicole, I probably can't get up there. The roads down here are bad but I'm honestly tiredd of drivng anyway. But thank you for including me!

Guess who slept in until close to 11 AM?

Yuck Tom, that sucks.

Mac was still up at 7. Tomorrow I predict GIANT CRANKPANTS!

I managed 2 more loads to the storage room this morning. Got a bunch of clothes put away and hid away most of the clutter. Fingers crossed.

Off to karate.

My urban public school (75% minority, more than that on free/reduced lunch) has pretty bad lunches - frequently one of the choices is those "Uncrustables" premade frozen peanut butter sandwiches. They do have stuff like black beans and rice sometimes, but they also have pizza and nuggets. 2% milk is an option, and frankly I don't see any reason elementary kids need to be drinking skim; IMO skim milk is one of those "fat is bad booga booga" things. They do have strawberry and chocolate milk; I am told Casper usually picks plain (go, girl!). I pack her lunch and happily she eats the same damn thing every day - yogurt tube, apple, and peanut butter on wheat bread.

The school also has some positive food programs, though - they have a grant program that brings in fruits and vegetables for snacks, often exotic ones (they get to try mangoes and star fruit and stuff I've never heard of as well as broccoli) and each class has a garden bed and a garden mentor volunteer, and last spring they had salads made from the produce at the Field Day.

There's also a program with the local Food Bank that sends backpacks full of food home with needy kids on weekends. That stuff tends to be prepackaged - tuna in cans, pop-top ravioli, etc. - out of necessity.

It's a crazy mix of food cultures at our school - a big chunk of organic hipster/yuppie types, a big chunk of African-American public housing kids, and a big chunk of Mexican and other central American immigrant kids. And both millionaires and people in poverty (more of the latter, natch.)

One thing about Jamie Oliver - I think it's weird to call him an elitist; my impression is he's very much from the working class, and that in contrast to many chefs. I watched the "sneak preview" and didn't see any mention of the word "organic" either; he railed against preservatives and additives and processed food, but he was pushing "fresh ingredients" rather than locally grown or organic.