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.

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?

Some wine is processed using a fish derivative.

This just made me laugh until I cried. Marines doing the cha cha slide: [link]

Man, I love that so much. And it makes me, once again, wonder what my first boyfriend is up to. The last time I googled him, the only result was someone looking for him!

Some wine is processed using a fish derivative.

Huh.

Guess who slept in until close to 11 AM?

Me!! Well, 10:30. Good times.

Sorry, Tom.

How the USDA Helped Bring Processed Food to School Lunch: [link]

I got up at 7:30, but now I want to nap.

Wine processed with fish "product" makes me say "ewww"

The cha-cha sliding soldiers made me laugh, and also think about Don't Ask Don't tell!

Wow, intense school lunch debate! We didn't have school lunch for three of my four years of high school because the food workers were on strike. We all brought lunch or subsisted on pizza that someone inevitably was selling outside the caf (because nothing legally could be sold or served inside it while they were striking). In the many public schools I attended and taught at, boy was the food bad. One of the best parts of shifting from public to private school teaching was getting some real lunch options. I hate that public school lunches tend to be regulated to the point of inedibility.

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.

Thanks for this. I'm 100% certain that childhood obesity is not due to 2% milk.

My mom would never let us drink anything but skim once we were older than 2, but it wasn't because of obesity, it was because of milk fat causing heart disease. We also didn't have butter, and only very rarely had egg yolks. (Of course, they now say that the margarine that we were allowed is just as bad as butter, but back then, margarine was the recommendation.)

Sorry, Hil, I didn't know that was why.

I've heard lots of people insist in skim in various settings, usually of what Flea says: "fat is bad booga booga."

I can just barely make myself drink whole milk on the rare occasions I eat a dessert that's not fresh fruit or yogurt. I'd much rather drink calcium-fortified orange juice (or water, for that matter) than skim milk.