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A Merry Life

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Fresh Approach to Changing School Lunches

May 15, 2012 by Mary

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for details.

Tonight I ate a cookie.

It wasn’t a normal cookie though. It was one of those healthy cookies. The kind with less fat, less sodium, less of all the bad things yet it still tasted great. It was also the kind of cookie they have started serving in Memphis City School.

Cool, right?

Tonight I went to Community Foundation of Greater Memphis to watch the documentary Cafeteria Man. The film is about improving school lunches which falls into one of the Community Foundation’s main initiatives of healthy eating, active living.

The film follows the work of Chef Tony Geraci in Baltimore schools as he worked to change the way school lunches and other meals were served. The film was fascinating and it was awesome to see the changes he made in Baltimore during his time.

Based on the video he focused on great things:

  • buying food local from farms in the state/area
  • bringing food from farm to table instead of prepacked trays
  • providing fresh whole foods to kids at each meal
  • embracing urban agriculture and farming even at the schools
  • teaching kids to grow food themselves
  • teaching kids to cook food that they’ve grown
  • the end goal of producing a healthy student ready to learn

The above photo is actually Memphis kids in a Memphis garden. Chef Tony Geraci is now the new director of Nutrition Services for Memphis City Schools. He is working here to create the same kind of changes to improve the quality of school food.

After the movie Tony Geraci was there to answer some questions and talk more about what he is doing in Memphis since the movie was focused on Baltimore.

Cool things happening with school food and nutrition in Memphis:

  • Breakfast in classrooms is now at 71 schools. Last year it was at zero. This rocks because as he mentioned it’s hard for kids to learn if they are hungry or jacked up on sugar so this kind of program is a type of readiness for learning.
  • Geraci runs the program like a business. He makes sure they save money from the budget and he listed several projects currently running that do this. For example he is putting 200k into a few dozen acres to grow food and that will create 1.2 million in produce utilizing a prison-farming program.
  • Grahamwood Elementary school created a hoop greenhouse garden that is producing food actually being eaten at their school and a couple others. It’s one of the first of several gardens planned. Hoop farms can provide food and also be a great teaching tool.
  • New point of sale system that allows parents access so they can see what their kids are getting each day. It will also allow blocks (no cookies for example) or reminders to get at least 3 salads a week (and a message pops up if that isn’t happening so the kid has to get one).
  • Trucks of food ready to cook and already prepared (cut, washed, etc.) go out from the central kitchen to the schools. Food is actually cooked at the school instead of just reheating trays a prepackaged food.
  • People are parents in Memphis have been really supportive so far.

My favorite quote of the night: “If you eliminate the crap, they can’t order the crap. “

I really found the movie and the talk afterward fascinating. It’s a popular and sometimes controversial topic these days but things really do need to change. I remember the school lunches I used to eat and … they were bad. Really bad. I’m pretty sure I never ate a salad until college and vegetables were rare because they always looked so disgusting. It’s awesome to see that the choices are getting better and giving kids now a better chance at being and staying healthy and ready to learn.

What were your school lunches like as a kid? What improvements would you like in schools today? Meatless days? Fresh foods? More/less choices?

Filed Under: Food Tagged With: food, Memphis, school, school lunches


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Comments

  1. Eating as a Path to Yoga says

    May 15, 2012 at 10:13 pm

    I love that they are getting kids actively involved with the growing of, and preparation of the food. That is KEY to getting kids hooked on healthy living FOR LIFE.

    All kids. Not just the fat ones.
    Size does not equate health.

    • Mary says

      May 16, 2012 at 9:11 am

      Agree with this. A lot of times it seems adults focus only on the little fat kids. But when you look at the diets of the rest they most likely aren’t eating any better it just hasn’t caused weight gain. All kids need to learn this stuff and how to eat healthy regardless of size. So true!

  2. Ashley says

    May 16, 2012 at 12:06 am

    That’s cool. Our school lunches were awful! I think I may have eaten pizza every day of high school.

  3. Deb says

    May 16, 2012 at 12:09 am

    Um… When I was a kid, I ate lunches my mom packed everyday. I don’t remember the food because I was constantly being made fun of because of my clunky Tupperware lunchbox… lol. Junior high I qualified for a free low-income lunch program, and I just remember pizza like cardboard. Eww! When all of a sudden high school rolled around, I had a few dollars of my own money and I ate Taco Bell’s taco snacks every day that I bothered to eat. I know, its no wonder I ended up looking the way I did shortly after! And at home- we never ever had fresh veggies or fruits, except the occasional oranges or potatoes. My dad didn’t like them so my mom never bought or served them. I can;t get enough veggies and fruits now!

    • Mary says

      May 16, 2012 at 9:10 am

      Haha! The cardboard pizza was a staple at most of the schools I went to. I would eat it at lunch then be hungry by the time I got home and have a snack usually a sandwich and chips. So yeah… it’s not a surprise that I ended up obese around middle school. Eh. I hear ya!

  4. 90 Day Challenge says

    May 16, 2012 at 6:20 am

    That’s nice. Our school lunches were not to good! I think I may have eaten pizza every day of high school haha.

  5. Tiara Lynn says

    May 16, 2012 at 8:14 am

    I grew up eating anything which is why I am overweight. I wish I was taught this healthy living. I still don’t know healthy eating up until now. :(

  6. Tiara Lynn says

    May 16, 2012 at 8:16 am

    Comment cut off…Anyway, cookie looks delish.

    • Mary says

      May 16, 2012 at 9:11 am

      It was really good! It’s obviously not a standard cookie and didn’t taste like one with tons of sugar and fat but it was still quite good. I think it would pass a test for kids to like it yet still be more nutritious than a package of oreos or something.

  7. Erin says

    May 16, 2012 at 9:06 am

    “Eliminate crap and they can’t choose crap.” BINGO. It works in my house; why not at school?! My son brings lunch almost every day because the food offered looks disgusting. I’m sure it tastes just as bad. Something like this needs to hit our school systems here!

  8. Jody - Fit at 54 says

    May 16, 2012 at 7:59 pm

    Love this quote! My favorite quote of the night: “If you eliminate the crap, they can’t order the crap. “ WE NEED MORE!

    I always tookmy lunch as a kid BUT having grown up heavy – the food was not always the best. It does start in the home BUT any help we can do at the school level – I am for.. watching eight of the Nation which is controversial on the Twitter & other places – well, kids having diseases we did not even see in adults until recently – not good!

  9. Lee says

    May 16, 2012 at 10:04 pm

    Kudos to the schools in Memphis! Creating a sustainable atmosphere and getting the kids involved. This needs to happen across the country!

  10. Carrie @ Season It Already! says

    May 17, 2012 at 9:26 am

    Wow! Eye-opening. Great post!

  11. Teri says

    May 17, 2012 at 3:10 pm

    Do you mind if I quote a couple of your articles as long as I provide credit and sources back to your site? My blog is in the exact same area of interest as yours and my users would certainly benefit from some of the information you present here. Please let me know if this alright with you. Cheers!

    • Mary says

      May 17, 2012 at 3:22 pm

      Of course it’s fine! Thanks for asking. :)

  12. merri says

    May 17, 2012 at 5:33 pm

    That’s awesome. School lunches are gross and it’s sad what kids have to eat.98% of the time i brought lunch from home cuz i wouldnt eat the gross stuff they served. If i bought lunch, it was usually something like popcorn, or a pretzel, and that wasn’t uncommon… a lot of kids would eat something like that as their whole lunch. The lunch itself was not filling, bad tasting and unhealthy. I hope that people like Tony Geraci are successful…i saw the other show a couple times on tv with that jamie guy, and it seemed that most places are prettty resistent to changing, and even if they want to, cant afford it, due to the way things are set up, even by the govt.

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