Jamie Oliver Earns an Apple For "Food Revolution"

You know the saying...

"An Apple a day..."

Well the "Food Doctor", Jamie Oliver has written a new prescription for Americans and the food we eat, especially our kids and school lunches. And what is that? Eat real food!

I am such a fan of Jamie's Food Revolution that I decided to add his button and link to the petition he has created. I don't just add things on this blog unless I really find weight to it..especially a link or button. The fact that I added both, means that I  agree with Jamie's vision of creating better diets and in this case better school lunches.

A few years ago, when our kids were in elementary school I had a wake up call to the school lunch program. I admit, I did not make lunch every day. At the beginning of each month, I would sit down with the kids and we would go over the menu and pick which days they would like to buy. I protested to a lot of the choices...fried cheese sticks, big soft pretzels...these items are not lunch-these are what some would consider snacks or appetizers! In any event, a certain dollar amount ($2.00 per lunch) would be put into their account to cover the few days they did want to buy. It never failed that mid-month, I would get a letter from the school saying their account was short. One month, the letter said that the account was a negative $5.00! They only started with $8.00!

So in I marched to the lunch lady, letter in hand ready to say that the accounting was wrong. What she showed and said to me stopped me in my tracks. She had a print out of all the food items the kids purchased that month and it wasn't all a balanced lunch. Much of what I saw was what the school called a la carte. Kids had the choice to get whatever was set out for them...ice cream, Twix bars...cookies, etc. If you give a kid a choice of buying an apple or a Twix bar, which do you think they are going to pick? It was explained to me that I did have the option to block these items on their account so that they could only buy the lunch that was provided. BUT....if I locked these items, that would also prohibit them from getting milk.

That's right. Milk would be blocked because the school considered it an a la carte item. I asked, "but isn't that included in a lunch purchase?" The answer was no. "Are you kidding me?" She wasn't.

As I left the lunch room, the first wave of students were going through the line. The lunch workers were not just handing out the tray of lunch, they were asking what the kids wanted ON the tray..."do you want corn?" No. "Do you want salad?" No. "Do you want a fruit cup?" No. When I went to school, you ate what was put on the tray. We didn't have a choice. As I got older, ice cream was offered (Push-ups or the Nutty Buddy ice cream cone) but that was it-and I didn't get it every single day.

Since that meeting, I packed a lunch for the kids every day. There may have been one or two occasions where oversleeping had me reaching in to the wallet, but for the most part they have been brown-bagging it. A big plus I find for our family is that we do eat fairly healthy. Do we have sugary cereals? Sure. Maybe a bag of chips once in a while? Yes. But, we also have a bowl of fruit-(which I am often asked by the kids' friends -"Is that real fruit or fake?") on the kitchen table always available and a salad every night along with fresh vegetables with dinner.

To Jamie, I offer an A+ and an apple for teaching our kids how to make better choices and why it is so important for them to do so!

You can watch Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution" on ABC, Friday's at 9pm EST. Check your local listings. I think you will be surprised and learn something too.