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Right accross the river in Vancouver... a area that really is over looked when people talk about OREGON... WE are much closer neighbors than some parts of Oregon,,,that is another disscussion though.  right.

I am a  Mother that packs a lunch for my children daily. I pack a lunch because the choices that are available are neither nutirtious or appetizing.  I pack a lunch because it is an easier option for our family and it is much more cost effective. 

I think the point that is being missed in this whole disscussion is...Will the children eat it? 

I have been to visit my daughter many times to eat lunch with her.  While there I have noticed the children are given very little time to actually eat their lunches due to...time restraints?  The thing I found most upsetting was the amount of food that the kids are actually eating. 

In the evergreen school district they are making an effort to bring in local produce.  I happened to be at school one day when the children were offered a "farm fresh pear"  from a local farm.  These little six and seven year olds were given a whole enormous under ripened piece of fruit.  Do you know how many of them went straight into the garbage?  untouched.  unenjoyed.  Some of those kids most likely don't even know what a delicous juicy just ripened pear even tastes like.  If things were done properly those pears would have waited,  been allowed to ripen, and then cut in half, into a portion appropriate for a child.  Instead the were thrown on a tray, looked at and then thrown away.

I think this is the piece that is missing in the disscussion.  So many pieces are missing.  Really.  But will the kids eat it? 

It is very simple to talk about thing s when they are out there as something we can do, something that needs to change, but it is a system that needs a huge overhaul.  School lunch and the lunch lady have gotten really lazy.  It is a system based on convenience and which is easiest. 

Go to a school sometime...see what the kids are eating or how much.  It was a very shocking thing for my the first time, then it happened again and again.

posted 4 years, 3 months ago
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