The ‘Lunch Lady’

Posted on 25 March 2007 under School Lunches

One of the things I like about the software we use for these blogs is the ability to save blog entries, or even notes for an entry, and finish them later. The problem is that I sometimes forget about them till, like, almost a week afterward …

Back on March 21st, CBSNews.com reported on a former Chef who has taken on school lunch duties in Berkeley, California. From the article:

In cafeterias there, (Ann Cooper) has tossed out fried, frozen, and sugary foods and replaced them with fresh, seasonal, and mostly organic meals … Driven to reform school lunches as concerns grow over childhood obesity and diabetes, Cooper gets up at 3:30 each morning to begin cooking school lunches by 5 a.m. Somehow, she also eked out time recently to write “Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children,” which offers inspiration, guidance, and recipes to those wishing to duplicate her efforts in their own school districts … When she began working as director of nutrition services for the Berkeley Unified School District (BU.S.D) in the fall of 2005, about 95 percent of the cafeteria food was processed. Today, 95 percent is made from scratch.

In the latter part of this entry on January 23rd I wrote about a lunch lady I used to know in Kentucky who also cooked in this manner. Contrary to popular belief, contrary to what the kids may only think is possible, and contrary to what lunchroom personnel and school boards may tell you, it is possible to have decent lunches for these kids on a daily basis, lunches which are also within the budgets.

All you need is someone in-charge who cares … someone who can make a difference … and, most importantly, wants to do so.

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