My grandparents moved to a farm in Maysville when I was
quite young and every time I visited I relished that first taste of a fresh
tomato or that last crisp bite of a homegrown green pepper. My grandmother made the most amazing
food using berries grown by neighbors, vegetables she harvested and canned, and
breads from a local baker who grew his own wheat. It was delicious, nutritious, and quite difficult on her to
do day in and day out yet she did it; and she worked. And she raised children and helped raise her
grandchildren. We look back on
those stories from bygone days and we worship those heroes of yesteryear but we
do nothing to emulate them. We
seek out convenience, speed, instant gratification in all that we do and that
extends to our TV dinners and hot pocket lunches. Our children will never know the delicious taste of a
pressure cooker steamed vegetable or the feel of a fall-of-the-bone
slow-roasted pork loin made with love at home.
As Fort Thomas children headed back to school this year, I
could not help but be reminded of this sad lost art of fresh-food cooking. I understand that it is not the place
of our government to mandate the foods our children eat and I can understand
the difficult choice Superintendent Kirschner and the Board recently made whether
I agree with it or not. What
saddens me is that we as a population have gotten to the point where we allow
our need for convenience and speed to dictate the foods our children eat. It saddens me that we’ve gotten to the
point where the government ever even felt the need to dictate this. Yet we have. Nearly 32% of American children are obese. Meaning every third child that goes
through the lines of the Fort Thomas schools is obese, statistically
speaking. Meaning, every third
parent is not making appropriate food choices for their children.
I realize I am perched precariously atop a soapbox and I
also realize my children eat their fair share of Pop Tarts. We are far from perfect in the foods we
eat. But when given the choice to
buy fresh or frozen, we buy fresh.
When given the choice to buy white or multi-grain, we buy
multi-grain. And when given the
choice to select a chocolate candy bar or a Nutri-Grain bar for my children’s
snack, we select grapes, or an apple, or the occasional salty snack recognizing
that as long as we’re providing balanced options and teaching them the
importance of healthy eating, we’re doing the best we can. And that is all any of us should do-
the best we can. Not the easiest
or most convenient, but the best.
It is unfortunate the government could not put together a
perfect health food program with foods appealing to children to eat. Poor tasting health foods would never
sell in a cafeteria. Equally so,
though, pizza sauce and ketchup should never be considered vegetables. What pained me the most, though, was
reading the justification for the Board’s decision citing the number of apples
thrown in the dumpster daily. An
apple- good enough to give to a teacher as a gift but not good enough for our
kids to eat.
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