I came across this article illustrating and explaining the typical French school lunch. The pictures are lovely- seriously, go take a look, I’ll wait!
And here’s the official site for the French School Lunch Project. The project catalogues the menus, habits and other relevant details of school lunches in varying regions of France. The project illustrates how the approach to school lunches in France contributes to a healthy and positive food attitude (generally speaking) in it’s little people.
As a new mom I’m highly motivated for my son to adopt eating habits now that will carry him forward towards health and a positive relationship with food and his body in the future, so I think a lot about the ‘food culture’ in which we swim and how it shapes our palettes and behaviors. This ‘French School Lunch Project’ was right up my alley!
At the same time, I’m very ok that his life will surely include the iconic staples of American food culture like burgers and fries, pizza nights, buckets of movie popcorn, and probably late night Wendy’s Spicy Chicken sandwich runs with his friends when he’s a teenager.
It’s the day-to-day, the routine, the final sum of the repeated, average decisions about food that I’m concerned with really.
I remember the play-dough like texture of the middle-school pizza lunch we were subjected to as unsuspecting 7th graders. Besides tasting awful, it said SO much about the value of a meal. Clearly, food was seen as a place to cut corners. It just didn’t seem to matter that we were eating food that was icky on multiple scores.
Kids spend a lot of time at school. They also learn a lot (duh!), but not just through the curriculum, but through the medium. They’re learning about themselves and their own value, about food and mealtimes, and imbibing messages about the value of health through school lunches. It’s a kindof ‘sensory play’ with a very lasting message.
What kindof message would you want kids to receive through their school lunch? What do your kids eat?
What was your school lunch like as a kid? How did it make you feel about food, yourself, and life in general (!)?
Here’s my meal #3 today:
1 cup egg whites, 5oz snap peas, 1/2 oz sharp cheddar, 1/4 cup salsa
XOXO
A Glitter of Green 