Jamie set his sights on changing the school lunches in Huntington, West Virginia, which is apparently the most unhealthy town in our country. He was met with plenty of resistance, and it's clear that many of the people in Huntington are in denial about the future of their youth if they continue on the path of meals that are completely void of nutritional value. In last week's premiere, it was pretty eye-opening when a class of first-graders could identify French fries but not potatoes, and they knew what ketchup was but called tomatoes "potatoes." Sure, they're only 6 years old, but it's still a little scary to think that they don't know the difference between two pretty common vegetables... and don't even get me started on the "breakfast pizza" they are being served at school.
If you missed the 2-hour premiere, you can watch online at ABC.com. Don't forget to watch (or set your DVR for) this Friday night's episode!Images via ABC.com
I watched this last Saturday and was dumbfounded, shocked... I don't know the right word, but I've been talking about it since. I couldn't get over how the school 'cooks' were okay with all the processed food, with all those preservatives they were serving. How they kept pointing out "the first ingredient is chicken" but ignore the 15 other unrecognizable ingredients. I wanted to reach through my computer and shake some sense into them.
ReplyDeleteI think what Jamie is doing is wonderful. We should be more mindful of what we put in our bodies and especially what we feed our children.
Funny side story, I left the house to meet Jason at our friends house after watching this and I was really hungry. I didn't stop to get anything on the way over b/c my only options were fast food and I couldn't bring myself to eat it, especially having just watch that haha
I watched the first couple of episodes. I love the show. That head lunch lady scared the heck out of me. Also, it reminded me of some of the lunches I ate at public high school. I think my diet consisted of pizza, soda, and chocolate chip cookies from the cafeteria. It's frightening to think that these young children are addicted to junk at such an early age. Such an inspirational show - we can all learn a little something!
ReplyDeleteI watched this too and was saddened at the examples the parents were quick to set when they so strongly resisted his whole program. It almost seemed like some of the kids may have initially intentionally disliked the food just because of all the trash talking they'd been hearing about Jamie's food and the program. Too bad. I don't think people took into account how much children want to please their parents and that maybe they would have liked the food faster if there was a more positive initial response.
ReplyDeleteI did like though that they all came around, and he can continue to try and improve school lunches. I'm really surprised though at how much has changed from when I was in school even. Sure there was always pizza and nacho day but there were real vegetables that you had to take (whether you ate them or not) and in elementary school chocolate milk was only an option on Friday's. Fries were never an option as a part of the school lunch, but were offered "a la carte" if you had extra money for them. I can guarantee the recipes never changed from kindergarden through senior year, either. We just got more options for fast food as we went.
I'm really liking this show! He has a seriously hard road ahead of him, he's got a tough crowd!
ReplyDeleteI can't help but wonder how much of this is selectively edited to make it all more dramatic BUT that doesn't change the absolute nutso things that are happening. Have you seen both episodes now? I think my favorite in the first was when they were like "You have to have two carbs" and he pointed out the rice and they forced him to make some french bread. Those aren't even whole grains he's having to serve!
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to see how he ends up cutting costs to make this work with a school budget. I'd love for him to go into peoples homes (read: mine) and show how you can really eat less processed food for less money, something we haven't figured out how to do yet.