by GEHRY OATEY
[Editor’s Note: If you’re new to The Schoolyard Foodie's bi-weekly column, be sure to read steps 1-3 and 4 of his 12-step program to help schools rid themselves of their systematic addiction to processed food.]
Step 5: We admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the prepackaged, artificially preserved nature of school cafeteria food.
Step 6: We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of nourishment.
Today, while you are eating your homemade or purchased-outside-of-school lunch, it is the perfect time to sit down with God (or Allah, or Buddha, or James Brown) and admit that we are failing to nourish our public school children. Middle school youth have some pretty specific things to say about the nature of what they eat at school.
For the benefit of all and with no intention of offending anyone—including God—I have left the majority of the video clip true to the attitude and culture found in an urban middle school classroom. These students are hoping that with God’s help, you can remove all of the ‘defects of nourishment’ and begin to acknowledge the need for fresh, local food in school cafeterias.
(If your school blocks YouTube, you can watch it here.)
2 Comments
May 21, 2009 at 3:01 am
Due to an outcry from Kinder- 5th graders, the Student Council at my school (International Community School, public school in the Fruitvale)focused this year on improving our school lunches. Because of their emails, letters, meetings with representatives from OUSD nutrition services, and meetings with representatives from Revolution Foods (revfoods. com), we 1) had a salad bar installed last month, and 2) it is highly likely that we will be getting our lunches from Revolution Foods next year!!! If more students around Oakland organize, we CAN do away with that nasty food!
July 15, 2009 at 3:48 pm
[...] as far away as Oakland, “nasty” seems to be the word of choice (emphasized, of course, by “hella,” as things often are on the West coast) for describing school [...]