Awesome student food blogger banned from blogging. Being awesome gets her unbanned. Inspires me to enact my plan for cafeteria food revolution.
Despite never reading the news, I sometimes manage to stumble across links that take me to websites that have news on them. Recently, a food blogger, VEG, was banned from continuing her blog, NeverSeconds. This food blogger is a nine year old girl that takes pictures of her school cafeteria lunches and rates them on a "Food-o-Meter", healthiness, number of mouthfuls and if there are any pieces of hair. I saw the headline for the ban but for some reason didn't end up reading it. However, I just saw this article saying that the ban on her blog was lifted.
To say the least, I'm glad the council came to their bloody senses. This young lady is concerned about the nutrition of the food she is eating 5 times a week and is trying to make a difference! Did I also mention that her blog was made to raise money for a charity, Mary's Meals. Her blog is so popular that it raised enough money to build a kitchen in Malawi. Quite an amazing feat for anyone, let alone a 9 year old.
Ever since starting at this school in September, I have always thought that the cafeteria food was a tad lacking and thought that at the end of my first year (when I can officially lift my title of newbie) I could try to bring up the idea of serving more nutritious food to help develop the growing minds of our young students. Here are a few examples of food I have seen and/or eaten from our lovely cafeteria:
- Grilled cheese sandwiches: Apparently the best grilled cheese ever. They are mass produced by being baked in the oven, so really, they are no grilled at all. The students seem to love them although I can't imagine eating them at recess (10:00AM), 5 times a week which I'm sure some of them do.
- Chocolate Chip Cookies: Also apparently a big hit because some kids will walk into class with a stack of 2-3 cookies after recess. This is the dessert to have after polishing off a grilled cheese. I figure that they are expunged from a roll of prepared chocolate chip cookie dough. Taste-wise you can't go wrong, but nutrition wise is another story.
- Grilled chicken sandwich: I've tried this once for lunch when I was in a bit of a hurry. It was a loaf of sandwich bread with pieces of chicken in it and cheese. As far as I could taste, there was nothing else in it, making it pretty bland. It was grilled, though, so bonus marks there. I was given a garden salad on the side that was quickly drowned in dressing. I've learned to ask for a small squirt of dressing or for it to be on the side..
- The gravy: The only specific warning I have ever received about the cafeteria was to never eat the gravy.
Anyway, I could go on, but it's basically not great. A lot of the seniors eat out because the food is lacking and the juniors aren't allowed to leave, so they are stuck with bland pasta or mushy french fries. I mean I wish I knew more about revamping cafeteria food but I will certainly bring some suggestions to our director this summer...