Passion for veggies

If you know me, you know my mom grilled into me that you need to have the right foods. She always had celery and carrot sticks cut up for us and offered those first. Afternoon snacks were cut up apples and oranges. It is amazing that children will eat healthy if that's the only alternative. But who would pick cut up cucumber slices over a Little Debbie? Yep, not me either!

So you may know I freaked out when I went to have lunch with my children at their school, and there was no cooked vegetables on the menu and almost no children were eating a whole fruit or vegetable at the whole cafeteria. I stewed for a while, then decided it if it worth being mad, it is worth communicating my disappointment in a productive manner. So I wrote the following letter to the person in charge:

This past Tuesday, I went to Concordia to help volunteer and planned to have lunch with my sons. What I saw was very disappointing and I feel as a parent, I need to share my concerns and see if you are aware of something I observed, particularly because the menu selection is similar on the other days I have been there. I ended up going to the Middle School / High School Cafeteria area (where I saw many Elementary faculty, too) and had a sandwich chock full of fresh veggies and made with healthy chicken and wheat laffa. Unfortunately, my sons don’t have that option. I feel there are not enough healthy options, particularly fruits and vegetables offered to our children. I would love to see more whole grain products, too for things like bread and pasta products, but I know that is more difficult to come by in China. However, China has a wonderful, vast selection of fruits and vegetables. For example, right now, I would love seeing the delicious mandarin oranges that the children can peel themselves on the menu.

On the menu this past Tuesday, the children had the following of the hot portion of their meal to select from:

Tuna and Cheese on White Bread
Dumplings
White Rice
Creamy pasta dish with some chicken
Potato wedges (a veggie, but still a starchy one)
The menu said there was a curry dish, but I didn’t see it. Perhaps there was no more when I got there for 3rd grade lunch.

To the side on a plate tucked away, were vegetable sticks. However, children had to specifically ask for them. The salad was also tucked away in the back and you had to request that, too. When I looked around, it appeared that less than 10% of the children had selected a vegetable. That means about 90% of the children did not have either a vegetable or whole fruit for lunch (unless you count fruit juice, but it is not as healthy as whole fruit or a vegetable). At a minimum, children should get 5 fruits / vegetables per day (maximum of 9 is best). I like to shoot for 2-3 minimum (1 fruit and 2 veggies) at lunch time. I feel the meals should include at a minimum 1 hot vegetable, preferably 2, and possibly a fruit (cooked or raw, either is fine). Do you see this as a concern? If so, it is possible you can share with Eurest a need to include more healthy options for our children? Or is there something I can do to help with this? It seemed that there were more healthy alternatives last year (I didn’t have the same concern last year).

I appreciate all you do to make Concordia such a great place for children to learn. Having more healthy food options will make it even better, especially for our Elementary School children who are developing healthy eating patterns for their whole life! Please let me know if you would like to discuss this or need other information.

Thanks,
Mary Beth Goodrich (a concerned parent)
(then I gave my cell phone number here in China)

Within 5 minutes of sending my email, I received a call. They had already realized it is a problem and are working on it. Glad this will be taken care of. Meanwhile, their morning snacks will be packed full of healthy snacks! Hope their friends don't think they aren't "cool" because of mean momma MB! On the other hand, I really don't care. My job as mom isn't to give my kids what they want all the time. It is to give them what they need and should have. When they do happen to get cheetos along with their carrot circles, it really will be a treat!