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Teacher 'Fed Up' with School Lunch Blogs

By Dan Flynn and Suzanna Schreck

An anonymous teacher in Illinois who is "fed up" with low quality school cafeteria food has launched a blog to chronicle the daily offerings of her own school's cafeteria--just as school lunch safety and nutrition issues heat up in Washington and the mainstream media.

"Mrs. Q" is eating school lunch "just like the kids" every day in 2010 to help bring attention to the issue. Her blog, Fed Up: School Lunch Project, features a description and picture of lunch each day.

"It's very challenging to teach students when they are eating school lunches that don't give them the nutrition they need and deserve," wrote Mrs. Q in her first entry on the blog. "Oftentimes what is served barely passes muster as something edible."

Congress is expected to work on Child Nutrition Reauthorization this spring--and after the USA Today ran a series of exposes blasting school lunch safety, most expect food safety to enter the school lunch debate more than usual.

At a time when many are talking about the food children eat in cafeterias, Fed Up offers a real window into the everyday reality of school food.

Last week, Mrs. Q wrote about eating a school hamburger, a school lunch item under particular scrutiny these days after a New York Times article illustrated the use of ammonia in beef processing. "The patty was how do you say, nothing like any hamburger I have ever eaten. Mystery meat in every sense."

"I really don't have lofty goals for my cash-strapped district's limited resources," said Mrs. Q. "I simply want the school administration to be more reflective about what they are serving the children."

"I want less pre-fab food and higher quality options," added Mrs. Q. "Less crap, you know?"

Full post as published by Food Safety News on January 17, 2010 (boomark / email).