Yesterday I able to go eat lunch with my nephew’s first grade class at his school. I wasn’t sure how much first grade boys would want to chat with me, but it turns out that they are curious about any visitor. They were excited to talk and I was interested to see what they had for lunch.
At lunch we talked about important things like the tooth fairy. Everyone agreed that the tooth fairy is real and I was able to share that the tooth fairy came to visit me years ago. My nephew lost two teeth this week, and everyone shared their tooth and tooth fairy stories.
The boys were interested in what I teach and were impressed when I told them that I had my own website. I heard about a great game on the ipad where you throw toilets in the air. Everyone talked about if they had a wii, Playstation, or Xbox. We also talked about Captain Underpants books- and everyone shared how fast they can read them or how many they had read.
Half of the boys had purchased the school lunch. Served on a tray, it consisted of a big serving of nachos with cheese and meat, french fries, a fruit cup, and chocolate milk. Everyone seemed to eat ate the nachos and fruit cup, but did not eat the french fries. The other students with packed lunches usually had a sandwich, some snacks, and fruit.
The school is a public school in Chapel Hill, NC . Before going to lunch I took a peek at the school lunch calendar which had some items that are labeled local or whole grain (like chicken nuggets?)
I recently watched the documentary Killer at Large: Why Obesity is our Biggest Threat which talked about the school lunch system, the USDA, and about the regulations that make it necessary to serve high caloric foods for kids. Overall the movie had good information – but it became overwhelming after a while, especially when they talked about how the USDA officials are usually former or future executives from food companies such as Kraft and other companies.
When my nephew brought out his Star Wars fruit snacks, he became the center of attention. Everyone wanted one – to eat or to play with.
Lunch ended suddenly – when our 20 minutes were up. Someone spilled chocolate milk, trash was thrown out, and everyone lined up near the wall. I plan to come back on my next visit, and see what’s for lunch that day.
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