Sometimes our plant-based, natural food diet causes a wrinkle for the school, but I have found them to be very responsive and supportive of our food choices. (I guess I should say MY food choices – L would probably love to eat ice cream all day long!)

A few weeks ago the teachers posted a sign-up sheet for us parents to get involved in a fruit salad project. Parents signed up to bring in different fruits of different colors. Great! I thought – fruit salad! What a great cooking project!

And then I realized most of the foods on the list are on the Dirty Dozen list - the most sprayed, highest pesticide-residue foods available.

Gulp.

What’s a natural-leaning mom to do? I decided to take action. I printed off 30 copies of the Dirty Dozen/Clean 15 produce lists and put them in every kid’s mailbox so their parents would see which foods should be purchased organic. Then I posted one next to the sign-up sheet that parents saw as they reached the classroom.

The next issue at hand? The teachers also wanted a parent to bring in whipped cream and food coloring to top off the fruit salad! Ugh. My first thought was “why??!!!”

Why teach our kids to top off sweet fruit with sugary whipped cream, colored with man-made, possibly toxic food coloring?

Here’s my problem with artificial food colorings:

Many studies have determined a link between artificial food coloring and cancer, brain tumors, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), and other behavior disorders, especially in children. It’s probably the tar and hydrocarbon derivatives as well as petrochemicals used to manufacture artificial food coloring.

I decided to take the middle road. I put my name down on the line for “whipped cream/food coloring” and rushed to the phone. I called the good people at www.naturalcandystore.com and asked them to send me their           natural food coloring kit,

so I could give it to the school. Then I bought some

Soyatoo Rice Whip from www.veganessentials.com for the class to mix up with the food coloring – it’s not the healthiest thing on earth, but it’s a lot better than Cool Whip, and it’s dairy- and HFCS-free.

See…I can compromise! I thought it was better to bring in alternatives and show the other parents that there are alternative products for their families, too.

The coolest thing? The teachers loved what I brought in! Now they’re using the natural food coloring to make playdough with the kids, and the director is aware of the websites and alternative products. It’s all working out in the end.

We’ll eat extra broccoli to make up for the whipped rice-cream…

Vegan Lentil Soup

This recipe is amazing – very simple, very inexpensive to make, but with a HUGE payoff. It costs about $10 to make 10 servings of this organic soup. My 2.5 year old son loves it, and it packs more nutritional punch than that organic canned soup line I used to buy.

Ingredients

1 TB organic olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium yellow onion, small dice

1 carrot, small dice

1 celery stalk with leaves, small dice

6 shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, washed and diced

1 teaspoon salt

½ pound brown lentils, washed and drained

4 cups No-Chicken organic vegetable stock

Extra water as needed

Directions

1. Warm the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.
2. Stir in the garlic and warm until the garlic becomes fragrant.
3. Add the onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms and salt. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often.
4. Add the lentils and stock*, plus enough water to cover the veggies and lentils by one inch.
5. Raise the heat to medium-high to bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes.

*Optional: stir in 1 cup chopped spinach, or ½ cup diced yams or butternut squash

** For kiddo’s lunch, pre-heat a thermos with hot water in the morning and re-heat the soup for a few minutes. Pour out the water and fill with warm soup. Will provide a warming, satisfying school lunch.

It’s bad enough that public schools offer high-fat, over-salted, artificially sweetened food to kids every day. Did you know they also serve that junk on single-use Styrofoam trays?

I have 2 major issues with using Styrofoam food trays for kids:

1. Health Impact: Styrofoam is known to leach polystyrene and BPA into food. Why does this matter? According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), styrene was reported as having a “possible carcinogenic effect to humans.” BPA is a controversial chemical linked to hormone disruption and cancer.

 2. Environmental: According to the New York City public school system, 850,000 of these Styrofoam trays are thrown away every day – after being used for about 30 minutes!

Sign the petition to Mayor Mike Bloomberg (“the green mayor?”) and the City Counsel to request that this crazy system be changed for our kids and the planet’s health: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/SOSnyc/

Because Styrofoam is cheap, lightweight and easy to use, the school systems began buying them en masse in the early 1990s. According to SOSnyc.org, or Styrofoam Out of Schools NYC, NYC Council Member, Bill DeBlasio, has introduced legislation to ban Styrofoam in NYC restaurants and city agencies (this bill does not cover NYC schools). They are working with his staff on planning a City Hall rally for the fall, 2009.

The alternatives at this point are:

1. An immediate reduction in Styrofoam tray use. Every kid gets a tray even if they’re only buying a wrapped sandwich and a carton of juice. Why is this necessary? High school kids could handle a plate without a tray, and younger kids don’t all need a tray.
2. Reusable, washable trays are the best solution. Kids need to learn that living in a throwaway society is no longer an option, and they need to understand the impact of their actions.
3. Compostable single-use trays are available.
   1. It is safer for the kids to eat off of Bagasse or sugar cane trays, which are available for an additional cost of about .03 each. However, if the trays are not composted, their disposal is similar to other single-use products. Sugar cane is a renewable resource. The fibers being used for the sugar cane trays would be burned, otherwise. Still, the Sunshine trays are shipped from Asia.
   2. Power Tray, LLC is working on a new tray systems that would be made from locally sourced fibers from New York State. For more information, contact:

                                               i.     Jay Hilbish – Powertray Jayhilbish@power-tray.com

For more information, contact: http://www.SOSnyc.org/FullStory.html

Be well,

Keep up the good fight,

Alexandra

alex@nutritionforempoweredwomen.com