A Wellness Committee grows in Hoboken and First Lady Michelle Obama visits Newark!

This blog was started because after I saw what our kids were eating, shocked at the poor quality of food they were receiving, and concerned with their health, I felt that it was important that the Hoboken School district form a Wellness Committee to help address these issues through wellness policies that really impact our kids health in a positive way.  On Monday this committee met for the first time! Today, I reached out to the Hoboken School District with the hopes of serving on this committee even though my child now is in a Charter school.

Patch.com reported on it:  Hoboken Board of Ed Forms Wellness Committee.  The committee is set to focus on nutrition education for both students and parents, exercise, and also food choice. I look forward to following their progress.

And in other exciting news:

In the summer of 2009, Maple Avenue School begun their journey to sustain healthy living and eradicate obesity. And so the 'Growing Minds Program' was born!  With funding and support from Slow Food Northern New Jersey and the Beth Israel Medical Center, they were able to implement and integrate nutrition into the curriculum and also promote the importance of good nutrition.

Slow Food Northern NJ provided grow boxes, seeds, planting materials, and curriculum for three different grade levels which was easily integrated within the curriculum. I am huge believer in making the connection of healthy nutrition through school gardens. Not only is it exciting for them to watch their hard work flourish but they can make a real connection with where food actually comes from! 

The program was so successful it caught the attention of First Lady Michelle Obama and her Let's Move campaign. Tomorrow she will be visiting Newarks' Maple Avenue School, to talk about nutrition and physical education. Mayor Cory Booker will moderate the event which is part presentation and part discussion. According to statistics released earlier this year, one in five Newark children are obese; 43% of the city’s boys and 45 % of its girls, according to the Center for State Health Policy. 

'Go Newark' and 'Go Hoboken' for trying to the change the future of our children!

Tuesday 5/18: Chicken Nuggets

The menu reads as follows: Chicken Nuggets, Tater Tots, Seasoned Veggie, Wheat Bread, Banana

What they got: Chicken nuggets, tater tots, seasoned mixed veg, wheat bread, an orange and milk

The kids had lunch a little earlier today so I got there when they had already dished up all the food. Picture the above lunch with a few more chicken nuggets.

It surprised me that the kids did not eat their tater-tots. What doesn't surprise me though, is that 98% of them did not eat their wheat bread either. I'm going to assume that Chartwells serves the wheat bread so that they can meet USDA regulation, but for heaven-sakes- how many times do you just grab a piece of dry bread and eat it?  Are the kids supposed to dip it in the ketchup? Are they supposed to slap a chicken nugget on there and call it a sandwich? Either way the bread is landing up in the trash, along side the vegetables and polystyrene trays. To satisfy my interest I tasted the vegetables. They were tasty, a little to onion-ny for me, but at least they were not canned!  I tried to encourage the kids to try the green-beans or even the corn but to no avail.

Speaking of polystyrene plates- I noticed this time that they had the recycling triangle and a #6 on the back. This type of plastic is not easy to recycle and many recycling plants do not even accept it. I looked online to see if Hoboken does accept it as part of their curbside recycling program and found out from the contracted waste management company, that yes they do! Good news indeed! Now the only problem is to get the schools to participate!

From Taco's to Pizza

Last week was crazier than normal for me so I have decided to cram Wednesday (5/12), Thursday (5/13) and Friday's (5/14) school lunches into one post. 

Wednesday 5/12: Twin Taco w/ turkey taco meat, cheddar cheese, lettuce, salsa and fruit. 

Wednesday saw the inclusion of an extra veg (asparagus), which was not stated on the menu...Thank you Chartwells for the lovely surprise.

Later in the week, I just so happened to be passing the high school, and lying on the streets was all the packaging/cardboard boxes discarded by the kitchen. I can't tell you how excited I got because I noticed that the boxes contained ingredients lists and nutritional information.

One of the empty boxes was Jennie-O Taco Seasoned Ground Turkey, the very thing the kids had for lunch on Wednesday, so here are the ingredients as taken off the box:

The picture is a little blurry because it was taken by my iPhone so I'll decipher the ingredients for you: Ground turkey, taco seasoning (dehydrated onion, salt, spices, chili, peppers, garlic powder), potato flour, cocoa, citric acid, autolyzed yeast extract, glucono delta lactone, torula yeast, maltodextrin, wheat, natural flavor, water, contains by or less modified food starch, salt.
There you have it. After the citric acid I get totally lost with the ingredients and have NO idea what any of it is.  A quick Google search reveals that autolyzed yeast extract is actually MSG, and the rest of the ingredients are flavor enhancers/additives as well.  That's the reality.

Thursday 5/13: Pasta w/ meat sauce, breadstick, seasoned peas, applesauce.

Again the kids got an extra component today and were served one vegetable AND one fruit. A definite change has come about and I am truly pleased to see it happen. The meat sauce also was home-made at the school kitchen and smelled delicious. My only concern is the quality of the meat.  Whether it was just purely ground-beef or whether it had added preservatives and flavorings, I don't know. Perhaps if parents called Chartwells and asked for the list of ingredients they would begin to work on getting that type of info to us all.



Friday 5/14: Pizza, tossed salad, carrot sticks, fresh apple.

They served exactly what was stated on the menu. A well-balanced meal, with a vegetable, a fruit and salad. I may even let my daughter start eating some of the school lunches again!