From the category archives:

Teachable

Food in school, camp and all those places kids gather

School food: Beyond swapping white for wheat

August 26, 2010 Brainy

We all know Jamie Olivers in the making. A parent, a teacher, a student. Someone who’s making noise. School-food reform is big news these days, the stuff of TV shows, government campaigns and blog crusades. And even before all the hoopla, plenty of parents and others were working below the radar to get better food in their kids’ schools. But what about [...]

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When parents stand in the way of better school food

June 8, 2010 Brainy

I’m a journalist, which means I balk at reporting anything before I can suss it out. So I was going to post about this after I’d attended a meeting planned for tonight and talked to more of the people involved and done all those other reporter sorts of things. And I still will. But in the [...]

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“Two Angry Moms”: Still too true (redux)

May 7, 2010 Brainy

As I posted earlier this week, I was planning to watch the school-food movie “Two Angry Moms” for the second time. Saw it last night, and I was struck again by the similarities between these moms’ battle and the drama that played out on Jamie Oliver’s show in Huntington, W.Va. It was disheartening, honestly, given that [...]

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“Two Angry Moms”: Still too true

May 3, 2010 Brainy

The school-food movie “Two Angry Moms” was released in 2007, and I saw it probably two years ago, but its message still resonates. That’s both good and bad. Sadly, school food in the United States remains a mess (no surprise to anyone who watched “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” or, frankly, to anyone who’s walked into almost any school [...]

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Retire Ronald? Or reclaim responsibility?

April 29, 2010 Bureaucratic

I first heard about the “Retire Ronald” campaign on April 1, so I assumed it was an elaborate April Fool’s prank. The website looked legit, and famous foodies were listed as advisers, but I couldn’t believe that anyone would spend so much time and energy trying to bring down a clown. Of course I’ve since learned that it’s real, a project of [...]

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“Food Inc.”: Family viewing?

April 21, 2010 Brainy

In honor of Earth Day, PBS is showing the movie “Food Inc.” tonight. So I’m pulling out a review I wrote for one of my columns last spring. Are you planning to watch? Or recording it to watch later with your kids? (See our plans below.) You’ll never look at food the same way again. I promise. [...]

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The art of local food: kindergartners, Kahlo and kale

April 15, 2010 Brainy

It’s April. Not exactly high time for local foods in western New York. But there we were with my daughter’s kindergarten class at the public market, counting dollars (five each) and loading up on produce for an art project later that afternoon. I’d stumbled across a contest called Be Aware of New York Agriculture, which asks kids [...]

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Color me annoyed

April 9, 2010 Consumeristic

I’m working with my daughter’s school on a project about local food, so Wednesday I stopped in for a little show-and-tell about the sort of food that grows in New York vs. elsewhere. (Apples and grapes, natch. Pineapples and mangoes, nada.) I’ll admit I had visions of doing my own Jamie Oliver-style Q&A, complete with a dramatic reveal and confused kids. But thankfully my 5- [...]

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Preachy little foodies (and how not to have one)

April 7, 2010 Brainy

Sure it’s great to teach kids where food comes from and why healthy eating matters. But how do we make sure they don’t morph into pint-sized proselytizers who lecture other kids and make them feel bad because mom didn’t pack an organic apple? I thought about this last week after a comment on my post about teaching kids about industrial [...]

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“You can’t tell that to a kid”

March 29, 2010 Brainy

Can kids handle the truth about industrial meat? We have a great living-history museum nearby. One of those places with relocated old buildings and re-enactors who make you feel like you’ve slipped back to the 19th century. During a visit last year, I was in the kitchen of one of the homes churning butter with [...]

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