Fed Up With Lunch

[Pat]

Mrs. Q just revealed herself publicly a couple of days ago, in conjunction with the publication of her book on the subject of school lunch. Her blog post with links to media coverage is here.

I started reading her blog maybe within a week or so of when it started. All I know is that I didn't have to read much to catch up when I found it. I think I first saw a mention of it on Twitter. I've followed it with interest since then, though I haven't loved all the directions in which it's gone. IIRC, it was originally titled "Fed up with School Lunch" and she changed it at some point to take out the "school" part. That may have been when she got her own domain instead of using one of the blogger sites.

What she's done is quite valuable as part of the whole movement to reform school lunch. The comments on the Chicago Tribune piece don't encourage me, though. A lot of the people there seem to think the answer to the problem is eliminating school lunch altogether. Of course, some people posting there have pretty poor reading comprehension, since they read the part about how she lives in the suburbs and missed the rest of the adjacent text, which explained that, due to her particular job (speech pathologist), she's exempt from the requirement that CPS teachers have to live in Chicago.

The GMA interview was quite good, though.

She used to talk a lot about how she was afraid her identity would be found out and she'd lose her job, but she moved to a different school (or schools) at the beginning of this academic year. They identify the old school in the media coverage. I hope this unveiling is too high profile for it to cost her her job. Given that she's exempt from the residency requirement, I'll hope that her particular position will shield her from retribution.

[monavano]

I saw her on the View yesterday. Who better to comment on the effects of a poorly balanced diet than a teacher/therapist? Thinking back on Jamie Oliver's experience at an LA school, it appears the administrators can get mighty defensive and downright nasty when called out on the state of school food.

It's an uphill task all the way, but worthwhile.

[thetrain]

I started reading her blog maybe within a week or so of when it started. All I know is that I didn't have to read much to catch up when I found it. I think I first saw a mention of it on Twitter. I've followed it with interest since then, though I haven't loved all the directions in which it's gone.

Me too!

And I agree the new directions are um, interesting. I find the CSA ones funny. She'll throw away herbs she doesn't know and says making pesto is too complex (does she not know it takes all of a 15 seconds of food processor pulsing an herb with olive oil)...yet she'll make zucchini bread from scratch. I find it amusing how she can be so unconfident/unknowledgeable in the kitchen and yet she has somehow become a food advocate.