My school chum Rob gave away his orange in the lunch room every day from Grade 4 to Grade 12. After we all found a place to sit in the cafeteria (mostly lunch room), he would hold the orange up, ceremoniously, like some sort of auctioneer, and ask: "Who wants my orange?" Kids with hands in the air would be at the ready if they were chosen. The toss of the fruit would go across the table or to a pal close by. If there were no teachers or monitors in sight, the orange would be tossed to the far end of the cafeteria with deft accuracy, although sometimes the receivers were not as co-ordinated as Rob. These "long bombs" were a fantastic form of lunchtime entertainment.
I never took him up on his daily offering as I usually had my own piece of fruit to contend with.
I take it that Rob did not like and may still not like oranges. I feel sorry for Rob's mom who packed his lunch for all those years thinking how wonderful it was that her son ate a balanced lunch every day. She spent a couple of grand on fruit for the kid when she could have bought several pairs of shoes.
The Canada Food Guide advises that kids have at least six servings of fruit and vegetables daily. Most parents do their best to try to achieve these nutritional goals but can only hope the Robs and Rhondas out there are actually eating what has been packed in their lunches.
As depressing as it is, I am sure most of us know that childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes are increasing amongst our youth at an alarming rate. There is much speculation as to why. Some of the facts out there are astounding.
The Jamie Oliver Foundation notes that children in the education system in the United States receive only 3.4 hours a year in educational time devoted to nutrition and food. Twenty per cent of kids in Australia think that pasta comes form animals. Ninety-six per cent of kids in the UK do not get their five to six servings of fresh fruit and vegetables.
The list goes on and on and it is frightening.
A few years ago the Jamie Oliver Foundation came up with the idea of Food Revolution Day as a day of change and enlightenment for children so they can better understand how to grow, cook and eat their own food. Let your kids cook May 16.
Next week will see the Delta school district participating in its third Food Revolution Day and week. Some schools will be harvesting first spring crops and preparing salads for lunch from these veggies they have planted and tended on their own school neighbourhood farms. Others will be seeding secondary crops and students will be planting 1,000 pickling cucumber seeds as a part of Project Pickle.
The seed trays for these plants will be lovingly cared for until mid-June when the seedlings will make it in to the ground.
Kids in Delta are getting more than 3.4 hours a year in education about food. The district and its partners are working on building positive statistics in Delta.
To see what the kids are up to check out the Project Pickle website at www.bycoop.ca.
