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For all of our talk about the great food in the city, Chicagoist has been known to slack a little from time to time. For example, it probably isn't the best use of our money or daily caloric intake to chow down on the Thai lunch special from down the street a couple of times a week. But we do anyway. And we know a lot of parents probably operate similarly; they know a Lunchable or the pizza from the cafeteria aren't particularly nutritious, but they let their kids eat them for lunch anyway.
A new program based in the North 'burbs is trying to change that. Green Bag Lunch is a program in which parents can order a lunch online for their child, which is then delivered to their school. The lunches contain a healthy entree, two servings of fruit and/or vegetables, and a small treat. And, according to the Green Bag Lunch's website, "we use only reusable, recyclable and/or biodegradable packaging, helping to keep things green for your kids and their kids." All for $5 a lunch, a mere $2.50 more than the government subsidizes schools providing free and low-cost lunches under the National School Lunch Program.
"I want parents to feel good about themselves," Green Bag Lunch co-founder Anne Weber told the Trib. "I want kids to learn how to make good choices. And I want schools, parents, students and camps to see that being environmentally responsible just isn't as hard as they think."
It is difficult to argue with a program that provides healthy, environmentally friendly lunches for the people who can afford them (the program is in an elementary school in Evanston and at eight summer camps in Wilmette and Highland Park). We should all be so lucky. But what about the kids whose parents can't afford $5 for a lunch. Don't they deserve healthy (and environmentally friendly) eats too?
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But what about the kids whose parents can't afford $5 for a lunch.
They do what I do for my kids -- pack it myself. A lunch such as, say, a turkey sandwich, carrot sticks, apple slices and a cookie doesn't cost anywhere near $5. Use a lunch box instead of a sack, and a reusable water bottle, wrap sandwiches, etc. in wax paper instead of plastic bags, and viola.
Bravo, guest #1. People act like child nutrition is some big riddle that the government needs to figure out for us. But it's common sense. The problem is that way too many parents are too lazy to pack a good lunch for their kids.
"Don't they deserve healthy (and environmentally friendly) eats too?"
No one "deserves" healthy and environmentally friendly food. It is very expensive to do things the "right" way. I eat organically and sustainably because I can afford to, and conciously make the decision to spend my doller on healthier fare instead of skimping on nutrition to afford 52" plasma TVs.
Assuming Man always ate as Nature intended until technology advanced other options, the rise of processed food has had nothing to do with creating nutritious alternatives to actual food and everything to do with allowing convenience, portability, and (here is the key) mass production at a reduced cost.
Once the market realizes that the long-term cost of bad food outweighs the short-term cost of healthy, sustainable food, it will adjust. At that point, everyone will have healthy, friendly food, whether they deserve (or want) it or not.
I disagree, Ryan. Everyone deserves healthy food because everyone deserves to be healthy. The fact that healthy food is unavailable to a good portion of citizens in this city- due to both cost and availability (ie- food deserts)- is shameful.
However, I also agree with Guest #1- I don't think anyone actually deserves to have access to a service that plans and provides your child's meals FOR you. I think such a service is similar to a housecleaning service, it's a luxury. For now, I think it's more important to focus strictly on access to healthy foods, which could be done affordably if you cut out the middleman who's preparing and delivering the food. Theoretically, anyway.
RyanS, you can afford to eat organically because of subsidies that allow the unhealthier foods to dominate the U.S. diet.
Certain foods such as meat, dairy or anything that comes from a living creature ought to be expensive enough to encourage limited consumption. If factory farms that housed animals adhered to humane standards this would not be a problem and people would consume less saturated fat because they couldn't afford it. We need to learn to embrace scarcity!
Poor people can eat healthier within limited means but this society just is not used to expending effort for food, in terms of creative cooking or growing our own (in an obviously limited capacity if one is a city dweller).
There should be a way to re-use plastic lunch containers (like the ones at Corner Bakery) instead of throwing them into the recycling bin and hoping they are going where they ought to. This would be cheaper and prevent single use plastic objects from being manufactured.
So, it is somehow more environmentally friendly to put additonal vehicles on the road to purchase healthy foods and deliver these foods to schools where food already is provided than it is to have parents simply include the purchase of healthy foods in a shoppoing trip they're already making and have the kids take the food with them?
This is the kind of logic that gives a bad name to hipster environmentalists who don't consider the ramifications of their supposedly "green" choices.
Yeah, packing a lunch for your kids is really the only way to go. More nutritious and times 3 kids much less expensive. And always use a lunchbox, etc. Sometimes on Pizza Day or something similar we'll let them eat the school's lunch, but not very often.