Chicagoist: Green Bag Lunch Program Greening up North Shore Lunches

Bill V

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:09:13 -0600

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.

guest

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 12:37:28 -0600

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.

uremindmeofthebabe

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 12:31:56 -0600

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.

JuliaPorter

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 12:28:58 -0600

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

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 12:06:45 -0600

"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.

Dan Boland

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 12:03:12 -0600

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.

guest

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:42:04 -0600

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.