After a lengthy and very enjoyable conversation with Kristi the other night, we decided the next blog should address...school lunch! Not just the food, but the entire organization of lunch at my school!
I believe I was telling Kristi how I discovered a Cream of Wheat type cereal at the supermarket made out of spelt (called dinkel here - which still makes me laugh). I'm not going to spare any of the details here because you don't have to read it!
The primary school cafeteria had recently served "Semolina Pudding with Cherry Compote and vegetables" for lunch. Side note: I had no lunch that day and actually ended up eating this. It was quite tasty but was basically Cream of Wheat with cherry pie filling on top and carrots, red peppers and yellow peppers as a side. The gal said the German word for this dish is Greis which I connected to American grits. The next time I was at the store I happened to see Dinkel Greis on the shelf and, since I hadn't eaten Cream of Wheat since I started the Blood Type Diet (except for eating the school lunch a few days before), I decided to try it. It was very good - just not something I'm used to eating for lunch!
That led to a discussion about some of the other weird, but good, things the school serves for lunch. They hired a new vendor this year and are still working the bugs out. For the first time, first graders had two choices for lunch two days per week. Lucky me, one of those days was my only duty day in the cafeteria. When the kids arrived at the food window they were asked to choose A or B for lunch. If you know anything about children (adults for that matter), they want to SEE what they are ordering (hence the reason restaurant menus with pictures are very popular). So, of course it took the children time to make their choice - BUT they had the other children breathing down their necks demanding they make their choices more quickly (so they could peruse their choices indefinitely). After three weeks of this, I finally suggested placing sample plates of the two meals at the end of the utensil/tray line so kids could have time to make such an important decision. This helped speed things up tremendously. (I actually suggested this right from the beginning but no one acted upon it - I finally just did it).
This was when the weird food combinations started. One day the students were asked to choose between A - German pancakes with apple compote OR B - Cauliflower soup. Hmmm, I would never have guessed so many would choose the pancakes that they'd actually run out. The next week, they had A - crepes with powdered sugar and cherries or B - rice, tomatoes, and chopped leeks. Again, I was shocked only four children chose the rice plate (I think they must have thought the cherries looked scary). This was when my duty compatriot decided to call it quits and traded her duty with someone else. Two weeks later the choices ended and the kids now get what is handed to them.
Another issue is that this company likes to cover the food with sauces (very yummy ones). Well, again, kids like to see what is under the sauce. In their limited experiences, sauces are used to disguise food their parents are trying to trick them into eating. After several trash bins full of uneaten food, I finally convinced the cafeteria lady to put the sauce on the side. Better yet, give me a bowl of the sauce and I'll take care of it.
After four months, Wednesdays in the cafeteria are finally running smoothly!! The Upper School (where Jessi attends) has daily choices, a huge salad bar, a vegetarian counter, AND a "made to order" counter with a daily grill feature. It is amazing!! It is totally unfair that teachers at the Primary School have to order their lunch before 9 am if they want anything from the other school. Otherwise, we just have to eat what the kids are eating (like "Semolina Pudding")!
The other four days of the week I have lunch duty in different classrooms. I had to be a little mean finally and demand the students stay in their seats until they finished their lunches. I talk to the kids, read books, make them eat their main lunch before they eat their desserts - it's great. It is a nice time to get to know the students (there are always those few who I'd like less time with) especially those in classrooms in which I don't normally work.
There, I feel so much better now!
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