Snack-volution, This Mama Wants a Change

{ find a fruit market and save, this is $40 of produce! }

I need to get this off my chest, I in no way want to offend anyone.

I am tired of sending my kids to school after a healthy balanced breakfast and having them stuffed full of junk food in the name of “snack”. I am so tired, oh so tired, of hearing it’s all we can have because of allergies, how the school needs to accommodate everyone. Last time I checked the label on my apples, carrots, and grapes, and veggies do not contain:
Peanuts
Tree Nuts
Milk
Egg
Corn or Soy
(yes admittedly that was a little snarky) That was our allergy list from one classroom, one year, for one of my children.

It’s laziness, gold fish packs are easy to prepare, and picky-ness, “my kid doesn’t like _____ “ I don’t care anymore. I am going to rock the boat. Marshmallows, chocolate teddy grahams, chocolate chip cookies (or muffins) and chocolate covered rice krispie treats (all actually served in my child's classroom) are not remotely healthy or nutritious. One nutritionist I saw do a lecture questions the need for morning snacks at all, especially in a 2 hour preschool program. I get that snacks are part of routine, some kids need it, and they are not going away. I don’t want to abolish snacks, but why can’t they be healthy?

What happened to The Food Revolution. Did the 618, 274 people that signed it only sign up because it was the “thing” to do? Do they think it only counts at home? I’ve been told “it’s only one meal a day”. Well 1 meal a day x 9 months of school = about 180 meals. Morgan Spurlock only ate half that, 90 meals full of fat, sugar, HFCS, etc and he had weight gain and health issues. According to Keep Kids Healthy “Most kids get approximately 25 percent of their daily calories from snacks,“ TWENTY FIVE PERCENT. For a little body, that is a lot of food, an in the case of snack, empty calories and too much sugar. I’m not against an occasional treat for a holiday celebration or a birthday but Monday is not a reason for treats.

So now what? What is a mom to do?

There is not much concern, this year, at our preschool. They emphasis healthy snacks, have a strict list of snacks and the parents provide it on a weekly basis. Our new kindergarten however, doesn’t assign days. We are asked to bring in 20 servings at the beginning of the month. Well that doesn’t really encourage fresh wholesome snacks.

So I guess step 1 is to talk to the teacher. My husband is worried, he says I am too fired up about this (mostly since it’s his church he is afraid I will make a scene and embarrass him). I need to try to make a change, I need to offer help or solutions. Maybe I can put a note on nutrition and a list of healthy snack ideas in the parents box? Maybe I can offer to host a sign up calendar so we can pick specific days? If I could, if I had the means and the time I would just take over and provide snacks daily. I can’t. So I guess I will start with a simple opener “I have noticed that snacks seem to be heavy on the over processed and sugary and I’m wondering if there is something I can do to help encourage healthier options”

Since writing the above (I was pretty steamed and wanted to have a chance to re-read before posting). I have talked to several moms on Twitter who have had the same complaint. One said her school celebrated the harvest celebration with marshmallow fluff and runts. Really? None of that come from the harvest. Someone else brought up cost.

I’ll admit. If I shop at my local grocery, fruit for 20 kids is usually more expensive than other options, but it doesn’thave to be. So you can get a large container of goldfish on sale for $6.99 (regular $8.99). I went to a not so local fruit market and I was able to get two snacks for under $10. I got 2 pints of strawberries ($0.98/each) and 10 bananas ($0.39/lb) - sliced and served together, and 6lbs of apples (2 3lb bags/$4.00). If you check your sales you can do pretty well as well. As for time? Both snacks took me about 30min to prepare. Isn’t our kids health worth you taking 30min before school?

Even better then being able to provide these snacks was the reaction from the kids. When I brought in the big bowl of strawberries and bananas two of the little kids bounced down the hall all around me asking what it was and singing thank yous. The apples? My son said some of the kids thanked him so many times for bringing them in that he had to ask them to stop.

These kids are vulnerable. They are learning habits for life, shouldn’t we make them healthy habitats? Maybe if we served our kids fruits and veggies, they would learn to try, and like them. I know my kids are more likely to try something new or that they don’t like at school and with friends. To this day my son will only eat avocado and hummus at our friend L’s house, it apparently taste different there than at home.

So for now, I am going to provide fruit and veggies when I can. Going above my once a month requirement but not rocking the boat or embarrassing my husband. Hopefully other parents will be inspired by my snacks to change their habits. It may not be every week, I can’t get to that super affordable fruit market weekly, usually monthly. I can check the local ads and try to get something on sale, it’s worth the few extra cents to teach healthy habits.


What is snack like at your school? Am I alone in this?






.