From the first lady to reality television, more and more are fighting against public school meals packed with salt, sugar and preservatives. Many children, especially those from working families, have no choice but eat it in their allotted 20 minutes or go hungry. About six months ago, Mrs. Q, a  teacher in Illinois, witnessed the effects of unhealthy food on her students and decided to eat what they were served at lunch and blog about her findings. The result, Fed Up With School Lunch, has become one of the most popular and referenced efforts in the fight to teach kids better eating habits for a healthier life and help end the childhood obesity epidemic.

Mrs. Q has no credentials as a food authority, she's simply an insider -- a dedicated and passionate teacher tired of poor nutrition affecting her students' abilities to learn. She's so passionate, in fact, that in April she caught the attention of one of the most well-known advocates of school lunch reform: Jamie Oliver.

"Jamie called me -- it was very surreal -- he congratulated me," she said. We chatted about my school and about what he's been doing and it's like, whoa, pinch me. I can't believe this. I'm really boring in real life, I'm your anti-hero and that's why I'm getting away with this. I'm actually a very private person."

Her mission: more attention to good eating

Anonymity is what enables Mrs. Q to continue her project of posting photos, nutritional facts and interviews with food suppliers, program administrators, school district officials and lunch ladies uninterrupted by press -- good or bad -- that might endanger her mission or worse, damage her career.

"I know I come off as paranoid on the blog, and it's because I am," she said. "One night someone commented on one of my posts, 'I'm going to out you,' and called me a truly disgusting name. I immediately broke into a cold sweat thinking I'd lose my job. I accept criticism, but I won't tolerate vulgarity or expletives, especially since teachers have used my blog with their students."

With an average of 50 comments on each post, Mrs. Q spends much of her after-school time moderating them for language and content. After caring for her toddler, expanding her healthy cooking repertoire and maintaining her award-winning blog, eating bagel dogs and tater tots is the easy part.

"It's major drama in my life. I go through cycles where I think 'Geez, I'm going to get in trouble for this' because you can't predict what people's reactions are going to be. One teacher got in trouble for selling fruit during class, and things haven't been the same for her since."

Other countries 'doing much, much better than we are'

Mrs. Q's weekly guest bloggers come from all walks of life, worldwide. Among her favorite contributors are fellow teachers from abroad who write about the lunches at their schools. One American teaching English at a Japanese nursery school described a leisurely lunch period during which his students eat (and finish) brown rice, fish, seaweed soup, eggs and vegetables. The students even serve each other. The only beverage served is water, and there is no waste from the reusable plates, cups and chopsticks.

The principal of a day-care center in Croatia wrote to Mrs. Q that a typical day's meals of multi-grain bread with broccoli cream cheese, unsweetened drinkable yogurt and barley soup with root vegetables come from entirely local ingredients. "Juice is a treat we save for birthdays," she said.

"I don't want to come off as anti-American when guest bloggers in other countries write in, but they're doing much, much better than we are. We think of our country as top dog, but we really could learn from them and see what they're doing for children. Croatia, for instance, I mean wow. That country has nowhere near the kind of money we do, yet their children are eating healthy, locally. Why is that possible?"

Families face limited options

Of course, Mrs. Q knows that many simply don't have the time or financial resources to pack healthy lunches for their kids.

"I get frustrated when people comment on the blog that parents should just find time and money to make lunch. They can't or they would, you know?"

Many of her students receive free or reduced-rate lunches because of their family's income level. Those children are backed into a corner where sugary flavored milk and salty processed meats are their only option, Mrs. Q. said.

"Immigrant parents, young parents, they really rely on schools for so much, for instruction, things they can't teach at home and of course for lunch. They need that meal. I know there are hungry kids in our classes."

The meat of Mrs. Q's project, so to speak, is that eating an entire hot school lunch of "things that qualify as food" every day connects her directly to the source of the problem.

"The popcorn chicken, ugh, it's not supposed to be popcorn, it's supposed to be chicken. And it's 50 percent filler, which at that point isn't really chicken. I don't like the hot dogs, don't like bagel dogs. Chicken nuggets I don't care for. These things aren't real food. Popcorn chicken is not real food."

She's also knows firsthand that although schools are required to serve a fruit and vegetable with lunch, the vast majority of kids just throw them away. She blogged about this after-lunch encounter with one of her students who claimed to still be hungry:

When it comes to pizza, the holy grail of childhood favorite foods, regardless of hunger level, she's just plain tired.

"There's pizza at least once a week. I don't like it that much. Pizza can be really great for you, it can be delicious and wonderful and I vowed never to eat it again after a few months of this, but I did one day break down. My husband made an organic frozen pizza and it was really good. I thought 'Wow, that was great, I guess that's what it should taste like.' "

Schools catering to kids' favorites is just one of many roots of the problem. Kids don't necessarily know what they want, so schools serve them a very limited selection of foods they think they might eat. While the majority of the decisions about a school's academic programs are made by a locally elected school board, the U.S. Department of Agriculture controls school lunch. Once students enter the cafeteria, educational standards don't apply, which has served as a major source of disconnect.

Mrs. Q sees the results of a nationwide patter of poor eating play out in the classroom. Students are falling behind in math and reading, she said. While there's a push to hold teachers accountable for these poor showings, no one seems to be holding lunch programs accountable, she said.

'I am what I eat'

Among the outbursts, grievances and occasional poem, Mrs. Q's Fed Up With School Lunch project highlights an intelligent, nurturing individual with an issue she can only confront through impassioned citizen journalism.

"If I created a life-sized collage of me using photos of all school lunches I've eaten, I think my arms would be made of pizza and carrot sticks would be my fingers. One leg would be beef patties and the other chicken. My shoes would be whole wheat buns! A torso of fruit cups with my head and neck composed of chicken nuggets and cheese sandwiches. Tater tot and hot dog belt, pasta for hair, apples and pears for breasts, miscellaneous veggies for facial features and bananas for earrings. I am what I eat!"

The anonymous blogger and fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Q, photographed cafeteria meals for her blog Fed Up With School Lunch.

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Chicken patty, whole-wheat bun, barbeque sauce, baked beans, banana. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Cheeseburger, whole-wheat bun, peach cup, corn, pop, chips. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Cheese lasagna, peas, bread and butter, pear. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Cheese sandwich, broccoli, pear (typically rock-hard). Credit: Mrs. Q.

Chicken nuggets, carrots, bread, fruit cup. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Label on a carton of chocolate milk. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Hot dog, whole-wheat bun, baked beans, apple chunks. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Pizza, carrots, fruit Jell-O, pretzels. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Teriyaki chicken over rice, bread and butter, fruit cup, carrots. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Tex-Mex chili, refried beans, fruit jello cup, tortilla chips. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Chili with beans, tortilla chips, cherry ice pop. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Chicken patty, whole-wheat bun, barbeque sauce, baked beans, banana. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Cheeseburger, whole-wheat bun, peach cup, corn, pop, chips. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Cheese lasagna, peas, bread and butter, pear. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Cheese sandwich, broccoli, pear (typically rock-hard). Credit: Mrs. Q.

Chicken nuggets, carrots, bread, fruit cup. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Label on a carton of chocolate milk. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Hot dog, whole-wheat bun, baked beans, apple chunks. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Pizza, carrots, fruit Jell-O, pretzels. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Teriyaki chicken over rice, bread and butter, fruit cup, carrots. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Tex-Mex chili, refried beans, fruit jello cup, tortilla chips. Credit: Mrs. Q.

Chili with beans, tortilla chips, cherry ice pop. Credit: Mrs. Q.

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Such an important subject. We have an opportunity to educate our youth concerning their eating habits early in life -we are blowing it with the slop we feed them in most public schools. Perhaps a positive follow up to this story is the farm to table programs slowly catching on in some schools. We have one in the Ojai Valley called Food for Thought. Great writing as always.

a guest , July 15, 2010