After watching some videos on the Lunch Love Community project website, I was reassured that somebody really understood what teachers really need. As a teacher, I spend hours trying to find relevant content for my classes. I thought of some other recent developments designed to help people in education. Sites like YouTube have started an education section to help teachers find what they need from the massive catalog of content. The Khan Academy was started to revolutionize the way learning has changed in our digital culture.
The Lunch Love Community site with videos like, The Whole World In A Small Seed and But is it Replicable? present stories that present real life challenges and struggles, but most of all, success. Seeing the success is the inspiring aspect of the videos. You need a lot more than inspiration to change something as big as the eating habits of teenagers.
In the But is it Replicable? video, I thought about how my local high school would have a very difficult task in getting a majority of kids to eat healthy. Students are allowed to eat off campus, because the cafeteria cannot service the whole student body during the lunch period. The students have a choice whether to eat the school’s lunch or any of the surrounding food establishments. The school has to basically compete with the fast food chains surrounding the school, while trying to provide healthy choices for lunch. At my school, “No, it is impossible,” is the answer.
I also thought about my own experience after watching the “But Is It Replicable” video, and I’m not trying to sound like a pessimist, but I don’t think anything like this could ever happen at the schools I went to, or the one’s my parents work at. I agree though that it is very inspiring to see someone else set out a goal, keep at it for ten years, and be able to finally accomplish that goal.
Your observation about the difficulty your local high school faces in promoting healthy eating habits among students is an important one. The reality that students can choose to eat off-campus, competing with nearby fast-food establishments, emphasizes the complexity of the issue. Yet, by acknowledging these challenges, we pave the way for constructive conversations and, hopefully, innovative solutions. Thanks!