During Meghan’s first year of preschool, they served juice and some sort of processed food (such as crackers) for snack everyday. It bothered me because those were not things I gave her at home often, but I didn’t say anything since she was only there three mornings a week.
The next year she was going to be going five mornings a week, and I hated to think about her having juice and crackers so often. I gathered my courage and mentioned my concerns to the lead teacher. She said she didn’t think the kids would drink anything other than juice, but she was willing to try serving water. She was also open to different snack ideas.
She allowed me to volunteer as snack coordinator, and from then on the children were lucky enough to have fresh snacks, sent in from parent volunteers, every day. Crackers were replaced with fruits, vegetables, and sometimes things like homemade mini muffins or granola bars.
Several moms thanked me and told me that their kids were trying more foods than they ever had before and liking fresh foods more than they thought possible! The lead teacher said that the kids drank water without complaint and didn’t even ask for juice. All because I decided to speak up.
A few weeks ago I wrote about how I was learning to say no when my kids were bombarded with treats after every activity. One mom sent that blog article on to the owners of the swim school where Meghan and Luke take lessons. The owner called me and thanked me for writing the post and asked about alternatives to the artificially-colored suckers they handed out after every lesson. I suggested the organic brand Yum Earth. She called the company and was quoted a price that was feasible, so she emailed me to let me know they were making the switch! Yes, it’s still sugar, but hundreds of kids will not be ingesting as many artificial food dyes because of that switch. All because I wanted to start a conversation.
I’m not writing this post to pat myself on the back. I’m writing it to encourage you. What changes do you want to see? What would happen if you decided to use your voice and speak up? If you are reading my blog, chances are you care about the health of the youth of today, whether you have kids or not. How can you use that passion to spark change? The more voices that are heard, the more change will happen. What will you do?
Can i share it?
I wanted to print the beet burger recipe but your print button isn’t working! I had to print all the pictures and this made me really annoyed. I hope it’s worth it. Thanks for the recipe.
Really? Thanks for letting me know! I just printed a recipe (yes, I print my own recipes :)) and didn’t have a problem, but I will check it out. Sorry you had to deal with printing pics–that annoys me too. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Thanks for post! I am literally faced with the same situation and had the same concerns- my 1 yr old daughter is given unhealthy snacks twice a day at daycare 3x/wk (ex. honeycombs or cinnamon toast crunch) which she would not get at home. Can you offer more details about how you were able to get the other parents on board with providing snacks from home? Did you have any resistance from anyone and how did you deal with that? Do all the parents pay for the snacks or are you reimbursed from the school? Thanks again! Best, Simone
I just spoke with the teacher and she was very open to change as long as I organized it. So I sent out a letter and asked for parent volunteers to provide snack. Parents paid for the snacks. There was no resistance from the parents at all and it was strictly on a volunteer basis, so only parents who were interested volunteered. There was an overwhelmingly positive response and we actually had more volunteers than we needed. It’s a smaller school, though, so it wasn’t a ton of food that parents had to provide. Most parents ended up bringing snack 1-2 X per month. If you email me I can send you the letter that I sent out to parents that explained what I was trying to do. thehappyhealthymama {at} gmail {dot} com. I hope this helps!
This is incredible. You are amazing and SUCH an inspiration to moms everywhere!!
Good for you!! It is nice that the school and the swim group were open to new ideas. Oh, and thanks for the encouragement to speak up as well. 🙂
You’re welcome, Kathy! 🙂
The changes I would most like to see in our area for my kids’ are that the school cafeterias remove all desserts (cookies, ice cream, cakes, etc.). I don’t ever offer my kids’ dessert for lunch, so why do schools think it’s ok? I think for the amount of concentration that a child needs in the classroom, it simply doesn’t make sense to offer them items like that that have so much sugar. Not only that, but, it might spark some positive changes in behavior after lunch, as well.
Have you talked to anyone at the school yet? If not, you should! Please keep me updated on if they are receptive to limiting the sweets. It seems like they would be open to it if they hear your reasoning, which makes total sense.