Sweet Paul + School Lunch Update

image via sweet paul magazine

Have you seen the new magazine from genius food blogger/ stylist sweet paul? It's completely inspiring and lovely and the recipes are seriously drool-worthy.

In (digitally) flipping through it, I was especially jazzed about the photo above, as it solved a vexing "snack" dilemma I've been wrestling with.

Tomorrow night, a group of other neighborhood moms are meeting at my house to talk "school lunch" and come up with some changes we'd like to see implemented at our elementary school. (I haven't talked about school lunch here in a while, but I'm pretty excited about the direction we're headed.)

Needless to say, I was a wee bit stressed about what kind of snack to serve a group of ladies while talking about putting healthier food in our kid's lunch rooms, so when I saw the picture above I had a sort of eureka moment... So easy, so pretty -- some pecans, some pears, a little cheese, some dried apricots, a few water crackers... Done and done.

I'm totally copying Paul. 100% copying... that exact snack box you see above. (except maybe on a tray and not a box, we'll see.)

Ok, back to school lunch. Several of these same ladies and I got together a few months ago to watch the excellent documentary 2 Angry Moms. (If you're at all interested in the school lunch issue, I would highly recommend buying this and hosting a screening for other moms, it's fantastic!) Since then, there have been several other group meet-ups, a meeting between one of the especially motivated moms and our district food service director (!), and I had a chance to chat with the head of the lunch program at Audrey's school. There's real traction and a strong sense in our community that folks are interested in making sure our schools serve healthy food, which is so incredibly encouraging, no?

The really exciting news though is that I think the stars are aligning and change is already happening...what seemed like an uphill battle just months ago now seems to be moving rapidly forward (maybe it's the changes to the Child Nutrition Act or the Jamie Oliver show and petition {have you signed the petition yet?} or public pressure...who knows, but something is going on.) For example, I got a sneak peek at the menu for next year and all white grains have been replaced with whole wheat, they're offering loads more fresh fruits and veggies (I was especially excited about the addition of snap peas), and they've eliminated pudding and processed branded meals (i.e. that Smucker's crustable pb&j currently on the menu.)

Progress friends, progress...

I'll keep you posted on how things shake out (both the meeting and that cheese box ;-)