Product Description

Remember how simple school lunches used to be? You'd have something from every major food group, run around the playground for a while, and you looked and felt fine. But today it's not so simple. Schools are actually feeding the American crisis of childhood obesity and malnutrition. Most cafeterias serve a veritable buffet of processed, fried, and sugary foods, and although many schools have attempted to improve, they are still not measuring up: 78 percent of the school lunch programs in America do not meet the USDA's nutritional guidelines.

Chef Ann Cooper has emerged as one of the nation's most influential and most respected advocates for changing how our kids eat. In fact, she is something of a renegade lunch lady, minus the hairnet and scooper of mashed potatoes. Ann has worked to transform cafeterias into culinary classrooms. In Lunch Lessons, she and Lisa Holmes spell out how parents and school employees can help instill healthy habits in children.

They explain the basics of good childhood nutrition and suggest dozens of tasty, home-tested recipes for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. The pages are also packed with recommendations on how to eliminate potential hazards from the home, bring gardening and composting into daily life, and how to support businesses that provide local, organic food.

Yet learning about nutrition and changing the way you run your home will not cure the plague of obesity and poor health for this generation of children. Only parental activism can spark widespread change. With inspirational examples and analysis, Lunch Lessons is more than just a recipe book—it gives readers the tools to transform the way children everywhere interact with food.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #275147 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-01
• Released on: 2006-09-05
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In prose both straightforward and practical, Cooper and Holmes cleverly avoid the depressing air of many of current nutrition manuals in their charge against the school lunch status quo; though they do note in the foreword that "thirty to forty percent of children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes," they've largely jettisoned scare tactics in favor of practical, easy-to-follow solutions for the daily school lunch pail. The book is well documented throughout, giving authors' claims that their advice will lead to "increased ability to concentrate, increased cognitive development...and less moodiness" a solid foundation. Clarifying which foods are truly hazardous to children, the authors offer readers a litany of substitutions and positive options. Avoiding trans-fats and processed foods is only the beginning of advice that includes "trusting your children's appetites" while keeping in mind that "you are the boss" where food choices are concerned. Perfect for working parents who believe they're far too busy to pack a school lunch for their child, this well-organized manual offers a host of surprisingly simple meal changes and easy-to-follow recipes. Other sections offer tips on getting involved locally to transform school lunch programs; the end of the book boasts a valuable resource guide with helpful websites.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly
"Perfect for working parents who believe they're far too busy to pack a school lunch for their child"

About the Author

Chef Ann Cooper, a former Executive Chef of the Ross School in East Hampton, New York, and the Putney Inn in Vermont is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. She has turned her commitment to sustainable, delicious, nutritious food toward education in order to help children. Chef Cooper is the author of A Woman's Place Is in the Kitchen and coauthor of In Mother's Kitchen and Bitter Harvest.

Customer Reviews

Great Lunch Box Ideas
Great ideas for the picky eater and this helps add ideas to the mundane lunch box routine

Good Ideas Are in this Book
This book has great ideas for lunch meals. We tend to get into a routine of turkey and yogurt for lunch, but this book breathes new ideas into a hum drum meal. I love that the nutritional contents are included. It gives great advice for portion control, too.

A great start to better nutrition
I bought this to help my kids & I have more creative solutions for school lunches. We are VERY excited about trying several ideas & I loved the information rich intro. I don't have much of a battle getting my kids to take lunch from home but it helped for them to know that "Mom" wasn't making up the lack of nutrition stats that surround school lunch menus. I highly recommend this for any Mom that is making an effort to keep her kids healthy during all meals!