Sometimes it's More Than a Lunch Room

I was a music teacher at an inner city Catholic school for a brief period after college. I'd never really wanted to teach music, but I was also never one to turn down a job when I needed it. And the experience was invaluable.

Little did I know.

I had the unfortunate pleasure of having lunch duty two times a week. It really was the worst duty that anyone could have. I had to stand there with a huge bell in my hand and watch as children ate their horrible lunches.

I wouldn't have noticed amidst the cacophony of their voices except the lunches were horrible. If they actually had a lunch.

I soon found out that many of the kids didn't have lunches. They relied solely on the schools poor offerings for breakfast and their fairly irregular lunch service. And if they didn't have it, they didn't eat.

It's never been something I could actually comprehend -- starving children. We live in such a land of abundance that to imagine children, particularly children here in the United States, not having enough food is unthinkable. In fact, it really upsets me.

And so, those moments I spent in the lunch room taught me more than how to ring the bell louder than a group of hungry children.

I am more thankful each and every time I eat.

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Make sure to visit School Menu and Family Everyday -- two sites that work together with School Food Services Directors to get kids healthy in school lunches!

Comments

[Kristina Brooke]

I teach in an inner city high school and my students always complain about the lunches. I try to bring in extra food and healthy snacks because I know that many of them don't get to eat well-balance meals. It's a shame.