It has begun...

We're off!
Today the food crusaders and I met and discussed this food emergency our culture is facing. It was quite exciting to talk to these kids and explain what's actually going on with their food and their bodies because of the food. We discussed some of the problems with healthy eating (i.e. ignorance, cost, ingrained habits) and how we could overcome them. We brainstormed for about an hour; letting the kids come up with the solution so they might be more invested in the project. When I asked them how we might make healthy food cheaper, a 5th grader suggested we grow it ourselves (yay). This suggestion was after 'find it on the ground', 'get it from a trash can', or 'shop at cheap stores like ingles'.
Another exciting moment was when we were discussing 'real food' vs. 'other stuff'. While I explained what is in most of the candy and snacks we eat, I saw a 4th grader pull out a bag of hot fries and start reading the ingredients. I couldn't have been prouder! We read the ingredients out loud and realized together that we did not recognize most of the items.
Next week we are going to learn to make our own sprouts (thanks Dunning) as a cheap nutritious food that can be 'grown' until our garden gets up and running. We've got some money to get things started and are working on a grant in conjunction with the Athens Farmer's Market. I cannot wait! Thanks for reading....more to come.