Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Starting the Family Revolution

I've been reading and watching a lot of things about living better and simpler including Food Inc., Taking Back Childhood, Growing Compassionate Kids, Omnivore's Dilemma, Food Rules, and Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

I've come away wanting to make sure my children and myself eat well, live well, and are socially responsible in as many of our choices as possible.

My main challenge has been to find ways to feed my family with as many pure, local, and organic ingredients as my budget will allow. Additionally, I want to make sure my children (who receive at least one meal at school, if not two, five days per week) are receiving the best meals possible.

So, in the coming months, I hope to find strategies that work for our budget and share them with you. Please add your comments on things your family or community does to get closer to these goals.

In the past weeks, I have:
*Written emails to the school district asking them to remove flavored milks from the schools.
*Stopped buying flavored yogurts (especially go-gurts).
*Trying to buy products that have few and natural ingredients.
*Avoiding as many products with high-fructose corn syrup.
*Turned the TV off and sent the kids outside.
*Buying fresh fruits/veggies that are in season and frozen for those that are not.

4 comments:

Karen said...

I too have tried to significantly limit my high fructose corn syrup intake. Also I don't buy napkins anymore and use cloth ones instead.

LOVE Jamie Oliver's new show! I hope that jump starts a true school food revolution!

Jenna said...

We did away with paper products awhile ago (we still keep a roll of paper towels around and we compost our kleenx). We do use toilet paper. Composting has been a big impact in our family as well.

Gwenna said...

Love it! A lot of that stuff has been on my mind/heart too. I learned a lot about healthy eating from this book and really try to follow it:

http://www.amazon.com/Healthiest-Kid-Neighborhood-Nutritional-Parenting/dp/0316060127/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271271527&sr=8-1

BettyMcQ said...

This is so exciting, Jenna! First, that you have a fun blog. Second, that we're on the same page re: food. John and I just, weirdly, happened to go vegetarian about 3 weeks ago and haven't looked back. Still eating fish, eggs, dairy. I did try vegan for two weeks but re: eating out, and feeding my little one, I felt it was unnecessarily hard core at this stage.

We also use glass containers instead of tupperware re: leaching, and sustainability. LOVE them.

I also love shopping at second hand stores, especially for my little chica. Zero impact on the Earth, cheap, and we get great clothes because the clothes are barely worn before passed along!

Thanks for making a difference! You rock :)