Schooltime!

Oh, how I have missed putting things in the laptop lunchbox. This lunch went out the door a few days ago, but involved a blueberry reminder of summer, some Straus Family nonfat vanilla yogurt to dip the blueberries in, dried mango, and a turkey sandwich on the world’s best baguette, from Berkeley’s own Acme Bakery. It was for Tiniest Tiffin, who is actually not that tiny at all, being a third grader.

So here are some upcoming things:

• the Berkeley School Lunch Initiative — I’m getting ready to check out what’s up with the new buffet style lunches
• Some stuff about feeding pre-teens and hungry third graders,
• Orange food.  Halloween is coming.  Last year, we made easy cupcakes.  Last year, at Halloween time, I was not my total healthiest.  This year I am feeling way better, and stronger, and might do something so spectacularly  orange that it will be spoken about in my family for generations.  Or we might just make cupcakes again.
• Plus, I have got to show you my new bento box thing.  It is so utterly beautiful.  And also, my own lunches are much easier to photograph, because in the morning I’m just way too bleary-eyed to photograph my children’s.

So welcome back to lunch! It’s going to be such a fabulous year.

Middle School Lunch: A LOT of Food

Cantelope, banana whole wheat mini-muffin, Niman Ranch salami, egg (and salt), Straus Family Creamery maple yogurt with raspberries, trail mix (peanuts, raisins, a few m&ms), cheddar cheese.

This lunch looks like a lot. It’s for a hungry, growing 11 year old boy. Turns out, it was enough food for him, and because I forgot to put a spoon in, he didn’t eat the yogurt.

I’ve been reading a lot of about school lunches. Next week’s tiffin tin will discuss a little bit about what I’ve been reading.

Not Your Usual Hot Dog

A quick word. It’ll have to be quick, because I’ve got almost no power left in my battery and I’m not supposed to get out of bed to go downstairs to get my cord. (I had surgery this morning and I’m supposed to be lying around, recovering.)

Tiniest Tiffin’s review of today’s School Lunch Initiative lunch: Hot dogs. They were pretty okay. But they ran out of ketchup. Hot carrots. ( I recycled them, is how he described their fate. I think that means he doesn’t like his carrots warm.)

Here’s the most interesting news (besides the fact that I happen to know those hot dogs were nitrate free, and made out of organic meat. They are not your ordinary hot dogs): The salad bar was really great. You heard that right. They’ve installed what sounds like a very nice salad bar in the elementary school cafeteria. And there’s more than just lettuce in there, he reports. He told me proudly about how he made himself a Caesar salad — lettuce, dressing. And that the salad bar has more things than just lettuce: tomatoes, strawberries and “veggies.” I don’t think he put any of it on his plate, but I can tell he’s interested in it. The salad bar perfectly fits a second grader’s desire for freedom of choice. Good for the Renegade Lunch Lady.

The Renegade Lunch Lady Feeds Berkeley

I’m fascinated by utopian experiments. I love the way they inevitably run up against the real world, and either fail miserably or morph into something everyone’s always surprised ever started out as an experiment because it seems so, well, obvious. I’m also a big fan of people who are not afraid to try to fix big problems, like childhood obesity. So a big utopian project like the Berkeley School Lunch Initiative has gotten my full attention. (In case you’re wondering, the Berkeley School Lunch Initiative is designed to wipe out obesity by feeding Berkeley’s children delicious, nutritious, inspiring food. Locally grown food. Organic food. Unprocessed food made by local people. Every day. For lunch. And also in some schools for breakfast.)

Tiniest Tiffin is in the second grade in a Berkeley public school. This is the first Initiative he’s been an official part of. Last Friday, I found, stuffed in the bottom of his backpack THE most beautiful school lunch calendar I’ve ever seen in my life. Usually, the school lunch calendar is printed on a piece of colored paper and you get a new one every month. I stick it on the fridge, and then forget about it. He sometimes eats school lunch, when we’re in an emergency situation. But not often. It’s not the best food.

This calendar signals just how different things are about to be around here. For one thing, it’s a yearly calendar. The kind you pay good money for. Each month features a nice photograph or drawing of a fruit or vegetable with a little recipe to the side. The recipes aren’t complicated. Each day of the school week has a clear, simple menu for school lunch. The bottom of the calendar shows you the two week breakfast cycle. I almost cried, it was so clearly the work of someone who knows what they’re doing, cares about food, and cares about children.

That someone is a woman named Ann Cooper who is often referred to as the Renegade Lunch Lady. A week or so ago, while I was looking for some information about school lunches, I ran across her website. And then I pre-ordered her book, Lunch Lessons. And then, a few days later, my husband looked up from the New Yorker (the September 4 Education Issue which, alas, I can’t find online) and said, “Honey, did you know they’ve got Tiniest Tiffin’s school in here?” (Obviously, his name isn’t Tiniest Tiffin. But he’d be horrified to be identified by name, so we’ll have to go with that nickname until something better comes along.)

Then and there, I asked Tiniest Tiffin if he’d like to eat cafeteria lunch a few times a week. He liked this idea. The food sounds good. Did I mention it costs just $3 a pop if you don’t qualify for school lunch (and nothing if, as about 75% of the kids at his school do, you qualify)? Lots of his friends eat school lunch, so he likes being in line for lunch with them.

Tiniest Tiffin’s elementary school has, for the past year, been involved in a breakfast program that’s funded by the Chez Panisse Foundation, which also funds part of the School Lunch Initiative. Some things about these school breakfasts are great and make me hopeful about the lunches to come:

* the breakfast food’s lovely, organic, and made locally. Many mornings, I find myself envying the children their scones, fruit and milk.The children have gotten used to breakfast pizza, and it’s available to everybody, for free, no questions asked about family income. Everyone eats together.

Some things about it are not so great:

*feeding children breakfast first thing in the morning, in a school where teachers would like to swing into action in the classroom first thing in the morning, is, quite rightly, something the teachers have trouble embracing.

*The cafeteria where breakfast is served is crowded and loud.

*The children are not eating their breakfasts in a calm atmosphere. Some children are eating two breakfasts: one at school and one at home. If the idea is to combat obesity, that’s not so good.

*The breakfast program was introduced without really consulting the teachers, parents or children. That is never a good thing. I’m not sure why there was so little consulation, but it makes people reluctant to own it and make it work. Nevertheless, it is working if, by working, you mean that children are eating a healthy, nutritious breakfast every morning.

Here are a few things I can see the Renegade Lunch Lady might want to think about. Although, to tell you the truth, she’s got enough on her plates (there are many thousands of children in the Berkeley Unified School District she needs to feed tomorrow). I’m giving her some slack. But I’ve still got some ideas:

* Parent education. Children at my son’s school are educated about eating in a variety of creative ways. There’s a school garden, where they learn where food comes from. They are encouraged to try new things and they do. There’s a cooking program, where they learn about food preparation and nutrition. And then there’s the food itself, served by the school, and entirely consistent with these principles. But what about the lunchables, the doritos, the sodas, the candy, the cookies? Where are these coming from? Well, they’re coming from the children’s homes. Parents who pack lunches are not being inspired – they’re not even being approached- about how to pack a proper lunch. This is another piece of the puzzle. I’m sure it’s been thought of, and maybe it’s going to be phase three or something. i’ll have my eye out for it.
* Teacher education. I mentioned this earlier. The teachers are expected to hand out those breakfasts every morning and to give up about twenty minutes of precious instructional time while they do it. They’re important partners. But they don’t feel like partners. How about showing them some love for what they’re doing? Educating them about what’s so important about the breakfast (and lunch) project? How about serving them lovely lunches or breakfasts to sweeten the deal? The project will work if parents and teachers embrace it. People embrace things that make them feel good. Somebody needs to think about that.
* The cafeteria atmosphere. I hate eating at picnic tables. They’re crowded, you feel trapped, and the food is hard to access. Why should children have to eat like that? How can you enjoy your breakfast and lunch when you’re eating that way? My son’s school has a really nice outdoor space, but no decent outdoor seating. So they can’t eat outside, despite the fact that this is California, with pretty nice weather a lot of the time. This is a capital investment issue, a one-time cost, a perfect chance for some company like Smith & Hawken, to donate a lot of really nice, sturdy, outdoor furniture with good umbrellas or something, to the Berkeley schools. If we’re going to feed Berkeley’s children beautiful food, they should also be eating it in a sane atmosphere. Surely, somebody can pry some money loose for nicer cafeteria seating.

Feeding our children these gorgeous lunches is going to have its challenges, as the breakfast program illustrates. But it can work — and I hope it does.

I’ll be discussing it in much more detail in the year to come.

An announcement. I will be having surgery tomorrow, and will be off recuperating until Thursday. Because I’ll be eating bon-bons and reading novels Tuesday and Wednesday, I won’t be writing about lunches. Do not fear, however. Thursday’s post will feature back to school lunches for middle schoolers.

The Village Market

I’ve returned from the quest for that colorful melamine tiffin tin made by Vivo I talked about in yesterday’s post, and am here today to sing the praises of the Village Market in San Francisco’s Ferry Building which does indeed sell that tin. They’re out, but they get shipments of them several times a week, so you can call them and ask for one.

And you don’t have to live in San Francisco to order from the Village Market. They have a website. Although this tin isn’t up on their site, their contact information is and I have the feeling they might ship it to you if you ask.

Tomorrow, a piece about the Berkeley School Lunch Initiative, which Tiffin Tiniest’s school participates in.

Update: Thanks to reader Kate, here’s another source for a colorful melamine tiffin tin.

Buying a Tin Online

There are few things more frustrating than knowing what you want and being unable to find it. A tiffin tin — that wonderful Indian lunchbox, cunningly constructed out of layers of stainless steel to nicely keep your lunch hot — can be hard to find. Here are a few American sites to help you in the search for this lunching holy grail:

Reusable bags is a great site for all things related to packing an earth-friendly lunch. And, naturally, there’s a tiffin tin.

This one surprised me. It’s from a classic hardware store. Of course a tiffin tin can be used to store your nails. Still, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t put it to its intended use.

Here’s another earth friendly site. Tiffin tins to be had here.

JBoxstocks a wonderful array of containers. They’re bento box people, but I’m including them because this is a wonderful site and some of these small containers are quite good for storing things like dipping sauces and salad dressings.

Now here’s one that’s giving me trouble. Long before I learned they’d featured these colorful melamine tiffin tins on Real Simple, I’d spotted them at a great store in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. A week later, they were out, probably because of Real Simple. The guy at the store told me they would be ordering more. They’re made by a mysterious entity called Vivo that doesn’t seem to want to answer its phone.  Look here for something similar. 

That’s it for today tiffin fans. Tomorrow, Sunday, a note about shopping for a middle schooler’s lunch. (Middle school starts next week, and the Tiffin Twins are gearing up for it.)

Something Out of Nothing

We shop on Fridays around here, so by this point in the week, there’s often not much in the fridge. That’s why today’s lunch pretty much resembles yesterday’s. The last Rice Krispie treat, the last couple of pieces of turkey (with a cheese stick I found in the back of the cheese drawer). Melon (we always have a lot of fruit around). Carrots. I tried to get an okay on the hummus I thought would be a good dip, but no go. Ranch it is. I’ll keep trying on hummus. Two teensy mini banana muffins. And that orange cylinder is thermos with the ice cold water.

A few comments on nutrition. That orange thermos represents a major change in the drinking habits of Tiniest Tiffin, who’s just not drinking juice anymore. Water or milk. I’m glad to see that turned around. I’d say it’s been a pretty decent week nutritionally speaking, for that reason alone. A significant change in a habit for the better totally outweighs three days of Rice Krispie treats. And the carrots are a big deal too. It’s new to have both a fruit and a veggie, but he’s learning at school that a proper lunch involves both a fruit and a veg.

I’ve enjoyed this week of lunches. Weekends are for posting about general lunch topics. Saturday Tiffin will feature a compilation of sites I’ve found for buying tiffin tins online in the United States. See you then.

Back to School With the Tiffin Tin

I have three sons, only one of whom starts school today. Poor thing — he didn’t see this as a matter of getting there first, but as a sign that being the third child will always be a drag. But at least we let him put a Rice Krispie treat in his lunch.

(I’m going to have to work on my picture taking and presentation, I see. Those turkey rollups are looking awfully lonely. It’s just like the first day of school — we’re a bit wobbly in our new school shoes.)

Now, before you condemn me as a mother with no nutritional sense, I’d like to say in my defense, that the occasional Rice Krispie treat is not going to kill your child. In fact, that is Principle Number One of Tiffin Tinning — there will be no nutritional purity on this site. We try for whole grains, fruits and veggies, a de-emphasis on sugar, protein that’s not terribly high in fat and a bit of calcium. But on the first day of school, and on other special days, out come the Rice Krispie Treats.

Now, here’s Principle 2 of Tiffin Tinning. It is a good thing if you involve your child in making lunch. They’re more likely to eat it, for one thing. And after a while, you will have more time to laze around in your bathrobe, drinking tea before rushing off to work and school. And that, to my mind, is an important goal for a parent to have: the children should help. The parent should occasionally demonstrate how adults can relax for a few moments in the morning.

Here’s what the youngest TiffinTin boy (age 7, grade 2) made for his lunch today.

1. Protein and calcium: We didn’t have any decent whole grain bread in the house for a sandwich (which is what he wanted) and besides, I was trying to balance out the Rice Krispie Treat. So, we made turkey and havarti roll-ups. This is not hard. You lay out one slice of turkey. You use a little round cookie cutter (or a jar top) and cut the Havarti into a circle. You don’t have to do this, but it’s fun and children like to cut things into shapes. It’s easy to roll them up. We made three because that’s how many he wanted.
2. Fruit: He carefully plucked individual grapes off the bunch of grapes that were in the fridge. They went in a little container he’s had since he was small.  Again, he decided how many he wanted.
3. Drink: Not shown in the picture. Ice cold water from a pitcher of water in the fridge. The school year is just beginning. It’s time to break the habit of juice in the lunch. He’s been drinking cold water all summer, so I went with it today.  The water goes in a cool thermos that attaches to his lunch box. I had him practice opening the thermos. (Another Tiffin Tin Principle: food should be independently accessible by the child.)
4. Containers: I try to stay away from stuff he has to throw away. I put a cloth napkin in the bottom of his lunchbox. You can buy an expensive lunchbox container with a lot of little modular containers, which are very cool, or you can go to ebay and buy some tupperware. I love tupperware and I am very fond of ebay. So that’s the way I’ve gone today.  I have other containers I love, especially insulated ones, and I’ll be showing those to you soon.  They tend to be used by the middle school boys, who start school next week.
5. Cooling system. An ice pack goes in the slot in the lunchbox that’s designed for that sort of thing.  It’s hot here these first few weeks of school.  I don’t want the cheese and grapes to get icky.
6. Portion sizes: You can see there’s not a ton of food in here. School is just beginning. The best way to gauge how much to pack is by seeing how much comes home with your child. Adjust accordingly.

Time expended on making lunch: About ten minutes. A lot less than writing this post.

Oh, and then, of course, a lunchbox note. Sticker on piece of paper. A loving thought for a day he’s not sure will be happy:

Tomorrow: Another lunch, possibly an easier day.   Beginnings can be hard. And whole wheat banana muffins. Maybe not a rice crispie treat, but good nevertheless.