June 3, 2009

We're Still Here!

Our poor little blog-that-could has been completely neglected. Having kids in kindergarten has really thrown us for a loop this year!! Who knew how busy a family could get just by being part of the school system? More on that, later...

Some updates:
-You will notice there is a Twitter feed on the right. I have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, as I am able to update it from my office during the day. It's mostly my updates at this point, but hopefully Ruth will get the urge to 'tweet' something now and then. I have to admit that I often find myself with something to say, but not anything that would warrant an entire blog post. I'm finding Twitter useful, and I hope you do, as well. It's also a great way to connect with other people and exchange ideas.

-My household has been a single-income household since November. The 'elitist' tag that gets thrown on buying organic has definitely hit home. However, we are still getting our CSA and still doing our best to eat 'well'. In order to keep our costs down, we have just become more vegetarian! We eat red meat maybe once a week or less, and other meat consumption has also declined.

-Now that both of our eldest children have entered the public school system, we have both jumped into the burgeoning movement to 'fix' the school food situation in our respective districts. It's a daunting project, to say the least. Did you know that elementary school kitchens were removed in the 80s? Elementary schools could not prepare lunch on-site, even if they were willing and able. High schools arre a different, and more optimistic story, but where are tastes and food habits formed? In elementary school. Did you know that, at least in California, the prepared, frozen school lunch is shipped from Chicago? Even though the ingredients are sourced right here? Sounds silly, right? There are (crazy) reasons for this. The solutions are out there, but involve a lot of time, effort, creativity and ...... money.

That is where we are at, in a nutshell. There may be more updates about the school food 'movement' here in the future. For me, the goal is about getting the students access to more nutritionally-dense food, which means sourcing it locally and eating it fresh. And, hey, isn't that what having a CSA is all about?

Thanks for reading!