I’m watching this show online and loving it.  Jamie Oliver, who is a chef who has worked with improving school lunches in England, is working in Huntington WV to improve eating habits.  He is working in schools to improve lunches (get rid of processed foods, etc.) and teaching people how to cook.  He has to backtrack to teach kids to even be able to identify fresh vegetables.  My favorite part is in episode two where he has to teach kids to use a knife and fork.  The school doesn’t condone using anything other than fingers or spoons in elementary school!  This is my personal pet peeve since I have to deal with this one.  Z has been taught that she should not be exposed to knives.  She is insistent that they not be on her side of the table at a restaurant.  I working with her to use a fork to cut something fairly soft recently.  She had no clue.  All she could do was stab it over and over even though that was obviously not working.  Unfortunately, I haven’t seen her to reinforce the lesson so she’s probably forgotten by now.

One thing that isn’t touched on is how to get difficult kids to eat food.  They give them only healthy options and they sort of have to eat it or starve.  Z won’t eat anything but processed crap.  She would rather not eat for days than eat something other than french fries or occasionally pizza.  We are going on a week’s vacation soon.  My head will explode if she doesn’t eat anything else but I’m not sure what to do.  We’ll be eating in restaurants so the kid’s meals tend to be only french fry based food and if we say no to a mentally ill child with food issues in a public place – it doesn’t end pretty.

Check out the show.  The resistance of people to change is amazing.  Alice the cook (don’t call her a lunch lady) reminds me so much of a former co-worker that I can’t help but laugh.