Trees, bushes, earth.

The school rule is no food outside of the cafeteria, but the reality is that kids are cramming their bellies full of Hot Cheetos and double chocolate chip muffins during the day, so clearly they are eating outside of the cafeteria. I hate finding Hot Cheeto remnants in my carpet, or hearing someone munch on chips in the middle of class. I dislike the chaos it tends to cause, and worst of all, I can't stand watching healthy, bright kids poison their bodies with unhealthy foods.

So, on the second day of class, I told my 11th graders they could eat by my rules after a girl asked if she could eat her plum. I'd been kicking around the idea for awhile without any real conclusion, so I figured I'd go with it and let them eat something healthy. That meant the item to be eaten must come from a tree or the ground, directly (I later ammended this to add bushes, because I didn't want berries to be left out). 

An adult I first shared the idea with told me, "But bananas aren't healthy for you. You really want them to eat bananas in class?"

Yes, yes I do. And apples and oranges and carrots and celery. Because there's not a soul I know that couldn't use more vegetables and fruit in their diet, even vegetarians. And no, I don't think bananas are unhealthy, certainly not compared to their previous snacks.

Day two brought a peach and an apple, as did days three and four.  I didn't think it had changed much (though I also didn't see a lot of other snacks being snuck in).  The kids tried to convince me that granola bars were healthy (dipped in chocolate - don't you know there are chocolate granola bar trees, Mrs. W? they exclaimed) and that sugar grew in the ground (they clearly were missing the mark on the "picking" item).  I grew weary of the idea I had proposed. I thought about cancelling it. And then...

One girl brought in a fruit salad. Another cut up two or three apples to share. Someone brought a few peaches. AND THEY WERE ASKING THEIR PARENTS TO BUY FRUIT TO EAT IN MY CLASS.

It was heavenly. I want to cultivate this. I'm dying to. It makes me so happy to see them eat healthy snacks. (And I wouldn't mind the granola bar, but we are so not ready to have the sugar conversation. They told me Capri Suns were healthy because they had water in them; I will surely need to read them this ASAP).  So what if they mostly agreed with letting fast food joints in high schools in recent essays they wrote? At least they ate fruit while they wrote about how healthy fast food is for you! We're making progress, here, people.