Mysterious "Mrs. Q" Aims to Reform School Lunch by Eating It

UPDATE 12/02/10: The House voted in favor of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, ushering in school lunch reform. The move came after more than 15,000 Change.org members signed a petition supporting the Child Nutrition Act and more than 1,000 members urged Congress to reform school lunch without cutting future funds to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), aka food stamps.  While the bill still includes SNAP cuts, President Obama and Congressional leaders have promised to fix these reductions. Read the full story here.

America's students eat a gross assortment of meals at school cafeterias, everything from processed chicken nuggets and goopy pasta to the more inventive bagel dogs and "rib-b-ques." One school employee, who goes by the alias "Mrs. Q," aims to reform school lunch by eating and documenting these vile vittles. Mrs. Q started the Fed Up With Lunch project in January of 2010. She ate, photographed, and blogged about the 101 lunches served in her school's cafeteria every day from January through the end of the school year in June. Once school starts back up in September, Mrs. Q will continue the project and blog.

In just seven months, the Fed Up With Lunch blog has become wildly popular, especially as the school lunch reform debate heats up with the Child Nutrition Act up for re-authorization. Mrs. Q appeared on Good Morning America and was interviewed by numerous media outlets, and she's garnered attention from famed foodies like Marion Nestle. Change.org caught up with Mrs. Q to dish on the Child Nutrition Act, the most disgusting PB&J sandwich of all time, and what it will really take to revamp school lunch.

How did you get the idea for the blog?

I became a mother, and at that point you really think about giving your child healthy nutrition. Once I started thinking about that, I started thinking more about the kids at my school. Once you have a kid, then you start thinking “Would I let my kid eat that?” And obviously the answer was "No, I would never let my kid eat that, and what can I do about it?" I didn’t feel like there was anything I could do about it, so I thought that at least by writing the blog I could create a record of what the kids eat in my school.

Do people at work know about your project?

If they know about the blog, nobody has ever said anything to me.

Do you worry about getting found out?

I was terrified for most of the year. It was sort of like being on a rollercoaster — at the beginning when I was getting all that media attention, that completely overwhelmed me. But as it’s gone on, I’ve gotten a little less nervous. I was very nervous every time  I went and purchased school lunch — I  was worried somebody would make a comment. There’s a part of me that can’t wait to have that conversation with the principal and lunch room manager about what I’ve been doing.

What has surprised you?

The high level of interest in the project surprised me. I’ve learned so much about school lunches, regulations, reimbursement rates, food service, lunch ladies — things I never really thought about before. There are so many facets of the school lunch program. There are the corporations that are involved, there’s even the food service employees — this is a really big, hairy problem.

What do you think about the Child Nutrition Act?

Just like my readers, I’m on the fence. There’s part of me that really does want more money for kids to eat better. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want a nice increase in the school lunch reimbursement rate to line the pockets of school food corporations or give bonuses to their CEOs. In some ways, it’s more than just bulking up the reimbursement rate. It’s more about re-engineering the approach to school lunches. It’s about making sure that lunch ladies are valued and giving them the training that they need so they can prepare fresh foods for kids. They need to be viewed as at least as important as teachers. I’m not sure if adding more money to the budget is really going to help us achieve our goals of getting kids to eat better.

What’s the grossest thing you’ve ever eaten from your school's cafeteria?

They called it a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but really Graham Crackers were the bread. The commercial grade peanut butter was somewhere between half an inch to an inch thick. I think it was frozen and then thawed. It wasn’t cold when I ate it, but the graham cracker didn’t have any crunch at all, it was just sort of crumbling. I ate as much as I could — each of these sandwiches is like 300 calories, and I didn’t even get through a whole one. I ended up throwing the rest out and got very sick when I got home.

Are students aware that these meals are  gross, or do they accept them?

Oh they totally accept them as food. I work in an elementary school, and it’s in a low-income area, so I can’t really say what they’re having at home for them to have a reference point.

Do you view school lunch as something that's not just a health issue, but a social justice issue?

Absolutely. These kids in lower-income areas, they don’t have the ability of getting their outside meals to balance out anything they’re eating at school that might potentially be unhealthy. And a lot of them live in food deserts. This isn’t the case at my school, but parents are suffering from a complete lack of education about cooking and nutrition.

What's your ultimate goal with this project?

There are micro-goals and macro-goals. For my particular school, I’d love it if they could get a salad bar and fresh vegetables. But that would be a micro-goal. Macro-goals involve the whole system. There are so many things I’d love to change, like increasing fresh vegetables and decreasing processed food for all students. As much as I’ve done with the project, I worry that I won’t meet the bigger goals. I’d love to see the USDA have a closer look at their regulations regarding school lunches so that things like tater tots and fries are not a vegetable, or looking closer at their grain requirements so that rice isn’t served with a piece of bread. Some of these regulations just don’t seem to be in line with common sense.

The Child Nutrition Act recently passed in the Senate, and the House is expected to vote on the bill once it gets back from the August recess. Sign our petition asking lawmakers to support school lunch reform by voting in favor of the Child Nutrition Act.

Photo credit: fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com