Feeling Like a Hypocrite

So, I'm feeling like a hypocrite. After yesterday's post about the salmonella outbreak tied to cantaloupes from Honduras, I am packing a banana for Caroline's breakfast tomorrow. Before this year, I hadn't bought a banana in years. It's not that I don't like bananas. I actually do like the taste and texture of bananas and in fact, they were my very first solid food...my mom fed them to me when I was a newborn. There are lots of different reasons why I stopped buying bananas years ago and they have to do with issues like fair wages for farm workers, food miles, negative environmental impacts, and on and on. It would take more than a blog entry to write about my problem with bananas. But at some point, Caroline was introduced to bananas and of course, she loved them. I made a decision to include bananas in her school meals so that she wouldn't feel left out and because I didn't want her to start taking the other children's food. Last August when we opted out of the Childcare Center food program, we were told that we would no longer be able to bring Caroline's food from home if she started to 1) refuse her own meals or 2) take the other children's food. So, bananas have become a staple on our weekly grocery list along with milk, tofu, and bread.

Caroline's Lunchbox Menu, March 26: Breakfast - ten grain hot cereal, prunes, banana; Lunch - mac n' cheese, mixed vegetables; Snacks - Pink Lady apple, sunflower butter

Childcare Center Menu, March 26: Breakfast - oatmeal, raisins, bananas; Lunch - macaroni and cheese, California vegetables, cantaloupe; Snacks - apples, soynut butter