Lunch is a big deal at Prince Elementary School
The trays are created behind the steam table by the staff,
but the veggies and milk are serve yourself.
The stickers (see the cheeks and the pointer finger?) come from me,
the Official Adopted Grandmother of Prince Elementary School.
I put them on shoulders.
I put them on chests.
I put them on noses and cheeks and foreheads and ears.
Some students are stunned.....
and some are bemused.
Bemused is an interesting word to share with kids.
These faces are a dictionary definition of the word. 
The littlest ones go for the cookies first.
Try to avoid crying over the lack of color on the trays.
This is what passes for healthy school lunches in Arizona these days.
There are carbs and there is grease and there is ketchup-as-a-vegetable.
I sigh, and compliment the kids with carrots and cucumbers on their trays.
It's the best I can do.
The kids remember Christina-Taylor, at least the ones who are old enough to have known me over the years. They wonder how old she'd be now. They marvel at how much better I am walking. They wonder when I'll walk the playground with them again. They share family stories and bites of french fries and wave at me from the end of the table.
Granny! Gramma!! Miss Suzi!!!
It's balm for a sore soul.
It doesn't bring her back.
It eases the edges, and, on Friday, that was enough.
As I have said before, and as I will say again,
it's impossible to be sad when little ones are hugging me.
These pictures always warm my heart.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing them with us.
Megan xxx
Mine too, Megan!
ReplyDeletea/b
Love it, love it, love it. Except the veggie part. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteOne of the district's food service supervisors met me at school yesterday to thank me for my work with the students at Columbia, getting them to try and to eat their fruits and veggies. The district serves huge amounts of locally grown produce but much of it is thrown away by kids who won't even try it. I do get the kids to try new things, and like you, I hand out copious amounts of stickers for all sorts of reasons, especially trying a new veggie or fruit. Yesterday the kids ate kiwi and loved it.
If we could have a loving Grandma at every veggie station, happily munching on a carrot or jicama or kiwi and offering stickers in exchange for a taste we'd grow a generation of veggie eaters. Of course, for you it's a matter of opening the back door and tossing in a seed or two... here in Arizona, locally grown is ... well.... difficult!
Deletea/b
I told the food service supervisor the same thing--put a caring adult at every table and kids will eat better. The first graders with whom I sat yesterday all opened their veggie/fruit paks and at some of the produce. Of course, it was really good stuff yesterday--carrots & apples.
DeleteWhat a great way to enrich your spirit, and the lives of children too.
ReplyDeleteI was shocked seeing this because I was in there class those were some of my friends chloe terran dokada and Erika its so crazy I saw these im so showing this too my friends maybe not all of them were my friends but im glad they were having fun :D
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