Critical Friends Feb 15 Session

Dear Critical Friends,

I will give a summary of our meeting, but first let me update you on my conversations with the administrators.

I've talked to Ömer Bey, Faika Hanım, and Turgut Bey, the General Manager. All of them say they will support our initiative. Faika Hanım said she will talk with parents who organize the sales immediately and ask them to move the activity to the afternoons. She also said she will look for healthy alternatives to snacks offered during staff meetings.

Turgut bey said he can talk and negotiate with the canteen people if he knows what exactly we want. So I need help from you, in making our demands explicit.

I'll be talking with both principals, hopefully next week, about the long term plans as well.

Here are the minutes:

Critical Minds Meeting

Date: Feb 15,2011

Subject: Junk Food versus healthy food

Presenter: Nathan

Facilitator and Caterer: Alex

Discussion:

Nathan explained how this subject became an issue for him, when he observed students eating pizza, drinking cola and sugary snacks in the morning; then having no money left for lunch, asking friends for money or food, and crashing, feeling sluggish in the afternoon, not open to learning at all.

He said he agrees that ss should have the right to decide what they will eat. However, it is our duty to educate them on how certain types of food affect their bodies and learning capacities. Also, they should have healthy alternatives to junk food at school.

He agrees that the canteen also need to make a profit; but schools are obliged more to ss. So, he asked, what can we do?

Everyone made their contribution to the discussion, and it was agreed that we would work with both a short term and a long term plan.

Short Term Plan:

• ask parents to do their food sales ( waffles, pastries, cakes, etc) in the afternoon
• ask principals to provide health alternatives to snacks offered during staff meetings

1. carrot/cucumber/beel-sweet pepper with dips(yoghurt with spices)
2. cheese sandwiches ( wholebread, thin slices) with tomatoes/cucumbers/salad leafs
3. fresh and dried nuts and fruits

• ask canteen to sell healthy food stuff in the morning

1. sandwiches ( as above)
2. fresh juice, ayran, natural juices, milk ( low fat?), water
3. yoghurt ( with fresh/dried fruits) and muesli?
4. fresh fruits
5. Tost

• ask canteen to begin selling pizza and doner at noon - lunch time.
• ask canteen to sell junk snacks in the afternoon:

1. cola, soda, sugary drinks
2. chocolate, wafers, chips, sugar drops, etc.

Long Term Plan

Plan for an all campus campaign where there would be these steps:

• talk with teachers, have them agree on the need to move to healthy living and eating habits - for them as well as for ss.
• research, design, compose lesson plans that will build awareness in our ss, of what healthy living is, what factors to take into consideration, find sites and books to refer to.
• coordinate with all departments-subjects-disciplines, so that all ss are involved, in a number of ways: in Turkish, English, Science, Social studies, physical education, clubs, activities, etc.
• focus not only on eating healthy but also exercising, spending time in the open air, getting enough sleep, what we wear - clothes; using electronic devices; listening to loud music....
• make ss actice in doing the research, going over their life styles at home and at school, what needs to be changed, how, what can be done, what can be put in instead
• Have a blog, where everyone can contribute.
• pereferably, before beginning , try to take a picture of the present situation, and then chart the progress, as ss change, teachers change, school changes.

Please add on what you think would be good!