A Sense Of Understanding: Why Parents Might Feed Their Children Junk

This summer I have been presented with QUITE a unique experience-- one that not only tests my love of food and my love of children, but also tests my SPEED--every.single.day: I have been presented with the CHALLENGE of preparing cooking demonstrations for 50 to 100 elementary level, summer camp children in half an hour's time, start to finish. Subtract the FIVE minutes of getting them seated and grasping their attention, and I'm left with 25 to teach them to make something...to cut it, ASSEMBLE it, sometimes bake it, COOL it down and SERVE it before they venture on to their next activity.Challenge Accepted.



And yet, all of a sudden, everything I believed about the ease of cooking and preparing healthy treats for children has come CRASHING down to reveal the truth: If you think making quick acceptable meals for ONE OR TWO children is a difficult task, try doing it for 25 at once. Try getting them EXCITED about vegetables and whole grains when all they really want to relieve themselves from the summer heat is a bowl of ice cream topped with every junky thing you can think of.


We made guacamole, and granola, and parfaits, and baked apples, oatmeal cranberry cookies, and other slightly healthy sounding treats..with NO PREVAIL on my part. "Yogurt AGAIN?" "Can't we do real cookies??"

And after two weeks of trying my hardest to push the importance of yogurt and fruit as substitutes for ice cream and processed sugar, we baked what I called COOKIE MONSTER COOKIES...chocolate chip and white chocolate chip...and they were AMAZING. I caved under the pressure. Under the NAGGING for sweets just to be loved by a hundred adorable children.



To ease my conscience in serving them up the cookies on the same day as the CAMP-WIDE ICE CREAM SUNDAE DAY, I justified my actions by teaching them how to MEASURE, how to mix well, how to share responsibility, how to work as a team, and how to follow a RECIPE. And all of a sudden, fifty kids were tugging at my pant legs begging me for the recipe to bring home so they could teach their parents.

My popularity INCREASED and my confidence in my ability to cook was restored.

Now I sort of understand how you moms feel, and why you buy those DUNKAROOS and Fruit-By-The-Foot andDanimals Drinkable (preservative-enhanced) Yogurt.

For LOVE.

And a few times a week, that is perfectly fine with me.
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