Food for Thought

One of the things I like about Frost Valley sleepaway camp is the dining hall, and the lessons taught there. They're just healthy, not heavy-handed--subtle, not a sledgehammer.

1. The portions plate. There's a plate at each food station with colored portion sizes outlined on it--for protein, veggies and grains. It's just to give a rough idea, and also, the camp points out, to prevent waste. Kids can pile their plates high and then throw half of it out [as I remember from my days in the dish room at Cooper Dining Hall at Douglass College]. Would like such a plate for home. For myself. 
2. The fresh fruit. Today, to greet kids and families in the dining hall on arrival day, big galvanized metal tubs were heaped high with crisp green apples; plump purple plums; juicy oranges; and more. Even I, passionate lover of fine ice cream and Fritos, took a plum and enjoyed it. Also on hand: platters of fresh fruit [blueberries, pineapple, melon] and some cookies too [sadly, or maybe not so sadly, they can't hold a dim flashlight beam to my delicious, soft homemade ones, which boast toasted coconut and/or Valrhona chocolate chunks, and pure butter].  But a few years back, the very mediocre cookies were up for grabs, and the trays emptied quickly. Now a man in a chef's coat was handing them out with tongs--one at a time. Good idea.
3. The breakfast bar. As I do every year, I snagged one of the menus they hand out, so I can get a feel for what Figgy is eating these two weeks. It helps transport me to her side and lets me in on her fun, because I know she loves the food at FV along with everything else. Every day, in addition to a hot breakfast [French toast, waffles, cheesy scrambled eggs or pancakes], there's a breakfast bar, loaded up with yogurt, fruit salad, applesauce, granola, raisins, cranberries etc. Good stuff. I love it when she comes home from camp craving healthy new foods. On her Appalachian Mountain Club backpacking adventure in early July, they had oatmeal for breakfast, cooked by the cute guy leader on the little camp stove out in the wilderness. H. and I have been making oatmeal on and off for 25 years, but it wasn't until Figgy had it that week that she fell in love. Now she says oatmeal is "her favorite sport," and begs us to have it on hand. 
4. The salad bar. FV has a salad bar, too. Figgy's still not quite at the salad-loving stage, but I bet she'll get there. So far, I think the closest she's come with us is a California cheeseburger [with lettuce and tomato]; H.'s homemade coleslaw and gazpacho; and quesadillas we make with onions and fresh tomato. But she has started loving raspberries; bananas; baby cucumbers; raw red peppers; and carrots with or without hummus. And when we fill our own tacos, she uses raw spinach or Romaine. 
5. Water. They're very active up there, and the counselors constantly remind them, Figgy tells me, to drink plenty of water. All freshman year of high school, she took a giant full water bottle in her bag.

The best part of it all is that no matter where the kids come from--upscale suburbs, New York City, inner cities--they all unplug for 13 days from the idiot box and graze three meals a day in a field of fresh, healthy, delicious food. That's not small potatoes in a world of 24-hour drive-throughs, stuffed pizzas and cars with built-in cup holders to hold giant sugary, fatty or fake fizzy drinks, so we never have to be without liquid comfort--even when we're parked on our behinds in an automatic vehicle that carts us from one place to the next.

Nope, not small potatoes at all.

Note: The image above is from the American Institute for Cancer Research. I couldn't find an image of the FV plate, though I tried.