What's for Lunch?: How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World

by Andrea Curtis, Yvonne Duivenvoorden (Photographer)

Overview

Whether their school is under a banyan tree, in a dusty tent held up with poles or in a sturdy brick structure in the heart of a bustling city, all children need a healthy lunch to be able to learn and grow. Good food nourishes both our bodies and our brains. It's one of the basic building blocks of life.

As the world has become more interconnected, what we eat has become part of a huge global system. Food is now the biggest industry on Earth. Growing it, processing it, transporting it and selling it have a major impact on people and the planet. Unpack a school lunch, and you'll discover that food is connected to issues that matter to everyone and everything such as climate change, health and inequality.

In What's For Lunch Andrea Curtis reveals the variety and inequality to be found in the food consumed by young people in typical school lunches from thirteen countries around the world, including Japan, Kenya, Russia, United States and Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Afghanistan. In some countries, the meals are nutritious and well-balanced. In others they barely satisfy basic nutrition standards.

The book includes graphic colour photos of each of the lunches described, and stimulating sidebars that deal with various global food issues. It also provides messages for parents, teachers and kids about the significance of food, and more significantly, a list of ways in which children can reclaim school lunches for themselves by insisting on healthy, nutritious food.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780889954823
Publisher:	Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Limited
Publication date:	06/28/2012
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.80(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.10(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Andrea Curtis
Andrea's critically acclaimed Into the Blue: Family Secrets and The Search for a Great Lakes Shipwreck (Random House) won the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction. Her writing has also appeared in Toronto Life, Chatelaine, Canadian Geographic, Explore, Utne Reader, The Globe & Mail, Today's Parent, www.cbc.ca/arts and others. This is her first work for a younger audience.

Yvonne Duivenvoorden
grew up on a dairy farm in New Brunswick's Chaleur Bay region. Her mother often threw extra potatoes into the pot at suppertime, so that leftovers could be sliced, pan-fried and packed into Yvonne's lunch the following day. That, along with a bottle of farm fresh milk, was the best lunch she could wish for! Yvonne is now a photographer based in Toronto.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction
Tokyo, Japan
Lucknow, India
Nantes, France
Good Food for a Change
Mexico City, Mexico
Dadaab Refugee Camp, Kenya
Toronto, Canada
Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Life Lessons
Dubna, Russia
Cusco, Pero
Roswell, United States
Kandahar, Afghanistan
A Cultural Revolution
Birmingham, England
Shanghai, China
A Message to Parents, Teachers and Students
Glossary

Editorial Reviews

"The great thing about this book is that it's not just profiling lunches from around the world, but it talks about that idea, the power of food—the idea that food can change society and that if you introduce that concept to kids early on they can be the real actors in that change."
— Metro Morning

"This survey of foods that international children eat for school lunch emphasizes differences while pointing to the interconnectivity of world ecology. Curtis crafts a holistic conversation about health, poverty, and sustainability."
— Publisher's Weekly

"An ode to a meal that in many countries is a tool not only for fixing hunger, but also for nurturing culture and supporting sustainable-food production."
— The Globe & Mail
(The Globe also published an online slide show of five of the lunches from the book. Check it out here.)

"A valuable, well-researched resource for kids and adults to share. The information is eye-opening, and ideas will challenge assumptions. The term "food justice" is thought-provoking. This book's strength lies in its potential for enhancing understanding of the critical nature of food concerns.
Highly recommended"
— CM Magazine

"What's truly original, and strikingly obvious now that she's done it, is the way Curtis focuses attention on what's happening at home by finding out what kids all over the world have for their lunch break."
— Good Food Revolution

"This book captivates at the first glance—beautiful photos of lunches from around the world as well as text that makes us aware of geographic and cultural influences."
— CartoCraze

"Teachers, take note! This book would make a great addition to your classroom and nutrition talks."
— The Waterloo Record

From the Publisher

"Organic," "sustainable" and "food miles" all appear in the comprehensive glossary of this book, whose simple title and cover photograph imply a basic approach to the international topic of food. This very political book, biased toward food equity, explains why certain foods are eaten in certain countries and why school lunches are important. They fill various needs, from the teaching of courtesy and table manners in France and Japan to the supply of basic nutrients for Somali children in refugee-camp schools. Efforts to improve children's eating habits, curb obesity, encourage use of local crops and provide food to students with limited economic resources are discussed. As the book is from Canada, naturally there are some references to that country in many of the comparisons. Though published in a seemingly picture-book format, the text is complex. Most two-page spreads describe school lunchtime in an individual country, with a cartoonish illustration on the left and a large photograph of a typical meal on the right with numbered arrows pointing to particular elements. Lengthy captions are keyed to each number. Small globe images in each spread point out countries, but larger maps and a bibliography would be useful. "The Message to Parents, Teachers and Students" provides project ideas. Adults may have to force-feed this purposive book to those not yet committed to the important causes outlined here. (Nonfiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews