Green Options

More than one quarter of kindergartners in one school district and about two-thirds of students at two schools in Ashland, Oregon are not vaccinated.

Like many states, Oregonians can opt out of school required vaccinations by claiming religious exemption.  Statewide, 3.7 percent of kindergartners were exempt in 2007; however in Ashland, 28.1 percent of kindergartners were not vaccinated making it the least vaccinated city in the US.  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) wants to know why.

So now that you have everything you need to send your child off to school with a greener lunch, what do you put into that eco friendly lunchbox?  There are cookbooks out there focusing entirely on kids lunches.  (Try Vegan Lunch Box.)  Or, you can come up with fun ideas on your own.  Here are a few suggestions and recipes to get you started…

Wraps- If you kids are getting tired of the same old sandwiches, try layering their favorite sandwich fillings onto a whole wheat tortilla.  Roll it up and cut into bite size pinwheels.

Soup- During the winter months heat soup and pour it into a thermos, don’t forget to include a spoon!

Remember the school lunches from back in the days of your youth?  Playing the guessing game was a daily occurrence.  Was that mound of goop macaroni and cheese?  Or maybe tater tot casserole?  You would think that by now things have changed in the lunchroom, but have they?

In public schools all over the United States children are at the mercy of the National School Lunch Program.  The NSLP was started back in 1946, with the purpose of providing affordable nutritious meals to kids.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful that this program provides lunches to children no matter what their family’s financial situation is, but the quality of the food being served is very questionable.  (In the 1980’s the Reagan Administration declared ketchup a vegetable for use in school lunches.)  According to a 1993 survey, the USDA found the nutritional quality of most school lunches to be mediocre at best.  In this day and age, with childhood obesity at an all time high, and overly processed foods being the norm, is “mediocre” good enough for our children?

From gently used clothing to handmade toys, we’ve raised our concerns about how the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) will negatively affect green families and businesses.

This law designed to protect our children is so poorly written, it will actually benefit big business and harm resale shops and natural toymakers.  As Stephen Lamar, executive vice president of the American Apparel and Footwear Association explained to the Redding Record Searchlight, “The law introduces an extraordinarily large number of testing requirements for products for which everyone knows there’s no lead.“  An exemption has been proposed for clothing and toys made from natural materials such as wood and wool, but what about library books? Yes, LIBRARY BOOKS!

Taking effect on February 10, 2009, the CPSIA will require all products for children under 12 be tested for lead, including books.  That means in order for a library to admit children under 12, they must test all of their children’s books or ban children from the library.

From Z Recommends to the Vegan Lunch Box, I’ve read about Laptop Lunches for quite awhile. When my daughter’s best friends showed up with them after their birthdays, a trend had begun at her school.  Not that I think children need to buy what their friends’ have to fit in, but I felt the Laptop Lunch would be a good addition to her home lunches.

Although I avoid plastic in general, Laptop Lunches are made from BPA-free plastic, are reusable, recyclable, and dishwasher safe.  It even comes with a book full of nutritious lunch ideas.

The following quote is from my seven-year-old daughter. This is her perspective on her Laptop Lunch System:

Every day, half a million school buses safely carry 24 million American children to school, field trips and athletic events.

Unfortunately, most buses are powered by diesel engines that actually pollute the air inside the bus. Studies show the pollution gets trapped inside the bus, where kids breathe it in.

Dr. John Balbus, EDF’s chief health scientist, answers common questions about school bus pollution and your child’s health.

Q:  I don’t see billowing clouds of black smoke behind the school bus. Does that mean the bus exhaust is clean?

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Even clean-looking exhaust from tailpipes, and from the engine itself, can contain small particles and other toxic pollutants that can get inside the school bus, and in children’s lungs.

Q: How does diesel pollution get inside a school bus?

Diesel pollution can enter a school bus from both the tailpipe and the engine. In school buses, the engine is in the front, right near the door, so every time the door opens, engine and tailpipe exhaust get sucked inside.

© Emilia Stasiak | Dreamstime.com

A while back, I pondered the mystery of why mice won’t eat the outer shell of a peanut M&M. Perhaps mice know something we don’t? You may agree after reading about an elementary school experiment with mice and junk food.

Each year, Sister Luigi Frigo’s second grade class in Cudahy, Wisconsin feeds two sets of mice a different diet for four days. One set eats highly processed foods that are typical of school cafeterias, 80 percent of which still sell fast food or junk food items. The other mice where fed a diet based on whole foods.

The province of Corrientes, in Argentina, is accomplishing the goal of bringing solar power to faraway schools. On July, we told you about this proyect but in Catamarca province.

Last year the provincial government announced the Renewable Energies Program for Rural Sectors and started to placed solar panels on schools. We told you about it here.

Today in Corrientes 75 out of 85 rural schools already have solar energy that is used to power lights, fans, televisions, computers and other equipment.

For 12 years, I have been a teacher at a very small school (7-25 students, grades K-8) in northern California.  I have never felt unsafe or threatened in my isolated community, so I was shocked to learn that teachers in a small town in Texas can carry guns to school.  With the increase of school shootings lately, this just seems ludicrous.  How can we tell students not to bring guns to school when their teachers can?

Harrold, Texas is a town of about 300 residents (70 more than my community). Harrold has become the first town to allow its teachers to bear arms.  School superintendent David Thweatt explains, “We are 30 minutes from law enforcement.  How long do you think it would take to kill all 150 of us? It would be a bloodbath.”  Of course, Harrold’s teachers will receive training in “crisis management”.

This post, by our own Cassie Walker, was originally published on Friday, August 1, 2008

Over 80 million children and adults are enrolled in schools across the nation, representing about one-fourth of the population age three and older. With all of these students headed back to school, it’s no wonder that this period has become so important to retailers. August clothing sales, alone, are second only to the holidays in terms of dollars spent.

But before you head off to the mall willy-nilly, stop to think about how you can make choices to reduce your environmental impact.

You are what you wear (in junior high, at least)

First, the most important category to many kids: clothes. Of course, the greenest thing to do is to wear last-year’s clothes. Exaggerated eye roll. Hand-me-downs? Irritated stare. Thrift stores? “Gah-ross!” (Hint: try calling it “vintage”–much cooler.) And so the challenge begins.

You’ve heard about how to introduce your friends and family to Fair Trade, and how to build the movement within your community. Now let’s look at how to bring this important education into your school.

• Fair Trade fundraising. With many different options and rewards, it’s easy to make the switch to selling a sweeter chocolate.
• Raise awareness and funds with a Fair Trade bake sale. Check out the many delicious recipes at

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