The Child:Food Ratio
Another lesson I’m learning as “manager” of the new crèche…and no, I don’t get a managerial title or wage, but my list of “chores” includes cleaning up the kitchen and table tops, ordering all of the food, and overseeing the other daycare workers and reporting everything to the general managers of the company, so really, I manage the crèche. It’s a new role for me so I’m learning as I go which brings me back to where I started.
Latest lesson? It is not easy to accurately estimate daily food consumption in a daycare. Every day* I try and every day I failto cook the right amount of food for the kids. Most of the time I end with way too much, usually because either some kids don’t show up but the parents never call to tell us, or because on any given day at least one child refuses to eat.
Since day one I’ve been in pursuit of the perfect child:food ratio because I find that wasting food really, really irks me. And not for monetary reasons, mind you. Even if I was paying for the food, the price of one potato isn’t worth as much as the panties that get in a twist over the waste of it. No, the reason that wasting food bothers me so badly is because there’s starving kids in China.
Really.
I mean, duh, yes, really, there are starving kids in China, but that’s literally my actual first thought when I see edible food in the garbage can.
So I guess you could say it’s definitely in my nurture (not to be confused with nature) to be so strongly against the waste of food. Cause I didn’t come up with that one myself. That’s what I (and many generations of American children) heard if I didn’t clear my plate of its contents at dinner time.
“Eat your brussel sprouts. There’s starving kids in China who would be happy to have food right now.”
And like most kids I remember thinking, “Works for me! Send my sprouts to China if they want them so much.”
But now, as an adult, I just can’t help it. The food hits the garbage can and my subconscious screams, “NOOOOO! Starving Children! China!!”
Mind you, I’ve never said that to any child and CB and I have already agreed that it is not a method we plan on using on our own children. So I just grit my teeth and smile as I dump the bowls into the rubbish.
But until there’s a way to freeze dry chicken potato zucchini puree and ship it to China, I guess I’ll be forever seeking the perfect child:food ratio.
*Every day I open, which is Monday, Wednesday, Friday…except this week, which I have opened and closed almost every day due to my coworker being ill. 11 hours working plus 3 hours of commute=melted puddle of Korie on the floor and begging for the weekend.
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This IS really hard…after 32 yrs of marriage, your dad doesn’t have the ratio yet either…we always have leftovers and they almost never get eaten and I go CRAZY inside when I throw it out…I can’t stand the waste!!! Oh, and BTW…freezing doesn’t necessarily help cause it sits in the freezer forever and you still don’t want to eat it…arghhhh!
China? Do you think of starving children in China or is that some kind of expression?
I guess there are truly poor regions in China with starving children but if I think of a lack of food I would think of Africa first…than Latin-America or Asiatic countries such as India & North Korea.
When we grew up I think we got comments about children in Africa not having enough food.
anyway, this was not the point of your post but your mentioning of China really stuck out to me.
If you ever do nail down that child:food ratio, please bottle it up and sell it to me. After 9 years, I’m still trying to figure it out.
It’s funny… I never heard that from my own parents, but I would hear it from my friends parents. Always China, though. Never any other country, which I never understood, especially since I grew up in the 1980s when it was all about Ethiopia.
And I can’t do it either. The only thing that’s been saving me lately is that my 15-year-old stepson eats enough for about six or seven people.
In time food will be a precious commodity. In many places it already is.
Getting to the ‘perfect’ child:food ratio will be a challenge for sure
This is where I am lucky to have so many crazy animals depending on me for food. If my family won’t eat it, something that lives on my property will.
I’ve just been catching up with you through my feed reader. I’ve been out of the blogging loop a bit. I’ve missed you!
I agree with everything. So, all I have to add is: congratulations (only semi-ironically) on all the responsibility!
For us it was starving children in Ethiopia too. I always thought Chinese kids were pretty well-fed…