A Lesson in Lunch

While Grace was waiting for her young daughter to come home from school, she decided to fix up something for her to snack on. Opening the refrigerator door, she found a wide arrangement of various groceries, but picked out the celery stalk and a few loose carrots, planning to cut them up to be eaten. Grace always tried to make healthy food for her family. Standing at the kitchen counter, cutting vegetables, she lapsed into one of her childhood memories, one from which this tradition started...

As Grace was passing through most of her elementary school years, the lunch hour was always an established part of her routine. While eating, she felt that the lunches she and her friends had were a large part of their social identity. A girl's popularity could be identified by her type of lunch, especially with the comparison of her fellow classmates. In that point of Grace's youth, group acceptance was very important to her, so what she brought to school was a matter of pride.

The contents of the lunches Grace and her friends had varied from person to person. Sometimes they purchased their meals at the school cafeteria lunch counter, where aging, white-uniformed women wearing hair nets and plastic gloves would scoop generically made nourishment onto their provided, standard Styrofoam trays. But more often than not, Grace brought a decorative lunch box containing a pre-prepared meal, which her mother made in concern to her nutritional health.

However, there were some girls who brought lunches that were not so nutritious. At the time, Grace did not know this, and envied the girls who were able to eat what her mother wouldn't make. And then one day in the fourth grade, she learned something very important.

Grace's mother was sick in bed with the flu, and since her father was away on a business trip, she had to make her own lunch. "It'll be no problem, honey." her mother told her in a hoarse voice with a fever and swollen glands. "The sandwich bags are in the cabinet under the sink, and you can find anything else you need in the refrigerator." "Sure, no problem." Grace thought to herself. She had to throw out the grape jelly because it had started to mold, and under no circumstances could she open the lid off the peanut butter jar.

The only bread in the house was a miniature-sized, rye baked loaf, something she could barely recognize and meant for cocktail parties. Since she was running out of time, and the refrigerator was almost bare of groceries, she ended up having to smear the bread with the cucumber salad her father liked. After grabbing an apple out of the fruit bowl on the kitchen table, she left the house with the milk money laid out the night before, and a disturbing feeling in the pit of her stomach in anticipation of what she had to face.

By the time the noon hour had arrived, and Grace was seated in the cafeteria, the feeling had changed to nervousness. She reminded myself that what she had was better than going hungry, and with a deep breath, produced what she was about to eat from her lunch box. Almost instantly it fell under inspection of the ten other girls she was seated with.

"What's that?" asked Kelly Carter in a loud voice that everyone could hear. Kelly was currently the most popular girl in school, and had absolutely no restraint whatsoever. She ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches made with the Wonder Bread that all the kids liked, but Grace's mother didn't favor because it was chemically treated. To drink she usually brought a can of soda, mainly Coca-Cola products containing sodium and caffeine. Kelly was a little overweight, but her classmates, only seeing the material possessions covering it up, didn't notice.

"Just a sandwich" Grace murmured to answer her, trying not to attract attention.

"A what?"

"A sandwich!"

By now the other girls had definitely latched on to the exchange of words and were looking directly at the two girls.

"Uh...that's not a sandwich." said Sarah Marshall, Kelly's best friend and foremost follower. She always brought lunches consisting of cold pizza that she would heat up in the cafeteria's microwave, and some kind of packaged juice having an excessive amount of sugar.

The other girls at the table tittered at Grace, worshiping the example set by Kelly and Sarah's popularity, and completely without any kind of independent values.

Nervously glancing around the now relatively quiet cafeteria to see who was conscious of her situation, she could see heads risen all around, aware that something out of the normal was happening. She knew that she had to find a way to control the situation, or a major incident would occur, and she would never be able to live it down.

"Kelly, could I please just sit here and eat my lunch?" Grace asked in a low but firm voice, hoping to God that this would blow over.

"No!" Kelly responded in an even louder voice, killing any possibility of resolving the conflict.

At the table where the teachers who doubled as lunch monitors sat, a group of female teachers had turned their heads, noticing what was going on. One of them stood up and walked over to where the girls were situated, the sound of her high-heeled shoes echoing on the gray-tiled floor. It was Mrs. McKinney, Grace's teacher.

"What's going on here?" she asked in an inquisitive yet authoritative tone.

Now that it was out in the open, Grace was definitely embarrassed. She could feel the eyes of her classmates looking at her as she racked her brain, trying to find a way to escape her situation. Failing to come up with anything, she decided to just tell the truth. Taking a deep breath, she confessed, "I had to make my own lunch today." while displaying the item in question in front of her where everyone could see it.

"I see." Mrs. McKinney replied. "Well, there's something I think I should say to you girls, and I want everybody here to listen to this."

A quieted crowd of children and monitors gave their complete attention as Grace's teacher led a discussion about the benefits of eating a nutritious meal. Apparently, a lot of them needed to be informed about this, because they had very unhealthy eating habits. Grace could see that Kelly was affected by what Mrs. McKinney was saying, just from the look on her face. She suddenly felt sorry for her, because not a lot of real concern went into what she ate.

All of a sudden, Kelly, clutching her chest in pain, collapsed on the floor while experiencing a heart attack. Everyone reacted almost immediately. Mrs. McKinney administered CPR while Grace ran to call the paramedics on the telephone in the teacher's lounge. When she had stabilized, and with Grace's assistance, Kelly was taken out of the cafeteria, and down the hall to the nurses office. The school principal called Kelly's mother and asked her to make an appearance.

While Grace was keeping Kelly company as she laid on the cot in the nurses office, she heard the principal and the school nurse talking to Kelly's mother.

"What is her general diet?" the nurse asked.

"I don't understand." Kelly's mother answered.

"It's possible that this attack had something to do with her eating habits. I recommend that you take her to a nutritionist and have her blood analyzed."

"Oh my god!" Kelly's mother exclaimed.

"Look, Mrs. Carter..." the principal said.

"Ellen."

"Ellen. This is not necessarily all your fault. The menu approved for our cafeteria might not have been..." The rest of the conversation was hushed.

Back in the nurses office, it took Kelly some effort to reach out her right hand in Grace's direction. "I'm sorry." she whispered. Grace accepted her apology by taking her hand in hers.

It was discovered that Kelly had high blood pressure. When Grace told this to her parents, they explained to her about having good eating habits, and how you have to start with them early in order to have a healthy lifestyle. So she learned a big lesson about how there is nothing wrong with eating a nutritious meal...

All of a sudden, Grace heard the sound of her front door opening and closing, followed by footsteps.

"Mom, I'm home." Grace's daughter suddenly came into view.

"Hi, honey." Grace swiftly put the vegetables she had finished cutting on a tray and placed it on the kitchen table. "Are you hungry?"

"Yes."

Grace pulled out two kitchen chairs, one for each of them to sit on. As her daughter picked up a carrot stick and started to chew on it, an idea formed in her head.

"Mom, how come you're the only mother I know who serves vegetables as a snack?"

"You'll never have to find out."