Technolandy

Day 28 (of SOL 2025) Summer of Learning… Dear Dr  @chrkennedy pro-d foods

In his annual year end blog, Chris had some good questions… here is question 

28. When will conference organizers take me up on suggestion to stop serving meals and just handout $15 gift cards for the local mall food court?

1. How entitled Chris – assuming that every place that holds a conference has a local mall or food court… okay, so I brought in a food truck for our school comic con…. What’s your point? Plus… 
2. We feed educators better at conferences than we feed kids in schools. Maybe it’s time we stopped calling that a perk and started calling it a priority problem.
3. What would it say if conference organizers replicated what’s actually served in schools — even just as an awareness exercise? But not from the fancy secondary culinary arts programs, but from what’s provided at the closest elementary school. (Bonus: the social media from that lunch would be… illuminating, as Canada – save for PEI – continues to be the lone g7 nation without a unified food program for students, even though $ is being targeted to make sure we are slightly better than the granola bars and juice boxes that I used to keep in my room)
4. I’m also a bad voice on this topic as I am pretty picky eater (not chicken tenders or pasta only) but I’ve got some sensitivities that make many ‘common offerings’ something I’ll pass on – partly why when the lineup starts, I’ll go for a walk citing Sinek’s “Leaders Eat Last”. And yes I’ve been chided for buying food when “a perfectly acceptable meal was offered and available’ but this just takes me into the rabbit warren around food programs Canadas lack of one for students along with the debate that a universal program has to be better than ‘a step above gruel’…. Sorry, as I said, this topic is still a sore point though I’m in a district that has been good at providing money for school initiatives, but maybe ….
5. Maybe our conferences should reflect the foods being offered in our host districts elementary schools for students getting lunch… (I know many secondary schools offer good to great culinary arts programs, but those aren’t universal and largely don’t reach elementary schools…) 

As Douglas Adams would likely say – so long and thanks for all the granola bars and juice boxes…