As a teacher – I am horrified by what is served in the school cafeteria. It’s no better than McDonalds. I teach Nutrition and Culinary Arts. I have warned the principal that the more you educate people the more they question things. My students have already begun to ask why we feed them the things we do.

As a daughter – I am saddened by the fact that my mother always criticized me about my weight, but continued to put potato chips and snack cakes in my lunch box.

As a chef – I cannot believe that people can eat fast food and enjoy it! Do people not know why a homemade hamburger tastes so different from a McDonald’s burger???? The french fries are not even good. If you have to eat burgers and fries make your own. At least you’ll save a little money and have a much better tasting meal. It will probably be relatively more healthy, too.

As an American – It’s sad that people have so little time in their day that they cannot take the time to sit down together at the dinner table and enjoy a good meal together. The chef in me argues with the teacher/mom in me and sometimes we eat healthy and sometimes we don’t, but we sit down together every night – yes, every night – and talk about the day, what needs to be done later, etc. People rush around and fill their day with too many things and then forget about what’s really important – the kids.

I live in a town of less than 3000 people. There are 4 pizza places, 4 hamburger joints (3 fast food), 1 Mexican place, 1 Italian place, 2 doughnut shops and NO grocery store. Are we a fast food nation? Absolutely.