Loose Leaf Kitchen: Food for thought - hamburger with a side of plastic.

Day 3 of the DrawDown EcoChallenge coincided with a case of the homeschool stir-crazies.  When the wiggles became to much we declared "working lunch!" and headed to Market of Choice.  And WOW  did our usual lunch stop look different when viewed through our newly affixed plastic-awareness goggles.  Yikes.  We did our best in our choices - where we felt we had them - but we were two plastic clam shells, three sample-size plastic spoons, and a small plastic ice-cream cup in the hole by meal's end.  We added that to the fact that we had meat in the mix (thanks to world water day a few weeks ago we all know how much water it takes to make a hamburger!) and we quickly saw the cost of our human consumption.

Real world math education for the day - check.
It was a lesson that I guarantee they will always remember.

Although the food was tasty we all felt uneasy (I'd even call it queasy) regarding the environmental impact of our lunch outing.  When Baanko realized she had 3 small plastic spoons and a plastic cup from her ice-cream treat she made a small gasp.  It was as if she had just accidentally stepped on a bug or small flower and she was flooded with compassion.  She used her go-to "Well now I know" affirmation to magically shift her mistake into a lesson and we followed her lead by getting curious and asking questions.  What can we do differently when we eat out?  Can we ask the store to give us more environmentally friendly choices?  How the heck are we going to solve this clam shell problem!?!?!

Food for thought.  

I smell a (earth friendly) potluck cooking up in our near future where we can dig in and discuss.