Fed Up with Lunch: The School Lunch Project: How One Anonymous Teacher Revealed the Truth About School Lunches --And How We Can Change Them!

by Sarah Wu

When school teacher Mrs. Q forgot her lunch one day, she had no idea she was about to embark on an odyssey to uncover the truth about public school lunches. Shocked by what her students were served, she resolved to eat school lunch for an entire year, chronicling her experience anonymously on a blog that received thousands of hits daily, and was lauded by such food activists as Mark Bittman, Jamie Oliver, and Marion Nestle. Here, Mrs. Q reveals her identity for the first time in an eye-opening account of school lunches in America. Along the way, she provides invaluable resources for parents and health advocates who wish to help reform school lunch, making this a must-read for anyone concerned about children s health issues.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Education, Health, Memoir, Parenting, United States

208 pages, Hardcover

First published September 28, 2011

Reviews

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ripped through this book! I have been wanting to read it for a very long time, ever since I heard about her blog. She eats school lunches for a year and photographs them. They are disgusting. What are they doing to our children? Surprisingly, she doesn't gain any weight. Pictures are included. This book is not technical at all and is a fun read. You can tell she is no nutritionist, but she has a good sense of humor.

[Cindy Munoz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit, I had no knowledge of "Mrs. Q" prior to reading this book. When I read the jacket cover and discovered the author was a Chicago Public School teacher, I was intrigued. I'm a product of CPS and grew up eating those hot lunches Sarah Wu consumed and critiqued. I found her experiment fascinating and really enjoyed the photos of the school lunches she bought and ate. They actually looked worse than I remembered! Her reactions to the meals she ate brought back memories of my own hesitancy in eating school lunch.
It was great to see that Wu didn't demonize the lunch ladies (something that everyone seems to do), showing much to respect for them and what they do. I also thought that it was important that she focused the on brief time students got to eat their meals and the lack of recess, all important factors in the health of these children. The resources at the end of the book were also a good addition.
My only complaint was that there could've been a little more research, maybe other books or articles that I could read up regarding school lunches.

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book in one day and it was interesting to hear about her journey but overall this book fell flat. There was so much that Mrs. Wu could have discussed in this book and I think if she had, the book would not have been sold at the Dollar Tree, where I purchased it. If you are brand new to the idea of school lunch reform, this book would be good. If you are a seasoned veteran, this book stinks. Also, my children's school lunches are nothing like those served in this book and I think she should have done some research and really found out how prevelant lunches like these are served and offered suggestions for those whose school lunches are better but not perfect. For instance, at the Head Start program where I work, we do get fresh fruits and veggies once in a while but almost every day the children have a breakfast of cereal and a snack of cookies and red food dye filled juice. I have always wondered what good it is to send low income, potentially malnourished children home on a snack of sugar and food dye...

[Andrew Sekeres · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a parent, teacher, cook, or just anyone that cares about children and their nutrition, take some time and read this book. While the author focuses on the Chicago public school that she worked at, she introduces many facts about school lunch that you might not be aware of. I wished that the author would go into more detail on the history of school lunch or discuss the companies that supply school lunches. I like the section at the end that persuades the reader to become an advocate for a better school lunch. It should be noted that some of the issues that the author discussed has been tried to be solve by lawmakers and nutritionists. However, the fight still needs to be continued. Are you aware of what your child eats at school?

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

You're probably better off just visiting her blog website fedupwithlunch.com, but if you HAVE to read the book I'd recommend reading the hardback book opposed to the kindle version. I give the book 2 stars. It was ok, but didn't really tell me anything that I didn't already know, or could easily find on Wu's blog. A nice book if your just learning about school nutrition, and may not be very computer savvy. The pictures and resources were the best part of the book.

The book “Fed up with Lunch” by Sarah Wu explains how the reader can become involved in the school nutrition movement, urging that anyone can become a part of nutrition reform. She intends for the book to be read by a large variety of people, giving advice to children, teenagers, parents, teachers, and chefs. I found the book to be very informative, giving you a first-hand account of the quality of school lunches. However, I found the writing to be lacking. “Fed up with Lunch” read more like a very repetitive mash up of random blogs and essays, rather than a full length book.

“Fed up with Lunch” began when Sarah Wu, a public school teacher at a low income school in Chicago, forgot to pack her lunch one day. Wu started the blog anonymously under the name Mrs. Q after discovering the low quality of food available to children. In her book Wu says, “I had no idea that eating one school lunch would dramatically change the course of my life”. Wu became angered about the quality of school lunch being fed to the students and felt compelled to take action. She decided to channel her outrage in a positive way, to “raise awareness and encourage change”. Thus, Wu’s blog “Fed up with Lunch” was created.

Wu chronicled her journey with pictures of every school lunch she had eaten, uploading them to her blog, and including them in her book. The books use of colorful imagery showing the food served to school children is definitely an eye opener. The unappetizing food mainly looks to consist of what I thought of as poor quality frozen meals or TV dinners. If a reader wasn’t aware of the poor quality of food served before reading this book, they definitely are now.

Reading Wu’s experiences can be useful to readers that would like to become involved in nutrition reform, but do not know how. Wu states, “school lunch reform is vital”. She provides many examples of actions you can take to improve nutrition in schools in a chapter of “Fed up with Lunch” entitled, “Mrs. Q’s Guide to Quiet Revolution: An Action and Resource Guide”. Wu urges her readers to become advocates for school nutrition. Recommending actions such as: parents eating school lunch with their children, kids running for student council, teenagers making health and wellness cool, and teachers are recommended to start or join a wellness committee to promote nutrition in school.

There is a whole section in “Fed up with Lunch” dedicated to resources that the reader can utilize. Wu includes information on the Farm to School Program, and many others which I found very beneficial including resources for further reading. Wu recommends many other books and blogs to continue your journey on the issue of school nutrition. The books resources alone make it a valuable read, allowing the reader to further research the subject of school wellness and nutrition on their own.

Eating school lunch for an entire year made Wu very familiar with school lunches, but she does not seem to have much experience in writing. Wu’s book “Fed up with Lunch” began as a blog by the same name, which would probably account for the quality of the content included in her book. The book seemed to have been hastily thrown together, mainly consisting of what appeared to be random blog posts, which I found frequently to be very repetitive. I think the book could have benefited from more research based content. Wu made statements throughout based on her own experiences, but it would have been nice to see some research or facts to back up her claims.

I would recommend this book as a starting point to readers that are not very familiar with the issue of school nutrition. While I am not a huge fan of the blog like writing style, I think readers could benefit from the pictures and resources included within the book. Otherwise, I would recommend a more research based book, rather than one based on personal experience, such as, “Free for All: Fixing School Food in America” by Janet Poppendieck, which Wu also recommends in her book. Poppendieck’s book will give you a better knowledge of the school lunch system, and how to change it.

Overall, I found the book to be a beneficial read. While the book wasn't written as well as it could have been, it provided useful information and even more useful resources. “Fed up with Lunch” gives the reader the steps and tools needed to help with the fight on improving nutrition in schools. The book is a good resource for school nutrition, and beneficial for those looking to make a difference.

[Jaclyn Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sarah Wu, aka “Mrs. Q” (her anonymous blog pen name), has quite a meteoric rise since launching her public school lunch program expose blog in 2010. A teacher in the Chicago school system, Wu decided to take matters into her own hands after seeing the types of lunches offered to the mostly underprivileged student population at her school. As she notes, the subsidized lunch may be the only meal some of the students have on a daily basis—and in that regard alone the nutritional value was found to be severely lacking. In an effort to shed further light on the problem, Wu began surreptitiously photographing each hot lunch every day for a year. As it happens, her project corresponded nicely with wider conversations happening about school lunches across the country. Mass media began approaching her for interviews, a book deal was signed and voila—you have this book and one teacher who is no longer anonymous. (I guess you earn some degree of safety for your teaching position when CNN is clamoring to get you on TV. On a serious note, Wu has said that her coworkers have been exceptionally supportive of her blog and book.)

After all that background, here’s the skinny on the book: it’s good. It’s well-researched. It’s interesting and page-turning. I didn’t put it down until I’d flipped the last page. It’s short enough to read in a few hours. It’s full of interesting facts and background tidbits about school lunches. The full-color photograph montage of her year of hot lunches was enough to turn my stomach. It’s put together well and Wu makes her case admirably. It’s hard to walk away from this book without feeling some compulsion to help make a change in the way students are fed at school.

But, as Wu points out, hot lunch comes down to the same thing that everything else in the public school system does: budget and time. Fresh fruit spoils, canned fruit does not, etc. There is really no incentive for the schools to change their lunches except because of outside pressure and an intense spotlight on individual schools and their shortcomings.

I personally never attended public schools, but having come from a family of teachers (literally—90% of the people in my family are in education), I am more or less aware of the hot lunch situations at their particular schools. Although our schools were served by the same food suppliers that also contract with most public school systems (Sodexo, Aramark), the types of lunches I was able to purchase were far different from the ones Wu showcased in her book and on her blog. There are a few reasons for this. First, the private schools I attended were a fraction of the size of public schools. It was cheaper to feed a smaller group of students more nutritionally sound food because, duh—that makes sense. Second, students worked in the lunch room/cafeteria of the schools with a few adult supervisors to help prepare the meals so there were more (inexpensive) hands available to help prepare various dishes. Last, every school I attended served vegetarian options only which required more creativity in the offerings and also tended to keep things more healthy. For example, Wu points out how few public schools have salad bars, but at my school, a daily salad bar as necessary because it was a vital component of the meal in the same way a meat option would be in a public school hot lunch. So, as you’ve probably surmised, there’s really no fair way to compare my experiences with the average experience of a large metropolitan public school, except to conclude the private schools have the “advantage” of being more or less beholden to constituents in a way that public schools only experience at the hands of local, state and national government. That’s where this book, and the numerous other well-known school lunch campaigns (including the one led by Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! program) play a vital role in getting changes enacted. It’s sad that things have to come to an expose-type level, but as we’ve seen more and more with public education, that may be the only way to move change through the red tape that surrounds the system. You can add hot lunches to the growing list of items currently being fought for or against because of public pressure and exposure: teacher compensation, standardized testing, lottery placement, state-wide academic requirements, etc.

If you’re interested in learning more or want to help support various initiatives in your city or town, check out one of these organizations or campaigns (http://www.myhealthyschool.com/foods/...). If you read the book, Wu also offers some helpful suggestions on getting involved with the cause and making positive changes at the local level.

[L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Put a spork in me; I’m done! Chicago elementary teacher, Sarah Wu, goes undercover forcing herself to eat her school's lunch and exposes it all in her book, Fed Up with Lunch.

Virginia Wolff said it best, “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Food is fuel and most of our nation’s students are being fueled with processed, pre-packaged, thawed-out lunches that they are to consume in a hurried fashion. I myself spent the bulk of my high school years having to endure Coach Urish’s practices (“On the line!”) after eating only a plain baked potato from Wendy’s (on my healthy days) or a pack of Skittles & a sugar cookie (on my not-so healthy days). I have no idea how I was able to do suicide after suicide with nothing but junk to fuel me!

Wu investigates the origins of each of these classic cafeteria foods served (and that you & I nostalgically remember). Her chicken nugget excerpt still haunts me. Wu googles how mechanically processed chicken nuggets are made (How do they get them to look like Mickey Mouse, anyway?!) and the results looked similar to soft-serve ice cream. That’s chicken?! Ewww. Even the “healthy” options are added with fillers. The pizza her school serves up has 40+ ingredients (many of which a kid couldn’t pronounce). Another ewww. And what is up with chocolate milk? Instead of this being a treat enjoyed on special occasions, many students will only drink milk if it is chocolate. How sad it that? And don’t get me started on the spork!

So what to say to the person who says, “It’s free…shouldn’t kids (and families) just be grateful and shush up and eat?” Hmmm…no. There is so much waste in the system through uneaten food (just today a kid grabbed a mac & cheese side because he is required to do so and then walked straight over to a trash can and threw it away before going to sit down) and packaging (nothing is served on the actual lunch tray anymore, but is instead in its own container). We as taxpayers are already paying for lunches that our nation’s kids aren’t eating. So, what if instead we made nutritious, fresh foods on site that tasted so delicious our kids inhaled them?!

The prospect of changing a school’s lunch programs is overwhelming as it is littered with red tape of regulations and guidelines that need to be followed. But it is a battle that needs to be fought. Who's with me?!

[Catriona Setliffe · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a disappointingly shallow little book. I'd never heard of the author or her blog, but the title caught my eye as someone very interested in education and social justice issues. Unfortunately, the trajectory of how this book came into being seems to have been:

1) Author has cute little idea; starts blog.
2) Blog becomes an Internet sensation.
3) Author is offered a book deal on basis of said blog's popularity.
4) After accepting said deal, author realises that she really has nothing more to talk about. It's a blog based on cellphone photos, for God's sake!
5) Book is written and published anyway.

There are occasional bits of insight, but these are repeated over and over to pad for content. Most of the book, meanwhile, is the author's self-involved babbling about how it felt to become Famous on the Internet. It's especially frustrating, because this could have been a good book had the author been willing to do research beyond reading a single Michael Pollan book; instead, she comes off as almost proud of her ignorance of any deeper issues. Which is especially interesting when she spends so much of the book going on and on about her need to maintain anonymity, but never really discusses WHY a schoolteacher would need to keep her identity hidden when talking about problems in the schools. The fact that there are huge amounts of money involved in why school lunches are the way they are and why making substantial changes is a much more serious challenge than the author's fatuous suggestions that parents go interrogate school food service workers and eat lunch at school with their child (cementing my suspicion that this book is geared primarily/solely towards middle-class stay-at-home moms who have endless amounts of free time on their hands and spend a lot of it reading blogs, not anything more substantial) - these are things the author doesn't get into at all. Apparently, she believes that the people in charge of what gets fed to kids are simply ignorant of the fact that salad is healthier than pizza and chicken nuggets, or at least expects her reading audience to do so. Then again, she mentions repeatedly that she worked for Kraft Foods before becoming a teacher, so we're not exactly talking about an unbiased source here. Oh well.

[Liralen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps just not my cup of tea, though I like the idea. After noticing some of the things the kids at her school were eating, Wu decided to spend a year eating lunch in the cafeteria every day. She'd blog about it and get a better sense of the quality of food that these kids (elementary school) were getting daily.

Despite the interesting concept, I didn't care much for the book. It's a blog-to-book sort of thing (always tricky), and unfortunately I don't think it translates well. Feels very repetitive and shallow (as in 'on the surface' rather than 'vapid'), and it ends up being a lot more about Wu's journey—and her blog's journey—than about the actual lunches she was eating.* I imagine that she didn't want to a) repeat the stuff she'd already written for her blog or b) come up with new ways to describe variations on the same lunches over and over, but...it left me wishing that I'd just skimmed the blog, or maybe read a (longish) magazine article about the project.

Since I feel a bit nit-picky, two very minor things. One, I hate 'I'm just a mom' caveats. I am certainly no hero... I am just a typical working mom who got an outrageous idea into her head and couldn't let it go (91). No. Don't dismiss the work you do, at home or in the classroom. Even if the topic isn't the writer's area of expertise, there are ways to acknowledge that without putting oneself down. This isn't a complaint specific to this book (and many others have written along the same lines, far more eloquently than I), but it drives me up the wall every time. And two...I really, really don't think that using sporks in school cafeterias (and please note that I am not a fan of sporks) is going to lead to children growing up without knowing what spoons and forks are (136).

Like I said: minor. When it comes down to it, the project is a great starting point...but the book, too, felt more like a starting point than anything else to me.

*There is a set of photos of each of the lunches Wu ate at school, but those photos are devoid of any information save for the date and day of the project. Definitely wanted an appendix with even basic details. It's easy to find school lunch menus online, of course, but part of the point here is repetition and patterns...

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

What are your kids eating at school? Teacher Sarah Wu decides to undertake an experiment. She would eat whatever the school cafeteria was served as part of an experiment. Little did she know it would provide for an eye-opening experience.
 
Wu looks at the various aspects of school lunches: the ingredients that go into the food. How long children have for lunch time and recess in general. How children pay for their food (or if they bring lunches). How nutrition affects school performance.
 
A lot of the information was just sad in how little time children have to eat (and they're more likely to go off and play anyway), what terrible nutritional value these lunches have, how they don't have time to play or hang out or basically have breaks from schoolwork, etc. Wu was astonished and amazed to find her blog that documented her lunches really hit a nerve from fellow educators, administrators, nutritionists, cooks, etc. She realized she was onto something a lot deeper than just a personal experiment.
 
It's nothing particularly earth-shattering but I found her style interesting and engaging. She also provides resources in an appendix should the reader do more info. Interesting for anyone involved in education, nutrition, dealing with children, etc.

[Cheryl Malandrinos · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a sense of humor, Wu shares her surprising finds in the school lunchroom with readers. With entrees like chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and pizza offered with side dishes like tater tots or french fries, she suddenly understands why her students don't have the energy to keep going after lunch. Considering the vast majority of the students at her school receive reduced or free lunch, Wu's feeling is that school lunch might be these kids' one chance at a healthy meal a day.

While I did feel an editor could have polished the book up a bit--tightened it so it didn't ramble in places--overall, I went into this experience knowing the author was not a writer by trade.

The book includes photographs of Wu's lunches. There are also resources for parents, kids, and teachers who wish to get involved with school lunch reform. Perhaps everything Wu would like to see in our public school cafeterias isn't realistic, but overall, what she says makes sense. A quality lunch is important, as is teaching our children early on about healthy eating habits. I enjoyed Fed Up with Lunch and visited her blog as a result. This book proves that one person can make a difference.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent discussion about several issues with school lunches that is fair to many different sides of the debate (although clearly advocates we need to find a way to get more nutritious food into schools). I hadn't heard of Mrs. Q nor her blog, so the parts that covered some of her journey were less interesting to me, personally. I liked the resource section at the end; many of the organizations were new to me, and the the steps she suggested for teachers, parents, and students to use to change their own schools seemed practical and achievable.

Still, this book (like most others I've seen on this subject) struggles to answer the question about funding for these new, more nutritious lunches. I know Jamie Oliver ran into this issue, too, when he was doing his Food Revolution program. I'd be interested to read about the details of a school that has already changed to a less processed, more "real" food based lunch system and how it was able to tackle the practical issues like budget, transportation, time/effort required to accomplish these new tasks, etc.

[Gwen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent introduction to the problems with American school lunches but in no way a comprehensive study of the issue and how to actually change them.

Pros:

* The book lacks the "sanctimommy" attitude the blog developed later on in the project.
* While not always the most elegant of writing, Wu writes clearly with an obvious passion for her subject.

Cons:

* Woefully thin research: not nearly enough endnotes and sources for additional reading.
* A bit naive, especially in her calls for change. Each change she calls for, while definitely needed, involves so many more entities than just the one school. Lobbyists, the legacy of NCLB in determining school schedules, the meager budget allotments for school lunches, and the poor economy all need to factor into Wu's "quiet revolution," but for a few throwaway lines on the economic situation and a passing reference to the broader implications of NCLB, she fails to explain that structurally, American school lunches are a combination of so many intertwined policies.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hope people read this book and realize how scary our schools are getting (larger class sizes, cut programs and poor food) and that we can do more grassroots movements and help improve the future of the next generation. To have to recess sounds awful and inconceivable. But how far off are the rest of us from this? Our district closed three schools last year, so the ones left open are over filled with students, not enough teachers and more and more enrichment programs getting cut. We're not far off. I'm sorry to see other reviews not liking the author's writing style. I guess I'm of the age where I enjoy anecdotal writing, casual short subjects, etc. I did think there were a few ideas repeated over and over, but perhaps it's to really let you know how bad it is to have NO PE fueled by HORRIBLE FOOD! I thought the book was good and exposing one teacher's experience, views and hopes for change. It's all of our problems, not just those who are stuck eating these meals.

[Whitney · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cover:
The cover grabbed my attention. How can BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS not. I also like that the little boy is holding a fork in front of his face and is anonymous like the author {was}.

The Content:
I was expecting this book to be a lot like Fast Food Nation. That is, I expected it to be more researched based. The book did have some interesting points about school lunch, but was very heavy on personal experience. The fact that Mrs. Q {the author} wrote a blog for a year should have tipped me off...but, I wish she would have woven in a little more history of school lunch and less...blog entries. The whole book read like cobbled together, recycled blog entries.

The Characters:
Light on characters. Heavy on personal stories of Mrs. Q being worried about losing her job and running to her desk to take school pictures in between nasty school lunch details.

Save yourself the $10.00 and just read the blog.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I agree with this author entirely in her vision and would really like to see every school have garden, ample recess time and so forth; this book is poorly written and relies heavily on out-dated research. She mentions studies linking hyperactivity to food coloring (the sample size was very small and the data wasn't reproducible) and also mentions studies linking saturated fats (animals fats in particular) to heart disease (kid need animals fats to synthesize hormones, heart disease has more to do with over all health and hepatic health in particular than diet). I liked that this book really highlighted what adults, even parents of school aged children, don't see. And I liked that she advocated for whole foods and gives lists of organizations to get involved with. I do however think her findings were a bit overblown, and reading this book it was obvious to me that a blogger was writing it. Still, it was interesting and not too long.

[Brandi Rae Fong · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came across Mrs. Q (aka Sarah Wu)'s blog (www.fedupwithlunch.com) back in 2010, and found it to be a really interesting. Mrs. Q is a teacher who decides to eat school provided hot lunch everyday for a year and take pictures and anonymously blog about it, leading to discussions not only about school lunches, but also about kids, food, and nutrition in general.

While this book calls attention to an important topic that needs examining, it just wasn't in depth enough for me. I was hoping for a little more research based info and a little more personal stories and experiences from the experiment.

However, Mrs. Q did provide a good jumping off point and guide for those just getting into the topic and wanting to learn more and make a change. I highly recommend visiting her website, and recommend the book if you are just starting to learn more about what kids eat in school.

[Cheri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I admire Sarah Wu's activism on an important issue, but I thought the book was a waste of time -- it was disorganized (recycling issues are discussed in the chapter "Fruit Juice is Pure Sugar"), focused as much or more on her personal issues as on societal ones, and was almost entirely anecdotal. She never claims to have training in nutrition, but her lack of knowledge is troublesome. For example, she thinks sugar is bad because it makes kids act up (there are lots of reasons to minimize sugar in the diet, but research does not support the notion that it generally causes behavior problems), and she didn't give her own son soy milk because she wanted him to "benefit from animal fats" (huh?). The most helpful part was the last chapter on how to be an activist; it would have made a nice magazine article.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although well-intentioned, I found this book to be unenlightening, especially for those who, like me, have read several books of the food reform movement. However, individuals who are new to the subject may find the information both shocking and motivating. (Although, if you ate school lunch as a child, you may find the information less shocking.) This book is best suited for parents or those who work with or care for children, as the author also includes an appendix on how to get involved and create change at a local level, as well as a list of resources. The author's personable style makes this a quick and easy read, and well worth reading and supporting, even if the information it presents is simply a review.

[Kerri · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a few interesting pieces of information in this book (such as the drop in numbers of visits to the school nurse when lunch is served after recess, not before). However, the author or editors seem to have bulked up what is essentially a blog turned into a book with story lines that don't ring very true. For example, it is understandable that the author may have wanted to write an anonymous blog. But, the attempts to make the reader feel she was somehow in danger for writing the blog or heroic for attending a conference fall flat. If nothing else, if you are unfamiliar with the current situation in the school cafeteria, then this is worth reading for the photos of the lunches alone.

[Agnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it, school lunches can be horrifying and I had no idea recess was being cut nationwide- and some times they only get 20 minutes to eat-thanks no child left behind! I didn't know every lunch item was individually wrapped so the amount of wrap and trays going into landfills each day is staggering.

I read the negative reviews and I think they were too harsh (my sister just fell off her chair), they wanted more research, but this was an experiment/experience. I think she was great to take this on and she had an open mind. You could tell she cared about her students and school. It was well written and well paced. She balanced her personal life stories with her project well, so I had context but never got bored. She also educated us on reforms and initiatives by others.

[Jessica Lahey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so excited to read this book. I am a fan of books about food and food industry reform, and to top it all off, I am a teacher, so the education angle appealed to me as well. Sadly, Miss Q is not a very good writer, and her love of anecdotal evidence clashes with some of the other well-researched statements she makes in her book. It was repetitive, poorly organized, and read like, well, the slapdash assembly of her blog into a book in order to get it out on the market as quickly as possible.

It makes me sad when a book does not live up to its potential, and this is one of those books.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is as much about the author's experience writing the blog "Fed up with Lunch" as it is about how to create school lunch reform. I would have preferred more about the reform than the blog. If you are new to the school lunch discussion you may want to check it out. She touches on many issues related to school lunch (nutritional, behavioral, USDA subsidies, etc.) but does not go into detail about much. If you are not new to the school lunch reform discussion this does not have much to offer other than the suggested resources section in the back of the book.

The writing itself was rather bland and lacking in humor (although she tried!).

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was okay, but not much more. I read the author's blog with interest while it was ongoing, but this behind-the-scenes didn't hold much for me. It's much like reading an extremely long letter-to-the-editor that can't get to the point because the author is too busy telling you about how worried she was all the time about revealing her identity and losing her job, which, yeah, probably wouldn't have been legal. Anyway, if you're interested in food politics or lunch reform, there are much better resources such as Free for All. If you want to read a memoir about blogging, you are a different kind of reader than I am.

[Blair · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came across her blog awhile back and was hooked. Then I saw this in A Southern Season on the sale rack and grabbed it. There is a reason it was on the sale rack. I admire what Wu did and her blog was really good. I think nutrition for children, especially at-risk children, is an important issue that needs to be discussed. This is a perfect example of something that worked in one format (the blog) that didn't translate well to a book form. This was mostly about her journey and not so much about the issue at hand. It's good to get the discussion started, and it takes no time at all to read, but if you want the heart of the issue, stick with the blog.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A school teacher, horrified by the quality of the school lunches in her elementary school, starts a blog chronicling what students receive each day and makes it her goal to start reform.

I had enjoyed reading the Fed Up with Lunch blog, and this was a good companion to it. It pulls together her thoughts more comprehensively and gives a better narrative to it. However, the blog itself is better at the nitty-gritty of the meals and everyday revelations from the students, so both should be read.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very quick and easy read- interesting topic and a good overview. Nothing earth-shattering if you keep up with sustainable food issues, but a personal perspective that makes some good points. It was written like a blog (no surprise, as it's based on her year-long blog) and I would have preferred a more edited/formal/well written style.

Also, I was appalled that there are schools that are eliminating recess on top of giving kids super-processed not-so-nutritious food for lunch!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book that really opens your eyes about what children are fed at school. For a long time, I've been disgusted by the poor quality of food served to children in public schools, and this book makes it that more apparent. I really like how she gives suggestions for how to make an impact in your community with regards to school lunch and the general well-being of children. I loved following her blog and I love this book!

[Marilee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mrs. Q, a school teacher, decided to eat the school lunch every day for a year and blog about her experience. While I think the idea is a noble one, I'm not really sure what she accomplished at the end of the year besides fueling the conversation out there about children's nutrition. The book isn't particularly well written and the writing is somewhat disorganized, but I appreciate what Mrs. Q is trying to do.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yuck. This just solidified how I feel about the hellacious state of federally subsidized food for the poor. If you are not yet convinced...read it. Monoculture and farm subsidies are making us the sickest nation in the "civilized" world.

It was super fast read and she did her homework. There are a lot of interesting tidbits.

Yuck.