What do Annie's Food and School Gardens Have in Common?

A few minutes ago, my answer would have been "Nothing."  Well actually it would have been more like, "What? Annie who?"   Until someone reminded me that Annie's Foods was the company behind all of those colorful boxes of organic macaroni and cheese my kids love..the ones with the bunnies on them.  Then my answer would have been more of a "Ummm..." as I tried to sound thoughtful and avoid saying "Nothing."

Either way, I would have been wrong.  Because just now, while Cat and I were sitting outside at Whole Foods, eating Annie's Spinach and Mushroom Pizza, enjoying the breezy 70 degrees and the sound of blues music playing somewhere nearby, I got into a conversation with Christina McCalla. She's a brand manager for Annie's and told me about a cool program the company had that helped schools start student gardens, by providing funds for seeds, supplies and other gardening needs.

In these days when so many kids have never eaten food just picked from a farm or garden, and most have never planted anything, school gardens are a great idea.  And now the company is starting a "Win a Garden" program for schools starting in April.

Way to go Annie's!


And there's another plus today...our Annie's Pizza (their newest line of healthy, easy foods) and all the fixings are thanks to an invitation from LiveMom...a perk of being of MommyBlogger here in Austin :-) So not only did we get supper, we got to learn that one of our favorite "mom's-too-tired-to-cook-from-scratch" healthy meals is doing something to make the world a little better, one school garden at a time.

10 reasons for raising a vegetarian child

Ever since the moment I announced that I would be raising my children as vegetarians, I've gotten grief from other people. It would make them sick. They would be short. They would feel left out.

My youngest is now 10, and after all these years, it seems appropriate to finally list the 10 best reasons for raising vegetarian kids!

10) They will never fall into the Supersizing trap at McDonald's or Burger King.

9) You will never have to feed them that nasty grey paste they claim is meat baby food.

8) They will get sick less than their meat eating classmates. They will need less doctor visits and less antibiotics. But no one will admit is has anything to do with diet!

7) They will not be contributing to the destruction of the environment -- grazing destroys 9 times more land than growing produce, for 1/10 of the food produced.

6) They will be leaner than their meat eating peers, a significant benefit given the growing rate of childhood obesity.

5) The grocery bill will be lower...veggies cost less than meat

4) They will have less than one half the risk of diabetes or hypertension compared to lifetime meat eaters

3) They will have a 70% lower rate of cancer in their lifetime

2) They will not be exposed to dangerous growth hormones and bovine antibiotics.

1) And best of all, they will grow up respecting the gift of life and understanding how very precious that is. "It tastes good" will never strike them as a good enough reason to kill living beings.

Fire away!