The last good apple makes a stand

Martha examines the good apple a little more closely. Pristine and shiny, it’s hard to believe she grew it herself. Now this is quality, she thinks, as she turns her attention to the rest of the apples. In fact, she feels proud of their accomplishment as she studies the rest of the garden. The carrots are ready at long last, and the squash plants are producing twice as much since they got their own spot in the new section. Martha smiles, but can’t help remembering all it took to get here.

The Last Good Apple

Six months earlier.

The child can barely keep his eyes open. Martha watches the sleepy young man make his way down the line. If it wasn’t for the other students moving him along, he would probably be sound asleep. On the counter. She knows his name is Timmy. And each day at lunch she talks to Timmy, and many of the other students that come into the school cafeteria at lunchtime. Martha watches them pass by her place in the cafeteria line. Then she adds slop to their trays.

She can’t help but bristle at the thought. Slop. Her name for it. And why shouldn’t she call it like she sees it? Martha has worked at the elementary school, for over twenty years. She started in the cafeteria, and now she runs the cafeteria. And for over twenty years she has served food. Not real food mind you, but the manufactured slop that passes for food. Frozen pizza? Frozen french fries? Any of those processed nightmares could be today’s lunch.

The students pass by and she fills their trays with the food of the day. Today is Salisbury steak day. Martha struggles with her gag reflex as she thinks about the Salisbury steaks and how they come frozen, but completely cooked. Furthermore, she actually reads the ingredients in the products shipped to the school. It takes an enormous amount of reading. Because there are so many. And for the thousandth time she thinks, what’s wrong with the system?

Making the Stand

One thing Martha truly enjoys is her garden. She grows several types of fresh vegetables. Furthermore, she has an apple tree. In fact, she has two good apple trees. She planted them twenty years ago, when she first moved to this small town. Ironically, that is the same year she began working at the Elementary school’s cafeteria.

Things were different back then. For starters, real food, was the norm. When the cafeteria menu said chicken, it was a drumstick, or a wing. Now it is a crispy coated disk of… shaped something. Something that has chicken stock in the ingredients list. However, that is as close as it comes, to real chicken. And then there are the hot dogs. They come frozen, and fully assembled. Made for the steamer equipment, they are warmed from frozen and dumped on student’s trays by the hundreds.

With this in mind, it became more difficult by the day to see the change in the students that passed through the school, on their way to high school. Tired and sleepy all the time. Out of shape and mostly sedentary. They slowly made their way through the cafeteria line daily, and daily, the food became worse. Until finally Martha couldn’t stand it anymore. That’s when she chose to make a stand.

A Good Apple A Day

Her apples were beginning to really come in each year. Last year she had to hire a couple of friends to help her harvest all her apples. Her trees were flourishing and soon Martha was harvesting more apples than she could use. That’s when inspiration came. Instead of trying to preserve all her additional harvest, she decided to share. And she knew just who she wanted to share with.

The next day she brought two bushels of apples to the school cafeteria. Then she spent the morning slicing them all. She worked all morning on the apples and by lunch she estimated she had enough to serve almost everyone. It might be close but what a difference it would make. And it did. In fact, it was such a resounding success, Martha brought more good apples the following day. The astounding thing was that Martha found students that had not ever even tried a real apple. In their lives.

This last bit of information was a stunning revelation for Martha. She couldn’t understand how it was possible to be a child and not know what an apple tastes like. Yet, here in this school cafeteria, were several without a clue. All in all, Martha’s attempt at a healthy interlude of real nutrition, was a resounding success. In fact, her apples were so well received that she made it into a twice weekly event. Likewise, those days in the cafeteria were becoming student favorites. Furthermore, it was gratifying to see the return of anticipation, and excitement, in the cafeteria.

The Change

For several weeks Martha’s apples were the excitement of the cafeteria. That was until the carrots came to town. Once the carrots arrived, it was plain to see that things were going to change. And for the better, no less. At least, that was Martha’s plan. Things went so well with the apples, inspiration was inevitable. Her garden was larger than the average garden. Furthermore, it took up most of her back yard. She even had an area dedicated to herbs. But it was the carrot section that made Martha especially proud.

Her carrots thrived in the soil of this region and her harvest was generous. Therefore, she decided to introduce fresh carrots from the garden, into the cafeteria menu. She sliced them, and steamed them, and lost no time reading ingredients on any label. Furthermore, the carrots were even more popular than the apples. Admittedly, she still had students that hadn’t ever set one tastebud onto a carrot, but that changed almost right away.

Now Martha had two days a week with apples on the cafeteria menu. And two days a week with real garden fresh carrots on the menu. The change in the atmosphere of the cafeteria was palpable. Students were more alert and eager to have lunch. There was even a baker in town that wanted to help Martha with fresh baked bread on a daily basis. This last part she began pursuing on her own. The carrots and apples were such a benefit to the students that Martha wanted to do more.

Backlash

Similarly she was now getting questions from curious students about her garden. Additionally, they wanted to know why apples grow on trees. And this was just some of the curious yearning for learning. Soon Martha’s pumpkins and watermelons would be ready, and she couldn’t wait to add them to the menu. In fact, she was working this out in her mind early one morning, as she sliced the good apples. It was at that moment that the principal of the school walked into the kitchen area of the cafeteria. The look on his face told Martha trouble was brewing.

The confirmation came a moment later when he calmly informed Martha of several complaints from parents about the cafeteria menu change. Seems they were demanding the return to the real processed food the cafeteria served before. Furthermore they wanted Martha to face disciplinary action. Then he drove the point home with one sentence: “Martha you’re suspended pending an investigation.” ~To be continued

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