A Healthy Diet of Humor

By Kathy O'Connell

On Healthy Food for Thought: Good Enough to Eat, the song “We Love Raw Veggies and Greens” explains “we’re from New York State, we didn’t like what was on our plate” to introduce the New York Coalition for Healthy School Foods and its two-disc collection of songs and poetry about healthy eating. Comparisons to the Marlo Thomas classic Free to Be You and Me are warranted by the collection’s humorous approach to its healthy eating agenda and its multi-generational ability to please. “Junk Food Man” by Jay Mankita asks, “Who’s making money telling children lies about happy clowns eating burgers and fries?” Healthy food poems are performed by Delaware Valley broadcasters like Grover Silcox, whose hilarious attempt at “Peter Piper” will get kids howling.

The project provides a bountiful crop of resources for teachers and parents to plant ideas about good food in their kids’ minds. There is no middle ground in this project, where a happy meal means a healthy meal. Family music superstars such as Tom Chapin, Trout Fishing in America, Justin Roberts, Sara Hickman and Jessica Harper appear on the CD, along with Julian Lennon, Moby and Russell Simmons.

www.healthyfoodforthought.com 

Kathy O’Connell is a contributing writer to MetroKids and host of the Peabody-award-winning Kids Corner, weekdays 7-8pm on WXPN 88.5 FM. This article appeared in the September 2010 issue of MetroKids.