I am a child of the 80's, so I will never forget that leaving food behind on my plate somehow affects African famine. Growing up, uneaten heads of broccoli and stray macaroni noodles pushed to the side of my plate called for me to be reminded about the starving children in Africa. My father would shake his head as he scraped leftover foold off of our dinner plates (my mom cooked and he cleaned up), and I just knew I was letting the children down. If my family and I were out at a restaurant (The Ground Round perhaps), and I didn't want to eat my last chicken tender, "We Are the World" or a Sally Struthers commercial would always come on in the background and I would then dutifully choke it down. Food should not be wasted...think of the children.
These childhood experiences, coupled with my dessert-lovers' belief that baked goods are only really good on the first day, has made me a proud member of the clean-plate club. Unless I am really REALLY full, I leave no morsel behind. It's the least I can do.
As a mom, this mindset has proved problematic. Now I not only have to worry about offending the starving children with my uneaten food, but my son's as well. And, since my toddler doesn't know about world hunger yet, his finicky-eater, two-year-old-self is perfectly content leaving A LOT of food behind on his plate. And sometimes, I daresay, he doesn't even attempt to eat ANYTHING in front of him. What waste! So, I have selflessly taken on the roll of the family dog and I now eat all of the table scraps in my household.
The other day, my boy dumped half a bag of mini Lorna Doones on the floor and ran to the other side of the room to build blocks. I quickly went over to the mess, and rather than sweep up the crumbs or make it into teachable moment about cleaning up after ourselves, I quickly picked up all the cookies and ate them. Phew, crisis averted.
In fact, my altruism has shown up a lot since my son started eating solids and I continually find myself having to right his food karma whether it be by eating the last spoonful of applesauce, half a fish stick, the bottom of a cupcake that he licked the icing off of (you don't leave cake behind at a birthday party!), cold mini blueberry pancakes, leftover oatmeal, 1/3 of a warm cheese stick, veggie straws that have fallen under the couch, and so on. Don't even get me started on how he only eats the middle of bagels and bread and my stomach has become a pit for leftover crusts!
Now, as my clothes have become tighter, I'm faced with a dilemma. I can't keep eating all of my food and his. Although I could help the economy by buying a new larger-sized wardrobe, I'm trying to be fiscally responsible, so I've decided this: I will make and serve EJ's meals first and see what he doesn't finish. Then I will decide what's not totally gross (he has started picking his nose), and see what I can do. If he miraculously cleans his plate, then I can go on to happily blend my kale smoothies and eat my ice cream (sharp contrast, I know) and not further contribute to the world hunger problem. I'll let you know how it goes, but for good measure, I'll be increasing my contributions to our school food drives and running a 10K for hunger in the fall. I anticipate needing to put a lot of good food juju back into the universe for this child.
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