For Your Journal: Writing Prompt

Do you keep a journal – or wish you could get one started? Literary Mama wants to help.

Three times a month, I’ll post a writing prompt that I hope will encourage you to open a notebook and write for 10 minutes. Don’t worry about grammar or punctuation – just write. Then let the writing simmer and your mind wander for awhile.

And who knows? Maybe you’ll discover a character for your next short story or a theme for a narrative essay. Or maybe you’ll use the idea to create a special holiday card or photo album for someone in your family. However you decide to use your journal entry, I know you’ll enjoy re-reading it months–and years–down the road.
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My 8th grade daughter proudly states that she’s never picked up a carton of white milk for her school lunch. She drinks a carton of chocolate milk every day – and has since Kindergarten

I don’t have a big problem with this – she loves chocolate milk, and because I don’t serve it at home, I know it’s a treat. I also know that she and her two older brothers make good lunch choices; they seldom choose ala carte items like pizza and potato chips over the hot lunch the school offers. And she’s lucky: there are no major health issues in our family history, and her body structure doesn’t put her at risk for childhood obesity.

But many kids are at risk. And, when given the choice, most will make the high-fat, high-calorie, low-nutrient choice, according to the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study (the third such study sponsored by the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service). The study also found that one or more sources of competitive foods (candy, desserts, salty snacks, sugar-sweetened drinks) were available in 73 percent of elementary schools, 97 percent of middle schools and 100 percent of high schools. Overall, 40 percent of students consumed one or more competitive foods on a typical school day.

Journal Entry: Write about a school lunch. Describe the tray, its contents, the servers, the setting, the kids around the table. How much is eaten, and how much is thrown away?