Yuck: A Documentary - The UltimateFatBurner Blog

Yuck: A Documentary

I couldn’t resist “liking” this documentary film page on Facebook. Check out the trailer:

Sure, crappy school lunches have been photographed, filmed and blogged about before. What makes Zachary Maxwell’s experience a little different, however, is that this situation was supposed to have been fixed in his school/district. According to this New York Times account…

Like many things in the life of a fourth grader, Zachary’s movie started as a dispute with his parents. He told them that he wanted to start packing his own lunch, but they were skeptical. Lunch is free at his school, P.S. 130 Hernando De Soto in Little Italy, and his parents liked the look of the Department of Education’s online menus, which describe delicious meals, full of whole grains and fresh vegetables, some even designed by celebrity chefs.

“I told them that’s not what they were actually serving me,” Zachary said. “But I don’t think they believed me.”

So he smuggled in a camera in his sweatshirt pocket the next day and filmed lunch.

“When I came back home and showed them the footage, they were like, ugh!” he said.

Of course, Zachary had some help from his dad, a video hobbyist, but he was the one who did the work – which is good enough to be screened at the Manhattan Film Festival.

I hope that, at some point, the full version is put online – I’d like to see it!

Author: elissa

Elissa is a former research associate with the University of California at Davis, and the author/co-author of over a dozen articles published in scientific journals. Currently a freelance writer and researcher, Elissa brings her multidisciplinary education and training to her writing on nutrition and supplements.

2 Comments

  1. That’s great work by him! I like the fact that he cares enough about what he eats to even think about doing it. Most kids usually just eat whats put in front of them.

    It looks well done. I would like to see the rest also.

    Post a Reply
    • Yup, he seems like a pretty sharp kid – not to mention focused. It’s not many kids his age who would stick with a project like this and see it to completion.

      Post a Reply

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