It's summer league soccer season. That means weekends are full of games, hanging with other parents on the sidelines and, yes, the dreaded half-time snack decisions.
If your teams are anything like ours, parents are asked to provide a snack for the team at every game, which sometimes includes drinks and a post-game snack for a job well done. (If they deserve it!)
But here's the problem. Parents usually bring the worst snacks on the planet.
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High-sugar, highly processed J-U-N-K. No wonder why my son's soccer team is 0 and 5 (not that there's anything wrong with that, yada, yada, yada).
Oh, I can hear it now. "We're busy! There's not time for slicing fruit. They deserve sugar! Who cares? Don't judge me!"
Well screw it. I work hard all week and even I can take a few minutes to cut up some oranges. Quit your moaning, listen up and take a page from the notebook of Sally Kuzemchak, a registered dietitian and author of RealMomNutrition.com. She started the free Sports Snacktivism Handbook, which provides all the tools to get the lazy parents on your kids' soccer or any sports team on board the water and fruit snack bandwagon.
Her Snacktivism Handbook provides a sample coach letter, a sample team letter, a FAQ to answer questions from coaches or parents and a printable PDF list of 20 fruit and veggie team snack ideas. She even has a slideshow of photos and stats to share.
I work hard all week and even I can take a few minutes to cut up some oranges.
Her letter includes this old-fashioned gem: Every child brings a water bottle, and parents take turns bringing fresh fruit for after the game. This fruit-only snack policy benefits everyone, because there's less cost (when it's your turn to bring snacks, you are only in charge of bringing fruit, no drinks) and less mess (no packages to pick up, no juice pouches in landfills). It also means they'll be hungry for lunch or dinner afterward.
My favorite part of the handbook is the answer to the question of do we even need snacks?
Kuzemchak's answer is, "We don't. If all of the parents are in favor of eliminating snacks, let's go for it. Less hassle for everyone."
Now that was easy. No more running to the grocery store and missing the first half of the game, no more slicing and dicing and worrying about food allergies and organics. Just the facts, ma'am, and that would be the 45-minute game thankyouverymuch.
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So for all you moms and dads out there that were raised on the crack vile known as sports drinks and candy bars masked as healthy snacks who will argue the subject of halftime snacks 'till we are Cool Blue in the face, I say stick a banana it, sit down on your sideline camp chair and support the players—not the sugar game.
Photo via Twenty20/Rafael Hernandez
