Thursday, February 9, 2012

Baohaus is for the Children


So in between providing 24/7 coverage of Jeremy Lin, running miles in soft sand, and eating boxes of bullets, I taught kids how to make cold pressed juice. A few months ago, I went to the Eater Awards looking for _ _ _ (insert farm tool), but instead found a great non-profit: Wellness in the Schools (@WITSinschools and @This_isawkward). Pretty much the opposite of _ _ _, but equally important to society. I adopted P.S. 112 in Harlem because its near Original Patsy's and all the ill Cuchifritos.

Wellness is dope. I remember in high school all I ate were jamaican beef patties and 2% chocolate milk. If I got sick of beef patties, we ate Papa John's pizza. I blame Papa John's Pizza for making me skip school because I wanted to put on my Power Rangers Pajamas and go back to sleep after eating that stuff. Isn't that what you did when you skipped school?

Anyway, I figured the best way to get kids the nutrition they needed was cold pressed juice. If you use combinations like: Pineapple, Kale, Cucumber, Lime, and Ginger, it will get you most of the leafy green nutrients you need, vitamin c, bromelain, and immunity from the ginger. We have a huge problem with wellness in schools right now and if we could get programs like cold pressed juice into school, I think it'd severely decrease instances of childhood obesity, diabetes, etc. I urge companies like Norwalk, Omega, Champion, etc. to team up with schools, donate the equipment and let's get on our representatives to provide the funds to purchase fresh produce instead of canned juices, sodas, etc. The food revolution requires systematic change. Imagine this... Look how McDonald's changed the entire food system to service their restaurants and proliferate the most harmful unbanned substances we know. The only way to fight back is to create markets for new systemic change... stay with me.

The government would basically be subsidizing local farms by buying all produce for schools from within 150 miles. We wouldn't need to give tax breaks, money, etc. just BUY the things you would normally buy from local farms. Maybe there are organizational issues? Fine, form a union farmers, negotiate across the line prices, and make it easy for the government to patronize your establishments. Then, eliminate sugary drinks, sodas, etc. and make your own bottled cold pressed juice using machines that places like Norwalk, Omega, Champion donate. NOW, why would these people donate? BECAUSE, food is habit. If we get kids hooked on something good like cold pressed juice instead of four loko (that can had all the kids mesmerized), they will then integrate it into their lives outside of school. What better promotion for your juicers sold for personal consumption than every day use in schools. Guys, urban planning is not that difficult. DO THIS NOW.

While I sell pork belly baos for your enjoyment, I personally drink cold pressed juice twice a day. Food is cool, it's definitely important to eat for pleasure, but equally to balance it out. We make cold pressed ginger soda at Baohaus cause that's what I drink when I'm under the weather. Fresh ginger juice, mixed with a little rock candy is better than emer-gen-c. Hopefully, if we get more space, we can do other juices too but Mama didn't raise no fool. Yall don't love me for my tiger style or my cold pressed juice, you just want my pork buns... It's cool, I still love u...

9 comments:

  1. THIS is why I love the Don. I'm not calling you ninja anymore to show that I know the damn difference between a chinaman and a Japonese assasin. xoxo

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  2. Thanks for looking out for the wellness of these kids.

    Make sure to hit up Taco Mix on 116th street near between 2n and 3rd when you are up there. Best (maybe only) Al Pastor in NYC.

    Keep doing good work man. Lin for President!

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  3. that's a good idea. they should have 8 juicers in a lunchroom and a table full of greens and fruits. kids would love making their own concoctions.

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  4. Your opinion on why government should intervene early in kids' eating habits is spot on. If we get kids educated on eating healthily form a younger age, insurance costs will go down in the long run. Not to mention it's the right thing to do. I also like the idea of subsidies for local farms - it's a win-win for the government and local food producers.

    That aside, juice isn't the answer. Nobody can question the sentiment of what you're doing, which is taking time out of your daily life to visit a school and educate children on the importance of fresh fruits and veggies. But for the most part, juice is full of empty calories, propagated as something healthy by the FDA and other self-interest groups. True juice is full of vitamins, but usually it's the kind of vitamins kids are getting enough of anyway through their normal diets. But the notion that kids should load up on juice is a poor one that contributes greatly to the obesity problem in this country. In that sense it's almost worse than soda b/c everybody knows that soda is junk. Juice is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

    Keep up the good work though - at your restaurants, in this blog and in the community.

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  5. Thanks anonymous... but you got me wrong! GREEN JUICE, which is what I made for the kids is not your average juice. 1/5th sugar, 10 x the greens you could humanly eat in a salad.

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    1. Awesome. That changes the context of this quite a bit - so long as the kids understand the difference between the juice you're making and the Sunny D in their fridge, then you're doing things the right way.

      My wife is a dietitian who counsels weight loss surgery patients. It's sad/humorous/disturbing the number of patients she has who drink insane amounts of orange juice on a daily basis thinking that they're doing something good for their bodies.

      Regardless what you think of Bloomberg in the greater context, he is doing his part to educate people on the topic of caloric beverages. Now if we can get the federal or even state governments to follow suit, we'll be in good shape. Not saying we need to tax it (god knows I love Coca cola as much as the next guy), but education in grade schools would be money.

      See you at Baohaus some day...

      - Freehold4Life (previously anonymous)

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