Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

Each fall, returning to school meant access to rectangular pizza slabs, steak-ums and tatter tots -- food that was off limits at home during the summer months. School lunch was a treat. But some students in Maine will no longer be served meals like this on the marbleized plastic partitioned trays. Thanks to the hard work of our dear friend, Amanda Beal, in our homestate of Maine, many students will be eating well this fall. California has been doing this stuff for a while. But we feel a certain amount of pride given our ties to the little state.

Even the pickiest eater would've appreciated the scene in the kitchen of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. Trays stacked with orange and yellow carrots, miniature yellow summer squash and purple and green jalapenos crowded the counters. Colanders overflowed with heirloom tomatoes and scrubbed potatoes. Bouquets of fresh herbs awaited chopping.

The 11 "lunch ladies" from Boothbay Harbor, Yarmouth and Hall-Dale Elementary School in Hallowell quickly got to work, weighing ingredients, peeling vegetables, slicing and dicing. At once, a cacophony of sounds filled the room -- a whisk on a stainless-steel bowl, the clang of metal pans, the whir of a food processor shredding carrots. Soon, the aromas of cilantro, sauteed onions and pot-pie gravy mingled in the air.

On the menu: For their first course, diners can choose from Autumn Harvest Corn & Chevre Pudding, Maple Roasted Root Vegetables or Carrot-Ginger Soup. For the main course --make that the Maine course -- offerings include Italian-Inspired Pasta with Maine White Beans & Veggies, Chicken Pot Pie with Maine Mashed Potatoes or an organic Barbecue Beef Burger. Sides include Aroostook Wheat Berry Salad, Heirloom Tomato Salsa and Carrot-Raisin Slaw. And for dessert, the mouth-watering lineup includes Pumpkin Snack Cakes, Wild Blueberry Cobbler and Maine Apple Gingerbread.
[from Bangor Daily News, by Kristen Andresen]

The corporate cafeteria of midtown Manhattan sound grim in comparison. We may have to return home, live with the parents and head back to school.