#The only fulfilling job I ever had was as a daycare worker and preschool teacher

[cottoncandyopinions]

I know this is the upper end of school lunches even by japan's standard but man... I wish most school districts everywhere were like this.

Like yeah it takes a lot of hands on employees but that's not a bad thing. Think about the way this slots into a community ecosystem.

Feeding kids right is so important, so we want to feed them good food.

Getting that food from local farms is not only sustainable, but cost effective and creates agriculture jobs in the local economy (tho I understand not everywhere can do this part, not every school district is gonna have nearby farms).

The kitchen where the food is made creates more local jobs, paying directly back into the community, and those jobs are available to the lowest skill workers who need a good job with consistent hours the most. And food service workers in particular, who are subjected to insane hours, unpredictable schedules, and low pay as is standard in the industry really would benefit from this kind of setup.

Heck, on top of all that, you see in this district that plenty of parents work these jobs, making food for their own kids. When you feel like your work is meaningful, when you're directly doing something for your community and seeing the benefits yourself, it makes the job so much more rewarding. It encourages employees to feel more invested, to care about doing a good job, and less turnover rate because of that satisfaction.

Like I wanna say that I wish the whole world cared this much about keeping kids well fed, but it's so much more. A model like this is just better for society as a whole, and even if you're really focused on the pure economics, having more people with more disposable income means more money moving through the economy, and the future economic benefits of a generation of healthier kids is self evident.

I just don't understand why society ever decided to disconnect our work from our communities, or why we decided to eschew the long term benefits and increased wealth as a society in favor of saving a little money right now.

I know it's silly to think all this from a little video about this district's lunches, but I guess there's just no reason why we can't all work to have something a little closer to this.

#It also made me think about how rare jobs where you feel valuable to your community are #And how many of us have to leave fulfilling bad jobs #How we have to get bullshit jobs just to afford to get by #The only fulfilling job I ever had was as a daycare worker and preschool teacher #The pay was awful and management sucked #They kept on enrolling high support needs kids despite none of us having training or qualifications for sped #But at the end of the day I loved my work #I loved working with those kids and helping them learn #Encouraging their curiosity and watching them be creative #I became a safe person for the kids that struggled to make friends like I did when I was young #I quit suddenly and in a huff due to management pulling some bullshit #But I still cried after I left because I knew I would miss those kids #I got a much better job with benefits and consistent hours #At a miserable call center helping entitled assholes with their stupid iphones #I never would have been able to get away from my abuser without that job #But fuck man #I hate that having a job with meaning means you can't afford to live #All my coworkers at the daycare were moms that wanted to work or wanted the free childcare the job offered as it's sole benefit #They all had husbands working “real jobs” and actually paying the bills #And of course they did #We made 9 dollars an hour #Youtube