I am finally back in a neighborhood where I am likely to receive trick or treaters. I’m pretty excited about the sparkly skull decorating my front door to announce we are a trick-or-treater-friendly household, but I am stumped on what treats to provide.
High fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated soybean oil do not cross my threshold which eliminates a lot of the popular candies. It would be pretty hypocritical of me to provide those to other people’s children if I wouldn’t provide them to my own. Those great big bags of candy would be easy, but I do not want to support the continued use of chemicals in our food products.
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UPDATE [11/2/10]: Scroll to the bottom of the post to see some of the scary processed foods that turned up at Chipotle on Halloween!
Maybe I am out of the loop, but I did not realize that Chipotle Mexican Grill serves only freshly prepared and unprocessed food. Not only that, but they are turning their annual “Boo-rito” Halloween event into a fundraiser for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution with a goal to raise $1,000,000!
In years past, those who came to a Chipotle Mexican Grill dressed as a burrito, taco, or taco salad would be treated with a free burrito. In honor of the Food Revolution, they are changing the deal just a little. The challenge this year is to dress as a “horrifying processed food product” and boo-ritos, bowls, salads, and tacos are just $2 to raise funds for the Food Revolution. There is also a costume contest with prizes up to $2,500!
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Often, the most scary part of Halloween isn’t the costumes or the pranks, but the treats. We’ve all seen the baskets of candy kids come home with after a night of trick-or-treating. Now a group of farmers, appropriately titled A Bunch of Carrot Farmers, has come up with a new plan to help kids make a healthier choice.
Late this past summer, the group began a campaign entitled “Eat ‘Em Like Junk Food” to get kids to eat more carrots by borrowing the sales tactics of junk foods. The branding program included packaged baby carrots in potato chip-sized bags and selling them in brightly colored refrigerated vending machines, using vibrant billboards and flashy commercials. The campaign even featured a carrot-crunch-powered iPhone and iPod Touch game, “Xtreme Xrunch Kart,” available as a free download at the iTunes store.
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There are many October activities that are fun and incidentally, great exercise. Corn mazes, haunted houses, harvest festivals, pumpkin patches, scavenger hunts and colored-leaf-scouting all provide great reasons to get outside the house and get moving. Let’s be real though, for many kids Halloween is still all about the trick-or-treating. A lot of parents dread the night of walking up and down the block, endlessly taking step after step. The attitude there is all wrong. Trick-or-treating is the perfect family outing! This year, maximize the time you spend taking your kids door to door. Make it fun and make it active. Here are a few ways to do just that:
- Trick-or-treat in an area where the homes are farther apart. More walking equals more calories burned.
I’d love to see adults across the country start hosting neighborhood planning committees for Halloween. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all the houses on your block were on the same page, handing out healthier alternatives to the traditional trick-or-treat candy loot?
If you want to start the revolution in your neighborhood, you don’t want to appear preachy to other parents, so keep it casual and maybe even include festive fall drinks. You may not be able to get through to everyone but that’s OK. Some candy is fun and after all, it is a tradition. Maybe you don’t live in the friendliest neighborhood or you just don’t have time to plan such an event. That’s OK, too. You can do a lot by making small changes on your own.
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