The following is a letter that was sent to me. I thought it was worth sharing.

The Community Food Security Coalition held its annual Farm-to-Cafeteria conference in Portland, OR, March 19-21st. The conference was heavily focused on how to change the paradigm of school nutrition policies and regulations. One of the key note speakers was School Nutrition Association President, Dr. Katie Wilson. Dr. Wilson’s keynote was a frustrating disappointment for many nutrition and health experts in the audience. Rather than build on the morning enthusiasm for creating sustainable healthy changes in our child nutrition programs, her message included a statement that childhood obesity is not a key problem, that there is no such thing as a junk food, and that farmers should understand the confines of the current regulations and attempt to fit into them. In response to her speech and in concern that she would continue to share her mis-informed messages across the nation, I wrote Dr. Wilson a letter in response and as in invitation to dialogue further about the issues. I have not heard a response to my letter which is posted here.

Sincerely,

Kelly Horton, MS, RD, Food Policy Consultant

Dear Dr. Wilson,

Hello. I am a registered dietitian and want to share some reflections I had during and after you addressed over 600 participants at the Community Food Security Coalition’s Farm to Cafeteria Conference in Portland this past March. We need fundamental change in the school meals program. I think the issues you raised highlight the need for us to keep the focus on changing the paradigm of our food system and federal child nutrition program regulations, rather than trying to fit a square peg (socially just sustainable agriculture) into a round hole (a broken food system and school lunch programs regulations).

I was energized by many stimulating conversations that took place during the conference and was not only reminded of how far we have come but also how much further we have to go. It was obvious to me during your talk how divisive proponents of the school nutrition program and those of farm to cafeteria programs can be. Many are working tirelessly to overcome the hurdles, work together, and develop school nutrition programs that truly do support the nutritional and learning needs of growing children. It is important to keep in mind that through these programs we serve the children of those, “hovering helicopter parents” that you mentioned. Parents should be welcomed as allies not viewed as nags who are appeased only when they have the loudest voices in the room.

During your comments you stated that a second grader should not be concerned with reading food labels, for example that they should not be concerned with how many UIs of Vitamin A are in the food item they are served. I want to bring to your attention that teaching children how to read food labels is about much more than merely learning about amounts of nutrients. Teaching children about food labels teaches them skills to make knowledgeable decisions for their health – decisions often difficult to make in our current media-laden environment. As a registered dietitian, my work has involved teaching children, teens, and parents how to use food labels to make healthful food choices. I want to share with you a video highlighting a wonderful program that demonstrates these benefits. Please take a moment to watch: Lessons from the Pure Food Kids Workshop (http://healthyliving.msn.com/Default.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0).

You also talked a bit about chicken nuggets and how you had negotiated with your food service provider to provide low-sodium, low-fat chicken nuggets. I challenge you to go further. I believe that children should be offered chicken instead of “nuggets”. While I do agree with you that there is no such a thing as junk food, the reason I believe this is fundamentally different yours. I do not believe there are junk foods – rather there are real foods and there are processed artificially, chemically synthesized items that people have come to name as food, but this is really just trash. This is not about being the food police; this is about doing what is morally correct for our children. Obesity and malnutrition are a hand-in-hand epidemic in our country fueled by the over-abundance of unhealthful “food”. I believe that there is no place for these items our public schools and we cannot disregard the reality that many children in our public schools are overweight or obese as a result of multiple obesigenic food environments. One only has to read a major newspaper or any academic health journal to know that too many children in American are heading in this direction.

Let’s consider your example of negotiating for a “healthier” chicken nugget. I understand that it is a reality of our current food system and for many working within the food service industry that chicken nuggets are considered popular fare and do not require much skill to prepare. This does not make them acceptable from a health, animal welfare, or ecological perspective. Having read much on the subject on the processing of chicken nuggets I am convinced that there is absolutely no such thing a healthier chicken nugget produced by food manufacturers. If you are unfamiliar with the process endured by the animals and the processors there is an article in Utne magazine from a few years ago that I suggest you read…beware it is not for those with a weak stomach (http://www.utne.com/2004-01-01/Undercover-in-a-Chicken-Factory.aspx). Just out of curiosity I googled “chicken nuggets” after your talk and I did find a recipe that looked like a healthful alternative. Here is the video I found: http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-chicken-nuggets. The only steps I would change would be to use whole wheat bread crumbs and to bake the nuggets rather than fry them.

My point is we need to stop discussing how to fit into the box provided by the school nutrition program regulations and start focusing on changing these regulations to build a new system because the current one is fatally flawed. Sustainable food systems do not fit into the current National School Lunch Program – so the program needs to change. We should turn our focus to sourcing humanely slaughtered and prepared food – not turning chickens into nuggets. Children, and adults and for that matter, should understand where their food comes from – and the sacrifice that was given to provide them with energy. Just a few weeks ago a colleague of mine told me that children in her local school were fed real chicken one day and many of the children were shocked to discover bones in their meat, having not understood that chickens have bones. This is alarming. When I was a young girl I remember my father humanely slaughtering chickens on our small farm for our own meals. The lives those chickens lived was vastly different and posed significantly less health risks to my family than the chickens used to produce the nuggets you speak of. In fact, just after the CFSC conference Science Daily released the results of a study speaking to the harm posed to human health by poultry factories (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090316120846.htm). If one cannot bear to eat something that looks like meat, they probably should not eat meat! Ask yourself, “Who invented chickens?” Then ask yourself invented the chicken nugget? That answer is clear: McDonalds. Should McDonalds continue to have such a powerful impact on the health of our children? Is a chicken nugget really the gold standard for child nutrition? We are paying a dear price for this expedition into the industrial food system.

Being familiar with the National School Lunch Program, I understand the efforts the barriers to incorporating fresh produce into school meal delivery. However, we should not demand that farmers produce uniform apples or that each muffin weight the same. We should instead acknowledge that an apple, like any other organism, is a unique system. One apple in the natural world should not be exactly the same as another. Just as children are each unique – so should be the food they choose to eat.

The time is ripe for change. It is leaders such as those belonging to SNA, who should lead the way creating a healthful, nutritious NSLP for ALL American children. In your position you have the ability to greatly influence leaders and key staff working in school nutrition programs across the nation. I was heartened to see that the American Dietetic Association is listed as one of the Allied Organizations on SNA’s website. I am the incoming Chair of the American Dietetic Association’s Hunger and Environmental Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group (HEN) (www.hendpg.org). I suggest that we, HEN and SNA, work together to address these issues. Our membership consists of highly valued experts in child nutrition and we are well known for creating professional resources for our members and professional networks. I am curious if you have any members within SNA who are also Registered Dietitians belonging to HEN or to ADA’s School Nutrition Services practice group? I think it would be wonderful if we could connect some of our HEN members with some of these joint SNA/ADA-SNS members so we can begin to work toward changing the paradigm of school nutrition to build programs that are truly nutritious and environmentally sustainable.

I encourage SNA to rise above the pitfalls we often encounter in our work and travel on the path to sustainable solutions. Let’s not get stuck trying to answer the wrong questions, but rather focus on the goal – healthier children who live as long if not longer than their parents.

Sincerely,

Kelly D. Horton, MS, RD, CD

Chair, ADA’s Hunger and Environmental Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group