Source: http://www.usatoday.com/

Schools could learn lessons on food safety
By Elizabeth Weise and Peter Eisler, USA TODAY

Scientists and food safety experts say there are industries and major companies, both in the United States and abroad, that have made great strides in safety and consistently produce food free of the bacteria that sicken about 75 million Americans a year. Can those practices become the rule for the food the government buys for schools? (more…)

Find this article at:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1948865,00.html

Friday, Dec. 18, 2009
U.S. Schools’ War Against Chocolate Milk
By Gilbert Cruz

It would sound like a joke if everyone weren’t so up in arms about it. Taking a stand against chocolate milk? It’s like canceling Christmas. What could possibly be wrong with something that brings children such joy?

A lot, according to some nutrition experts and school districts that are removing the brown liquid from lunchrooms. One 8-oz. serving of reduced-fat chocolate milk has nearly as many calories and sugar as a 12-oz. can of Coke. Encouraging students to regularly consume the drink, they say, is contributing to an already worrying childhood obesity crisis. (Read a brief history of school lunches.)

As chocolate milk opponents lobby state and federal officials, the dairy industry has responded with an estimated $1 million campaign dubbed “Raise Your Hand for Chocolate Milk.” Launched in early November, the YouTube-intensive strategy is designed to highlight the drink’s health benefits (vitamin D, calcium, potassium) and to counter the critics who have pegged it as nothing more than a sugar-laden snack drink. (more…)

School District Says ‘No More Chocolate Milk’

Boulder Valley School District Stopped Serving Chocolate Milk This Fall
Jennie Castor, 7NEWS Video Journalist

BOULDER, Colo. — Something is very different in the cafeteria of Douglass Elementary School in Boulder County.

The chocolate milk is gone.

In November, the Boulder Valley School District’s new director of nutrition services made some drastic changes. And, she’s rocking the boat by not supporting a recent National Dairy Council campaign promoting flavored milk called ‘Raise Your Hand for Flavored Milk’.
“I want to raise my hands for healthy kids,” said Ann Cooper, the woman Boulder Valley School District officials call the ‘Renegade Lunch Lady’.

“For the National Dairy Council to be marketing to children and their parents by telling them that they have drink chocolate milk in school every day, thats the wrong message. And, in fact children don’t need more milk they need more calcium,” said Cooper.

Lunches in Cooper’s cafeterias now have choices like brown rice, apples and a fresh salad bar along with regular milk. (more…)

Sam Kass preps and plugs the winter garden

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/all-we-can-eat/sustainable-food/prepping-and-promoting-the-whi.html

First, he was profiled in Men’s Health magazine. Then it was People. Now White House assistant chef Sam Kass has taken the first step to small screen stardom. And by small screen, I mean YouTube.

Today, the White House released a video of Kass and Department of Agriculture officials readying the South Lawn garden for winter. A group of what appear to be a dozen volunteers set up hoop houses – a kind of temporary green house – in which staff will grow cold-weather greens for the White House table. The group also plant a cover crop of rye, which will help protect and enrich the soil during the cold months. (more…)

Whetting the appetite for school lunch reform

By SUSAN TROLLER | The Capital Times | stroller@madison.com | Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009 6:45 am

Those looking to overhaul Madison’s school lunch program will get a taste of what could be when Beth Collins pays a visit in January.

Collins is coming to Madison to take a preliminary look at the Madison School District’s school food program and start identifying what would be required to replace such items as hot dogs and tater tots with healthier alternatives.

Collins and Ann Cooper are partners in a business called Lunch Lessons. Cooper and Collins have helped transform school meals in several cities across the country, including Berkeley, Calif., and Boulder, Colo., by incorporating more fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and non-processed meat, poultry and fish. Both women are well-known chefs consulting for the Boulder area school district. (more…)