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We’re in WashPost “Outlook” Today

February 14th, 2010 by Ed Bruske · Tales, kids

To make school food healthy, Michelle Obama has a tall order There’s been an impressive convergence of attention on school food recently, with “Healthy Schools” legislation introduced in the D.C. Council, then my series of blog posts, “Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen,” detailing the woeful food being served at my daughter’s elementary school, followed by the launch this week of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign against childhood obesity. The result: this piece I wrote for the Washington Post’s “Outlook” section, appearing today under the heading, “In D.C. school cafeterias, a long way from here to healthy.” It takes up a major portion of page two in the print addition. Or you can just read the text that follows.

First lady Michelle Obama’s new campaign against childhood obesity, dubbed “Let’s Move,” puts improvements to school food at the top of the agenda. Some 31 million children participate in federal school meal programs, Obama noted in announcing her initiative last week, “and what we don’t want is a situation where parents are taking all the right steps at home — and then their kids undo all that work with salty, fatty food in the school cafeteria,” she explained. “So let’s move to get healthier food into our nation’s schools.”

Last month I had a chance to see up close what all the school food fuss was about when I spent a week in the kitchen of my 10-year-old daughter’s public school, H.D. Cooke Elementary, in Northwest D.C. Chartwells, the company contracted by the city to provide meals to the District’s schools, had switched in the fall from serving warm-up meals prepackaged in a factory to food it called “fresh cooked,” and I couldn’t wait to chronicle in my food blog how my daughter’s school meals were being prepared from scratch.

It didn’t take long for disappointment to set in. It started on the first day, as I watched the school’s kitchen supervisor, Tiffany Whittington, prepare baked ziti. (more…)

by Lisa Bennett was originally published by the Center for Ecoliteracy.
© Copyright 2010 Center for Ecoliteracy. Reprinted with permission.
All rights reserved. For more information, visit www.ecoliteracy.org.

I was speaking today with a mom at my sons’ school. She was concerned about a teacher who was doing such a poor job that even his students were complaining that they weren’t learning enough.

“We’re all worried about the economy,” she said. In this climate, any sign that a school (even an excellent or basically good one) may be failing to absolutely and definitively prepare our children for whatever the future will bring is likely to provoke greater anxiety than usual.

This collective economic angst, I believe, is what Caitlin Flanagan played into in “Cultivating Failure,” an article that lambastes school gardens in the January/February 2010 Atlantic. But to separate the angst from the facts, it is necessary to first look at the angst and then the facts.

Flanagan opens the article by asking the reader to imagine being a young and desperately poor Mexican who has made the dangerous and illegal journey to California to work in the fields to give his or her child the chance at a better life. An entirely different life. A life that embodies the American dream. A life made possible by education. (more…)

Chef Ann Cooper Urges Parents to Demand Healthy Funding Boost for Child Nutrition Act

BOULDER, Colo.–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–The Child Nutrition Act, slated for reauthorization this year, serves up a rare opportunity for healthier funding of school lunches. Chef Ann Cooper, aka the Renegade Lunch Lady, in partnership with Slow Food USA, Roots of Change, and Healthy Schools Campaign, is rallying a million moms and dads to write Congress demanding an additional subsidy of $1 per lunch. Cooper is providing templates of letters [www.lunchboxadvocates.org] requesting a budget increase to underwrite real (not highly processed) food for school kids: fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, clean proteins and natural dairy products, with a priority on regionally produced food. This letter-writing campaign launches on the heels of the Obama administration’s proposed $1 billion budget increase for school lunch subsidies. Cooper and her allies say this increase is not enough to feed our children well.

“The Child Nutrition Act has not changed in 15 years and the time to help 31 million schoolchildren is now.”

“We have the opportunity to make a positive impact and teach children about healthy food choices, which will influence their long-term health,” said Cooper. “The Child Nutrition Act has not changed in 15 years and the time to help 31 million schoolchildren is now.”

The Child Nutrition Act, reauthorized every five years, pays $12 billion to feed breakfast and lunch to schoolchildren, averaging only $2.68 per day for each child. Cooper and numerous nonprofit organizations and health-conscious companies are calling for an increase in funding – a dollar a day per student – dedicated 100 percent to food that promotes better health.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, obesity is the most commonly diagnosed medical condition of childhood and is a risk factor for many other diseases, including high blood pressure, asthma and type 2 diabetes.

Constituents can find the advocacy letter template at www.lunchboxadvocates.org and view informational videos at http://vimeo.com/9185123 and http://vimeo.com/9181529.

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away:

Why Then Doesn’t the President’s Budget Proposal Assure

Our Children Even That Much?

President Obama’s Budget became public recently and one of the many items in the massive $4.5 trillion expenditures is $1 billion per year for Child Nutrition split between the National School Lunch Program and the WIC Program.  At first blush, given the economy and the call for a 3-year freeze on discretionary spending, this might seem like a win for America’s children; and groups like The School Nutrition Association, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest have applauded the proposal.

I believe we need to take a closer look at what this really means and perhaps rub the shine off of this offered apple.  The National School Lunch Program feeds approximately 5.4 billion lunches per year with an approximate cost of $8.5 million dollars.  This equates to approximately $2.68 reimbursement for a free lunch student, of which $1 or less is typically spent on food.  I want to reiterate – less than a dollar for the food on our children’s plates every day.  With that in mind, it seems so clear that we need more money for healthy food for all of our children. (more…)