You Read it Here First: School Lunch Controversy on TV
This post about school lunch attracted the attention of a TV reporter, who came out to interview OrganicMania about the state of school lunches. You can see the results here. (Just go to the segment filmed on 8 April, 16:05 minute mark.)
At the close, the reporter notes that school officials said they will not introduce organic food because of the expense.
I don’t know of a single parent who approves of the school lunch program. Why won’t school officials consider creative ways to improve school lunch, rather than dismissing suggestions because of cost?
Here are some ideas:
- What about getting “Big Organics” companies to subsidize organic milk? Other companies subsidize their products in an effort to target a growing market, so why not engage the dairies in an attempt to get hormone-free milk in the schools?
- How about charging a subsidy on top of the organic lunch to subsidize the Free and Reduced Price Lunch Program? Parents who disapprove of the nutritional content in school lunch are already paying a premium to make lunch at home. The school system could use its purchasing power to negotiate discounts on higher quality ingredients that would match what parents are making at home. Not only would parents pay less, but they would gladly save themselves the time and trouble of making lunch at home if their children were assured of healthy, nutritious, fresh meals with organic ingredients where they count most (the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” plus milk and carrots would be a great start!)
- What about rallying behind the innovative “Farm to School” program, which connects schools with local farms to deliver farm-fresh food to the public schools?
If you live in Montgomery County, Maryland and would like to learn more about nutrition in the schools, please attend a Montgomery County Council of PTAs meeting on nutrition and physical activity, to be held April 22nd from 7 pm to 8 pm in the auditorium at the Carver Educational Services Center, 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville. Kathy Lazor, MCPS Director of Food and Nutrition Services, will talk about nutrition issues and MCPS initiatives. (She is the official interviewed in the TV segment).
OrganicMania will report on this meeting, because the issues discussed there will be relevant not only to Montgomery County, but also to parents facing these issues in their local schools.
What do you think of school lunch? Please leave a comment and share!
And for more info, check out these older OrganicMania posts here, here and here and this great post from Expatriate’s Kitchen.
(And speaking of Expat, she’s running a great carnival at Eat.Drink.Better).
– Lynn
Copyright OrganicMania 2008
Popularity: 26% [?]
Filed under Food, Organic Prices, Organic Product Needs, Parenting, School lunches | Wordpress Comments (3) |Green Savings Tip for School Lunch
When it comes to school lunches, finding healthy, organic foods that won’t break the bank and that are packaged sustainably can be quite a chore.
Juice packs are all the rage with kids. But did you ever look at the pile of juice boxes and plastic straws left over after lunch? What a waste of packaging and natural resources! Not to mention the expense of those little boxes! They’re certainly not cheap.
It’s not a good idea to save money by compromising on non-organic juice, particularly if it’s apple juice your child is drinking. Apples are heavily laden with pesticides, and childrens’ bodies are very sensitive to the chemical load of pesticides.
What to do? You can save money and reduce waste by purchasing a large container of organic apple juice and a re-usable juice box or thermos. Plus, you can dilute the apple juice with water to make it an even healthier treat for your child. Diluting with water also makes that large bottle last longer, making it less expensive. Works for me!
And just to make it even easier for you….here’s a link to a printable coupon for 75 cents off a large bottle of Santa Cruz organic juice. If there’s a Whole Foods near you, check out their house brand of 365 Organics - they’re considerably cheaper than the name brands, although with this Santa Cruz coupon, you’ll need to compare prices at your local store.
– Lynn
Copyright OrganicMania 2008
Popularity: 61% [?]
Filed under Food, Green Ideas & Stuff, Organic Prices, Organics vs. Conventional Foods, Parenting, Product Recommendations, School lunches, Sustainable Packaging, Tips, Where to Buy Organics | Wordpress Comments (5) |Guest Post: Remembering the Edible Schoolyard
Last week OrganicMania published a series of posts about “How to Get Organics and Healthier Foods into the Schools.” A comment from MamaBird led to today’s guest post, where she writes about her time teaching at a school with one of the nation’s most progressive school lunch programs. What else would one expect from Berkeley, California?
In my students’ minds, the crisp lettuce in the field we skipped through on our journey was just as fascinating as the computers that waited amidst the stacks of books at our local library. It was 1998, and most of the young men and women loping
past the garden had no access to computers at all (many had just arrived in the country). But it was the vegetables that held their attention. On a field trip with an English Language Learner class, I couldn’t help but marvel at the audible excitement and interest over the garden and its teen gardeners. Teacher Patti Rathwell got her students into King’s school kitchen routinely, brought food into the class to illustrate
everyday concepts, and the students’ families brought in delicacies representing cuisines from all over the world to mark special celebrations. Speaking over a dozen languages, the premium form of communication among our students was laughter,
gesture, and the anticipation of flavor.
In 1998, I was a student teacher from UC Berkeley’s MUSE Program apprenticed to two classrooms at Martin Luther King Middle School. The nascent Edible Schoolyard
program, started in 1996 by a collaboration between Chez Panisse and the school
(via the Chez Panisse Foundation), was thriving by the time I landed at King. As I recall, the kids called it the “Peace Garden” and every one of the kids I taught, from
middle school second language learners ranging from 6th to 8th grade, to the 8th
graders in my humanities class, was itching to get their hands dirty. You could almost see the infusion of energy into the crops. These kids were fascinated with what their peers were creating, with their bare hands and brains. They longed to be longed to be outdoors, to work with the soil. But even more, they longed to be in the kitchen, chopping and slicing and mixing and…eating! I’ve never seen such a worthwhile channeling of teen squirm in all my life.
I’ve been thinking about the Edible Schoolyard recently, as I face the reality of
public school lunches here in DC for my daughter and her friends. I’m heartened by the fact that Berkeley, and other schools like Wisconsin’s Appleton Central Alternative School (ACAS), have adopted programs harnessing the power of
delicious and satisfying food to improve not just health but performance. Lunch
Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children, by Ann Cooper and Lisa Holmes, is a riveting book that chronicles success stories like the Edible Schoolyard and
Appleton’s ACAS, while giving parents concrete suggestions: healthy recipes and contact info for organizations working to effect change in lunch programs.
One school that’s crafted a school environment rich in healthy food and a focus on physical education is Appleton’s ACAS (which banned vending machines and instituted fruit-and-vegetable rich breakfasts and lunches). Appleton has quantifiably documented the impact of providing “nonchemically processed foods that are low in fat, salt, and sugar, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables.” Improvements seen include: more focused on-task behavior, increased cognitive development,
fewer health concerns, fewer discipline problems, better attendance, and better nutrition outside of school.
Wouldn’t it be great if all of our schoolchildren (many of whom rely on school
breakfast and lunch programs as their primary source of nutrition) got a side of nutrition education and sustainable agriculture with their salad bar lunch?
Where to look for more info about transforming your own school? Check
out the following organizations for ideas.
The Center for Ecoliteracy, Lunch Lessons, Better School Food, Food for Change, and Farm to School.
Copyright 2008 MamaBird
Popularity: 73% [?]
Filed under Biodynamic food, Food, Parenting, School lunches | Wordpress Comments (2) |Part 2: How to Get Organics and Healthier Food into the Schools
As we all know, shopping for organics and fresh produce for our own households can be complex. Just imagine the challenge of supplying an entire school system with farm fresh foods. According to activists interviewed by OrganicMania, this is one of the key reasons so many public school systems nationwide have resisted parents’ entreaties for more farm fresh and organic foods in the schools.
Check out this ABC News interview with Two Angry Moms who agitate for improvements in the nutritional content of school lunches.
Last year, parents in my community agitated for change in the school menus. Their efforts were detailed in the media here. Yet when I looked at the school menu last week, I saw no evidence of change.
I called Mike Tabor, a farmer who was one of the activists quoted extensively in media coverage of last year’s school menu meetings. He told me that with last week’s Maryland Senate passage of “Farm-to-School” legislation, there is hope that farm fresh foods will soon be available to in public schools throughout Maryland.
It always takes community involvement to enact change. Clearly that’s the case with school lunches. What can you do?
Check out these resources:
Two Angry Moms Resource Page for School Lunch Change
Please send me your stories of success with improving school lunch quality. And check back next week for a guest column from Mamabird, who as a school teacher, saw first-hand what it was like to bring farm fresh produce into the public school system.
Please read Part 1 of this series too!
– Lynn
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
Popularity: 33% [?]
Filed under Food, Organics, Organics vs. Conventional Foods, Parenting, School lunches, Tips | Wordpress Comment (0) |How to Get Organics and Healthier Foods into the Schools
On Friday I had my first look at the public school my son will attend. While waiting for the open house to begin, I picked up a lunch menu. What I saw shocked me.
Pizza twice in one week? A choice of a hot dog or pizza? And needless to say, no organic milk. And this in a school district that prides itself on its “healthy choices.” McDonald’s is healthier…at least they sell salads and vegetables that are not fried!
If the schools were able to figure out how to get soda pop and candy and commercial advertising and TV into the schools, how come they’re having such a hard time figuring out how to get even a smattering of organics and healthier options into the schools?
This is part one of a series of posts about getting healthier foods in the schools. Please check back Friday for the second post in this series! In the meantime, please leave a comment and share your experiences with school lunches.
– Lynn
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
Popularity: 16% [?]
Filed under Food, Parenting, School lunches | Wordpress Comments (2) |
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