A reason to celebrate - over and over again

Orcas Island has hit on a great idea: the Celebratory Lunch for the Farm to Cafeteria Program. Different island gourmands prepare a special lunch once a month featuring wholesome local food, mostly made from scratch. Professional and amateur local chefs sign up for the month they want and it's practically become a regular feature at the school cafeteria. The students love it! Who wouldn't? It's a great idea that could be adapted by other communities. Read about it in Bullwings

The history of a school garden

At Lewis Elementary School in Portland, OR the school garden includes greenhouses, composting bins, raised beds, barrels for rainwater harvesting and an outdoor classroom. This garden is used for all sorts of education and it is a peaceful relaxing spot as well. This garden was started small and has progressed following the ideas and needs of the school itself. There are teachers, parents, students and community volunteers hard at work, building a successful garden that can meet the very specific needs of the school. Read about the Lewis garden at Edutopia.

An alternate type of garden

Container gardening allows you to grow plants in difficult situations, using different gardening types, many of them very suitable to schools. The blog Container Gardening is completely dedicated to making your growing experience a successful one.

One of the ideas that they explore in great detail is how to grow a vegetable garden in plastic bottles. They have some clever ideas and good advice. There are exhaustive details about containers, soil, drainage, seeds, etc.

This might make a good school project that could then be taken home.

An example from Washington (the other one)

A few hours ago Michelle Obama hosted a White House event to spotlight kids and nutrition. Her speech talked about what to eat and how to eat. She talked about child obesity, the USDA HealthierUS School Challenge - more about that in my next post -, getting exercise and ensuring that kids have healthier and healthier options at school. The Associated Press has some photos of Mrs. Obama participating in the fun and games and they report that she was able to do 142 swivels. Pretty impressive on all counts!

What’s for lunch on Labor Day?

Slow Food USA is sponsoring a national eat-in for Labor Day, Sept. 7, 2009. They hope that people will organize public pot-lucks to highlight the importance of children eating healthy. Find out more about this at their website or contact the Time for Lunch campaign team site: timeforlunch@slowfoodusa.org.

Learning to live healthy

Are the kids in your school talking about salad and raspberry dressing before lunch? That’s what’s happening at Veterans Memorial Elementary in North Naples. This school decided to plant a school garden so the students could plant and grow their own food. The goals, to save money and educate children about healthy food, have been met with enthusiasm on the part of all.
The program was suggested by a mother and seconded by the whole community. The children are proud to raise their own food and are learning good nutrition by living the experience. They get fresh, wholesome food in their cafeteria. The hands-on experience of working in their own garden builds self confidence from achieving through hard work and an understanding of delayed gratification. It is also a godsend economically in times when all school budgets are tight.
According to an article about the school and its program in the Macro Eagle, about 60% of the students chose salad for lunch on the day the reporter visited the school. The school sought advice and partnership in the endeavor from their school district, master gardeners and a local foundation. The children benefit by an increased desire to learn about the science related to growing food, time spent outside working in the garden and healthy food.

2 Angry Moms Coming to Seattle! (on film)

Bastyr University, Whole Foods Market of Redmond and Washington State University King County Extension Farm-to-School Connections Team have partnered to host a FREE screening of the documentary, “Two Angry Moms." Check out the film and the women behind it at http://www.angrymoms.org/.

Details:
7pm, May 1st
Bastyr University Auditorium
14500 Juanita Drive, Kenmore, WA 98028
Free Admission
A panel discussion featuring local nutrition and food service experts will follow the screening.

The film addresses nutrition concern issues surrounding the food served in school cafeterias across the country and offers strategies for overcoming roadblocks to replacing unhealthy school lunch menus with nutritious meal options. A conversation about how to bring nutritious meals and fresh local food into school cafeterias will follow the screening. The panel discussion will include:

Anita Finch, Seattle Public Schools
Barb Lloyd, Edmonds School District
Elise Hart, Parent, Laurelhurt Elementary Nutrition Advisory
Committee
Pete Soucy, Bastyr University
Clayton Burrows, Growing Washington
Kerri Cechovic, WA Environmental Counsel

For more information about this event, call 206-205-3206.

Speaking of corporate interests in kids' eating habits ...

Straight A’s, With a Burger as a Prize. Over at the New York Times, Stuart Elliott talks about a Florida arrangement in which McDonald's gives kids free food in exchange for good report cards. They send report cards home in paper sleeves with information and advertising about the McDonald's reward program. It's criticized as just one more way that corporations are advertising to children in order to build life-long "brand loyalty." Interestingly, only one parent had complained at the time the article was written. (They also mention that they had no complaints when Pizza Hut gave away free personal pan pizzas as reward for good grades in an earlier promotion.)

Nutritionists and others warn against using food as rewards, under the argument that obesity is often about emotional eating, or eating in response to the need for comfort or the idea that we've "earned it" and that these responses may be influenced by eating patterns learned in childhood.

More News on the Home Front

Jennifer Langston of the Seattle P-I continues to report on local food issues and school food improvement with the latest article, Better cafeteria offerings pushed by middle schoolers.

Orca Middle School has been one of the most active in Seattle in work on school gardens and school food options. Tiana Colovos, who you may have met at F2S Connections meetings, is quoted in the article: "We've made inroads with the snacks and nutrition education, but crossing that threshold into the cafeteria is like a brick wall." There are lots of reasons for this, as have been explored in earlier articles, but Orca may be on the right path with students themselves now getting involved in the campaign. They're also in a better position to approach the issue, now that they have an on-site kitchen! Learn more in the article.

Vote with Your Lunch Money

Deborah Kane, Vice President at Food and Farms at EcoTrust, and a mom (among other credentials), published an article called BACK TO SCHOOL: VOTING WITH YOUR LUNCH MONEY on the Edible Portland blog. The article is a really informative interview with Kristy Obbink,Portland Public Schools (PPS) Nutrition Services Director, on her project of including more local food in Portland schools. Obbink's goals are ambitious, and her dedication admirable. The article details specific projects, like trying to sell kids a custom-ordered high-fiber fruit bar from local processors when there's a competing sweetened and highly packaged option, but also talks a bit of philosophy. Here's a particularly cool quote:

“Increasingly, we’re taking a more holistic approach to nutrition. PPS recognizes its role in informing children about the impact of their food choices not just on their personal health, but also on the health of the broader community. That means we’re incorporating social and environmental dimensions into our definition of healthy, nutritious foods.”

An important point in the article is the need for parents to choose to buy school lunches, particularly on days or meals when local or healthier ingredients are highlighted--such higher levels of participation not only provides evidence that the changes pay off (which can leverage greater change in the future), it also provides more money for the schools to work with. And every school nutrition director I've ever spoken to is excited about the possibilities for local fresh food in schools, if only they had more money.

National School Lunch-In This Week

Two Angry Moms, a pair of, well, angry moms, in Connecticut have a blog/website about their continued efforts to improve school lunches. They've named this week The Two Angry Moms National School Lunch-In:

The Two Angry Moms National School Lunch-In will run from October 15th
- 19th. It will be held concurrently with the School Nutrition Association's
(SNA) annual National School Lunch Week and follows the USDA
guideline suggesting that every parent should go to school and have lunch
with their child.

Here's what they recommend:

While you're there read more than the menu.
• Ask to see a list of ingredients for every item in the cafeteria.
• Read labels, check out what's in the vending machines.
• Don't be fooled by health claims and "low calorie" branding. How
much of the food being served is real food and how much of it
includes flavorings, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, binders and
unpronounceable ingredients?
• Find out from your child if this is normal fare or if the school is
sprucing things up to make a good impression for your visit.
• More tips of what to do/look for while you are visiting for lunch: Kate
Adamick - Searching For Food In The School Cafeteria, Better
School Food – Lunch In Check List
Ask yourself how healthy you would be if you ate this food as your primary

They then suggest that you ask your school board for school wellness policies that require healthy food, and report back to them.

Note that this is about quality food, not necessarily farm-to-school, but you could easily add your own questions about the sourcing of the food if you're interested in how far the food travelled and how it was produced.