The Schooyard Foodie: A 12 Step Program to End Addiction to Industrial Food in School

A teacher at Oakland, California's Melrose Academy writes a blog called "Teacher Revised". You can link to it at the following URL - http://teacherrevised.org/category/the-schoolyard-foodie/

He/she is working on a Twelve Step Program - ala AA - to break the hold of industrial food over school meals. Here are the first six steps. Visit this blog for more as they are developed.

STEP 1: We admit we were powerless over processed industrial food - that our lives had become unmanageable.

STEP 2: We believe that there is a power greater than Sysco that can feed our children for $2.67/day.

STEP 3: We decide as a community to turn our will to a diet that is not handcuffed by federal food subsidies.

STEP 4: We will make a searching and fearless moral inventory of our schools' lunch menus.

STEP 5: We admit to God, to ourselves, and to other human beings the prepackaged, artificially preserved nature of school cafeteria food.

STEP 6: We are ready to have God remove all these defects of nourishment.

Bill Moyers Interviews Michael Pollan

Bill Moyers Journal, a PBS program that airs on the weekend, featured a long interview with food activist and author, Michael Pollan on November 28, 2008. The program includes a short documentary on a farmers market in Brooklyn that feeds the most at risk residents of the city. Go to the program's website to see a podcast of the interview and the documentary. The URL for a transcript of the program appears below. This interview provides a concise and comprehensive overview of where we stand in the local food revolution. It is a good resource for people who are just becoming knowledgeable about these issues.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/11282008/transcript5.html

Impact of Federal Commodity Programs on School Meal Nutrition

The number of overweight and obese children and adolescents has reached epidemic proportions, and recent federal surveys show that most school meals do not meet federal nutrition guidelines.  Accordingly, there is growing interest in the nutritional quality of foods available in U.S. schools—and in the role of the government in helping to make school meals healthier for students. Providing healthy foods to students is crucial, particularly for low-income children for whom school meals may be the only, or the most nutritious, calories they consume most days of the week. Low-income children, who are disproportionately affected by childhood obesity, make up nearly two-thirds of school lunch program participants and up to 90 percent of school breakfast program participants.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture currently provides school districts with more than 180 different commodity food items per year valued at approximately $1 billion,  which makes the commodity program the largest single source of foods for schools. The nutritional quality of the foods ordered by schools through the commodity program, however, is particularly alarming. While commodity foods comprise only 20 percent of the school meal, they set the tone for the entire meal. For instance, many meals are planned around the high-fat foods ordered through the commodities program, turning them into pizza, chicken nuggets and other processed foods.

Healthy Eating Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, recently conducted the first ever comprehensive analysis of how the USDA Child Nutrition Commodity Program impacts the nutritional quality of school meals. The report finds that commodity foods ordered by school districts fall far short of the nutritional benchmarks recommended by the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. While this report focused primarily on California’s commodity food system, its findings include both federal and state policy recommendations that can be applied beyond California.

http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/3484.34381.pdf 

BALTIMORE SUN: Organic farm will give city school students a chance to get their hands dirty while learning about nutrition

November 24, 2008 

Tony Geraci, the Baltimore school system's new food service director, plans to turn the 33 surprisingly rural acres in Baltimore County into an organic farm where schoolchildren will learn about healthy food and sustainable living, by digging in the dirt, planting seeds and watching fruits and vegetables come to life.

It's to be called Fresh Start Farm, because, as Geraci says, Baltimore, with its disheartening poverty and obesity rates, needs a fresh start. 

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-to.farm24nov24,0,1678647.story