In the January 6th edition of themail, Gary Imhoff wrote about ‘bad bills’ that pass from idea to law because of the arrogance and greed of politicians. Incredibly, he singled out the recently-introduced “Healthy Schools Act” as an example thereof. Yesterday, I submitted the following response to Imhoff:
DCPS student enjoying a salad from school garden
I am on the Advisory Board of the DC Farm to School Network, manage the Glover Park-Burleith Farmers’ Market, and am the parent of a future DC Public School student. I will also disclose that I operate under the assumption that getting healthy, local fruits and vegetables to District of Columbia schoolchildren is a worthy cause for its impacts on child health and well-being, environmental sustainability, and economic development.
First of all, I’d like to clarify that the farm-to-school section of the bill is not about “identifying any foods served in schools that students may actually like, and replacing them with more servings of carrot and celery sticks,” as Imoff claims (with tongue only “minimally” in cheek). The bill asks schools to serve healthy, local foods in school meals whenever possible, provides financial incentives for them to do so, and asks schools to educate students about the connections between food, health and the environment. It also encourages school gardens – proven vehicles of multidisciplinary and experiential education. (You can read the bill here.) These are worthy, effective measures proven successful in other states through behavioral impact research and economic analysis.
When I take up Imhoff’s challenge to “look for who gets the benefits” of this bill, I see: our students, local farmers, and the local food economy. The District of Columbia’s schoolchildren have the highest child poverty rate in the nation, and one of the highest child obesity rates. It’s not that food service staff don’t want to serve healthy foods to them, or that parents don’t want their kids to eat more healthily, or that kids think all healthy food is gross. There are many systemic issues that make switching to healthy, local foods more expensive, complicated and difficult than it could be. Policy change, in conjunction with other efforts, is slowly changing that at the national, state and local levels.
DCPS student eating a corndog for breakfast. (Corndogs have been removed from the menu this year.)
Policy change is a necessary precursor to any meaningful shift in cafeteria culture. There are certain things legislation can address (or encourage) that the non-profit and private sector cannot. One good example is requiring full disclosure of where the produce in school meals comes from. While the DC Farm to School Network aims to facilitate the purchase and processing of local produce for school food service providers, and has organized topical educational activities (farm field trips, chef demonstrations, garden visits, etc.), the Healthy Schools Act moves this key issue out of the margins for the District, and puts us in step with the rest of the nation. Cost-effective farm-to-school policy measures have been developed across the country and have been instrumental at making farm-to-school programs successful – see a state by state listing here (PDF).
After attending discussions with school food administrators, food service vendors, growers, DCPS students and farm-to-school experts from across the country, I truly believe that the farm-to-school components of the Healthy Schools Act contain measures that will bolster current efforts to provide healthy options for DC kids. And a broad coalition of parents, teachers, school administrators, advocates, non-profit partners, and others agree.
