Archive for March, 2010

Posted by Ed Bruske | March 24th, 2010

By Ed Bruske

Contributing Editor

I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. But after I wrote my series of articles on the woeful state of school food in the District of Columbia, a parents group coalesced around the idea of making improvements by working directly with school food service officials and advocacy organizations such as the D.C. Farm to School Network.

We are Parents for Better D.C. School Food, and in the past month we have formed a Google group (35 members so far), a Facebook page (68 fans) and a daily blog, where we routinely visit school cafeterias to photograph and analyze the food, and publish penetrating essays from other parents about allergy issues, how to get kids to eat real food, microwaves, nachos and analysis of the latest proposals for the Child Nutrition Act re-autorization, to name a few.

For too long, parents have been largely silent on the issue of what our schools are feeding our kids. Perhaps that’s because school food traditionally has been treated as a kind of joke, and is a part of our lives so easy to ignore. It’s safe to say that few parents have ever seen the inside of a school cafeteria since they were a child themselves, let alone the kitchen where the food is prepared. Except for the occasional gossip they pick up from their child, they have no idea what kids are eating at school, even less what’s in the food that’s being served.

Maybe they’d rather not know. As I found out spending a week in the kitchen at my daughter’s school, the food is not a pretty sight. In fact, it’s some of the worst our over-processed food system has to offer.

Posted by Kacie Warner | March 23rd, 2010

For the last eight years, the Washington Youth Garden has hosted a gaggle of families every Saturday morning from early spring until the end of the summer. The program, called Growing Food…Growing Together, brings twenty five to thirty families together to grow and prepare their own organic food. Each week, families work together to tend [...]

Posted by Kaitlin Sheedy | March 23rd, 2010

Whether we’re tuning in to The Biggest Loser television show, hearing the latest updates about Michelle Obama’s new “Let’s Move” campaign to tackle childhood obesity, or reading about a new policy taxing soda or removing vending machines from schools, there is no denying nutrition and physical activity are two of the hottest topics in the country.

They are also two of the most pressing public health issues with serious long term health consequences.  In fact, in Washington, DC the rate of obesity is 22.3 percent, while nearly 27 percent of the nation’s adults are obese. These rates spike up even more dramatically in African Americans and Latinos.[2]  Some of the health consequences of obesity are coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, various cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon), high cholesterol, liver and gall bladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems.[3]

DC Voices for MEAL Choices (DVMC), an advocacy group of the Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association, is working to get the DC Menu Education and Labeling (MEAL) Act passed in the district by educating policymakers, the media and the public about the positive effect of including nutrition information on menus and menu boards in restaurants.

In March 2007, D.C. City Council members Phil Mendelson and Marion Barry introduced the DC MEAL Act to address the significantly high number of obesity related chronic diseases in the nation’s capital.  The council members developed the bill to help residents and visitors of D.C. make healthier food choices when eating outside of their homes.

The MEAL Act would require fast food and other chain restaurants in the District of Columbia to provide detailed nutrition information directly on the menu.  The bill would mandate establishments with 10 or more locations nationwide to list the calorie content and specific amounts of saturated fat, trans fat, carbohydrates and sodium in standard menu items. Although Councilman Mendelson introduced the DC MEAL Act almost three years ago, the Council has not passed the law requiring DC chain restaurants to provide nutrition information to their customers.

Posted by Ed Bruske | March 22nd, 2010

By Ed Bruske
Contributing Editor

Re-tooled language in “Healthy Schools” legislation scheduled for a public hearing before the D.C. Council this week would require city schools to provide parents each year with a measurement of the body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio of every child, as well as an estimate of the amount of exercise each child engages in. It also calls on city schools to consider extending the school day in order for children to have more time for physical activity, and would offer grants to schools that commit to making students more active.

Schools would also be required to send parents information in English and Spanish explaining how to interpret unhealthy body mass and waist-to-hip information and what steps can be taken to address weight problems.

Drafters of the legislation last week backed away from strict nutrition standards recommended by the Institute of Medicine that would require increased portion sizes of vegetables served in school meals, saying schools cannot guarantee the quality of vegetables offered  in cafeterias or that students won’t throw them in the trash.

Instead, the legislation embraces requirements set forth in the U.S. Department of Agriculture “HealthierUS School Challenge,” which establishes several different levels of stringency in school food nutrition.

 The “Healthy Schools” bill would require all D.C. public schools to adopt the “gold” level of the USDA program, meaning school cafeterias would need to offer 1/4-cup servings of  dark green or orange vegetables three or more days per week, and cooked dry beans or peas once per week.  Schools would also be required to offer a different fruit, either fresh, frozen, canned, dried or 100 percent juice, every day of the week, but 100 percent fruit juice could be counted as fruit only once per week. At least one serving of whole-grain food would be offered each day.

The new bill also drops an attempt to create detailed nutrition standards for foods served outside the reqular food line in school cafeterias–so-called “competitive” foods–as well as those sold in vending machines and in school stores. Again, the “HealthierUS School Challenge” standards would apply. Total fat in those foods could be no more than 35 percent of calories, trans fat must be less than .5 grams per serving, saturated fat less than 10 percent and sugar no more than 35 percent by weight.

The only beverages allowed would be low-fat or skim milk, 100 percent fruit juice with no sweeteners and water, meaning no sugary sodas, sports drinks or ice teas. The standards would not apply to foods and beverages offered at official after-school events.

Posted by Mo-Yain Tham | March 21st, 2010

We’re loving the DC Environmental Film Festival, which features a great selection of films related to food justice issues.

This Thursday, a group of us will go together to see the Great Food Revolution, a short film that takes a ranging look at the community food infrastructure of New York City. Says the film’s synopsis, it’s about:

the complex choreography of distribution that keeps New Yorkers fed. It’s a dance of supply and demand that happens in cities all over the world, every day. Most people are dependent upon what happens in the middle of the night at, say, the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center and/or the New Fulton Fish Market, where decisions about produce, seafood and other perishable food items are made for the upcoming day. Some people are on the move, such as artisan farmers bringing their foods to market, or cargo ships bringing in imported foods such as bananas. Many others, such as restaurateurs, are buying food for the entire day’s needs. Throughout the city, the dance continues.

It’s a free screening – woo! And following the screening, we’ll head to nearby Nanny O’Briens where we’ve reserved the backroom at 8:30pm, a space of our own for discussion. (It’s just up Connecticut Ave and right next to the Cleveland Park Metro.) We’ll consider the snapshot of NYC’s food systems, and compare with our knowledge of similar systems here in DC.

Let us know you’re interested in coming by shooting an email to DCFoodForAll@gmail.com.

Posted by Emily Roberts | March 19th, 2010

At the Perry Family Health Center we are celebrating National Nutrition Month on Thursday, March 25 from 5-6pm with a class entitled, “Nutrition from the Ground Up: Eat Right!” where we will promote incorporating more whole grains, fruits and vegetables into one’s diet.

We are having food donated for the class by the very generous folks at Takoma Park Silver Spring Co-Op, making this a community-wide effort to increase healthy lifestyles and therefore life expectancy. When the donation was secured, the buzz around the clinic resulted in someone suggesting that we invite Michelle Obama, champion of the new Let’s Move campaign to combat childhood obesity and increase access to healthy, affordable food.

Posted by Liz Whitehurst | March 18th, 2010

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At the Neighborhood Farm Initiative, we’re planting seeds. Today it was tomatoes, eggplant, seven varieties of peppers. The first collard leaves are already round and reaching toward the sun.

We’re also planting seeds of a different kind: we’re teaching people to grow food. Starting in April, Program Director Bea Trickett will lead a series of workshops that will take DC residents from preparing soil to pruning tomatoes. Each participant tends her own plot at our site near Fort Totten and takes home the fruits – and vegetables – of his labor.

Posted by Ed Bruske | March 18th, 2010

By Ed Bruske
Contributing Editor

In a move that could signal a serious fault line in the argument for more vegetables as a tonic for childhood obesity, drafters of “Healthy Schools” legislation pending before the D.C. Council have skuttled a push for additional produce in school meals after school officials said they cannot guarantee their kitchens can prepare vegetables that kids will actually eat and not throw in the trash.

“More vegetables” has become a mantra of advocates for healthier school food, including first Lady Michell Obama, whose White House vegetable garden created a sensation. The “Healthy Schools” bill, scheduled to come up for a hearing next week, had embraced standards proposed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that would require larger servings of fruits, vegetables–especially green and organge vegetables and legumes–and whole grains as part of an upgraded school nutrition package designed to bring school meals in line with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The IOM panel that made the recommendations, working at the behest of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, warned, however, that requiring more produce and whole grains would drive up the cost of school meals, and that there could be no guarantee that children would eat them. The requirement for heftier vegetable servings was dropped from the “Healthy Schools” bill after D.C. school officials asserted they did not want to spend precious resources on food that would only end up being thrown away.

“We heard from many that if schools are serving mushy, flavorless green beans that students are simply throwing away, that doubling the portion size would simply double the amount of mushy, flavorless green beans that are thrown away,” said an aide to Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), author of the bill. “Instead, many have said that we should focus our energy and money first on improving the quality of the foods being served before we consider mandating an increase in portion sizes.”

Advocates of farm to school programs here and across the country contend that schools can serve meals that are more healthful and appealing by using more locally grown produce. But vegetables traditionally are a hard sell in school cafeterias. The foods most favored by children are pizza, all forms of potatoes and corn, in that order. As I found while spending a week in the kitchen of my daughter’s elementary school here in the District, vegetables typically are cooked to death and rejected by kids. A 1996 nationwide survey of school food service managers by the U.S. General Accounting Office revealed that 42 percent of cooked vegetables — and 30 percent of raw vegetables and salad — ended up in the trash.

The move to eliminate additional vegetables from “Healthy Schools” legislation suggests that mandating better school meals may not work without funding improvements to school kitchens. In fact, the trend in school food service for years has been in just the opposite direction–to reduce labor costs, which represent half of food service costs, by hiring less skilled kitchen workers who do not work enough hours to qualify for benefits. Frequently, school kitchens are staffed by “warmer-uppers” whose sole skill is being able to re-heat foods that have been pre-cooked in distant factories and shipped frozen. Sensitive perishables such as vegetables suffer as a result.

“If we’re going to win Michele Obama’s war on obesity and if her ‘Let’s Move’ campaign is going to be successful, then we need to ensure healthy delicious food. We need funds to pay for cooking kitchens, to train staff, and to market to kids to eat the food,” said Ann Cooper, noted school food activist and director of nutrition for schools in Boulder, Colorado.

“That seems like nonsense about kids not eating the veggies…of course they won’t if it looks and tastes like cardboard,” said Debra Eschmeyer, director of the National Farm to School Network. “Kids will eat fresh tasty veggies if they have a chance to access them and learn about them. I didn’t believe it until I saw it with my own eyes hundreds of times. Kids will eat chard, broccoli, beets, etc. and love it when they have a chance to grow it and have a real learning experience.”

The IOM report suggested there might be funds for school kitchen upgrades in the “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” (PDF) program instituted last year by USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan. Merrigan has said that nearly $1 billion in federal grant funds used in the past for building rural fire stations, hospitals and community centers could be allocated to food-related projects, such as building storage facilities for locally grown produce, food markets and school kitchens. But schools would need to apply for the money.

In a separate development yesterday, legislation making its way through the U.S. Senate would provide an additional 6 cents per school meal–something less than $500 million more annually–but that money would be contingent on federally-subsidized meal programs adopting the IOM standards. The School Nutrition Association, representing food service directors across the country, has asked for a minimum increase of  35 cents per meal. But others, such as Cooper, say anything less than $1 a day for each child in the program falls short of what is actually needed.

Still, the retooled “Healthy Schools” legislation sets forth substantial increases in local financial support for school meals, some of which could be used to purchase more vegetables and other healthful ingredients.