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. And that’s exactly what we’d like to change: replacing those chicken nuggets and tater tots made from food scraps and chemical additives in factories hundreds of miles away with real food, maybe even food grown right in our own back yard.
As you can see in the article that appeared in yesterday’s Washington Post, profiling Jeffrey Mills, the new food service director for D.C. Public Schools, we already have a presence in this debate. We hope to work with Mr. Mills on improving the food our kids are eating at school, and we hope he will include us in his plans. Our current aim is to press our case by reaching out to every PTA and parents organization in the city. We know that parents at some schools have already formed “food committees.” All of us need to work together toward this common goal.
If you are the parent of a child in a D.C. public school and are eager to work on this important project, I hope you will join our Google group. To stay current with what we are doing, you can also become a fan of our Facebook page. And do consider subscribing to our blog. This morning, we have an excellent post on the Child Nutrition Act re-authorization by one of our members, Becky Levin, who is also a mom and who lobbies on child nutrition issues on behalf of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
And if you are moved to do so, consider testifying at or attending the hearing scheduled for this Friday, 11 am, on the “Healthy Schools” legislation pending before the D.C. Council, which contains much about the food our schools serve and the money to pay for it. We’ve been involved in shaping that legislation. The hearing will be held in Room 500 of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. If you would like to testify, send an e-mail to:abenjamin@dccouncil.us.
Ed Bruske writes The Slow Cook blog.
