This is the story of a rising D.C. high school senior’s experience volunteering with the D.C. Farm to School Network, a program of the Capital Area Food Bank that works to get more healthy, local foods into D.C. schools. Bella Herold volunteered during a special event – Strawberries & Salad Greens – when the Network [...]
Local lettuce and berries for school lunch being prepared at CentroNIA If you walked into a D.C. school cafeteria on June 3rd 2010, you may have been surprised at what you saw on students’ trays! Over 150 schools in DC featured fresh, locally-grown strawberries and salad greens as a part of their school lunches. This [...]
Need District Healthy Food Leaders at DC Environmental Network Brown-Bag On May 6th Mayor Fenty named Christoph Tulou Director of the DC Department of the Environment (DDOE). On June 24th at noon, the DC Environmental Network and Earthjustice would like to invite you to a brown-bag luncheon to welcome Director Tulou to the District. Although [...]
Posted in AccessAs the Coordinator of the D.C. Farm to School Network, I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with Councilmember Mary Cheh’s office on a landmark piece of legislation – the Healthy Schools Act. The Act passed through the final Council vote on Tuesday May 4th. It now goes on to the Mayor’s desk for his [...]
Posted in Access
Great news! The Healthy Schools Act passed unanimously in both the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment and the Committee of the Whole on April 19th and April 20th!
Now the entire council has to take a final vote to pass the bill as a law! The final council vote is scheduled for Tuesday, May 4 – we can’t rest until the Act is PASSED and FUNDED!
Please take a moment today to show your support of the Act by calling or emailing the D.C. Council. You can learn more about the act at www.healthyschools.marycheh.com.
Please call and/or email your ward representative, the at-large representatives, and the chairman. You can call (202) 724-8000 to be connected:
Council Chairman Vincent Gray (vgray@dccouncil.us)
Ward 1: Jim Graham: (jgraham@dccouncil.us)
Ward 2: Jack Evans (jevans@dccouncil.us)
Ward 3: Mary Cheh (mcheh@dccouncil.us)
Ward 4: Muriel Bowser (mbowser@dccouncil.us)
Ward 5: Harry Thomas Jr. (hthomas@dccouncil.us)
Ward 6: Tommy Wells (twells@dccouncil.us)
Ward 7: Yvette Alexander (yalexander@dccouncil.us)
Ward 8: Marion Barry (mbarry@dccouncil.us)
At-large Councilmembers:
Kwame Brown (kbrown@dccouncil.us)
Michael Brown (mbrown@dccouncil.us)
David Catania (dcatania@dccouncil.us)
Phil Mendelson (pmendelson@dccouncil.us)
Posted in SchoolsThe public hearing on the Healthy Schools Act on March 26th was well attended, and D.C. City Councilmembers heard an impressive contingent voice their support for the bill. Read some of the wonderful testimony and find more information about the act on Mary Cheh’s site.
Posted in Access
Do you think that farm to school programs that get local foods on school cafeteria trays are important for D.C. kids, local farms, and our community? Please read and sign DC Farm To School’s online petition in support of farm to school in the Healthy Schools Act! It only takes a few seconds.
The Healthy Schools Act covers a wide range of issues – many of which are connected to food access, nutrition, and community food security for D.C. kids. Please find more information about the bill, the most latest full-text version, links to news articles and more at our website.
We’re really excited about the bill, because it creates a farm to school program in the District of Columbia. However, if the Council is serious about creating a farm to school program, they’ll have to make a few changes to the Act, and they’ll have to commit to funding for farm to school in the bill. We have four priority requests:
1) Mandate that schools purchase healthy, local foods whenever possible, and provide financial incentives tied to local purchasing;
2) Provide a central space for processing and storing healthy, local foods for school meals;
3) Require that schools disclose where and how school foods are grown; and
4) Require collaboration among government agencies and community partners to integrate hands-on farm to school education into the cafeteria and classroom (including a mandatory Farm to School Week each year).
It’s not too late to testify (or submit written testimony) in support of the bill or these changes — the public hearing is on Friday! We have secured a room with books and activities for kids (and a television screen with live coverage of the hearing), so you can bring your little ones!
Friday March 26th at 11:00 AM
Room 500 of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW
To sign up to testify or submit testimony, please contact Ms. Aukima Benjamin at (202) 724-8062, or via e-mail at abenjamin@dccouncil.us.
You can read more about our priorities for the Healthy Schools Act on this one-pager, and also on our website at www.dcfarmtoschool.org. Thank you!
Posted in AccessBy Andrea Northup, DC Farm to School Network
Finally, D.C. Public Schools appear to be getting serious about reforming school food.
You wouldn’t know it from Ed Bruske’s recent six-part series detailing the processed and sugar-injected foods currently being served in the city’s schools. But schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee seems to be getting the picture. Two weeks ago she appointed a new director of School Food Services to make some serious changes in school cafeterias across the District. It’s a position that was unfilled since the previous director was fired a year ago.
The new appointee, Jeffrey Mills, comes from the restaurant industry in New York. After doing some contracted work for D.C. Public Schools a year ago, he embraced the idea of school food reform and specifically the Michelle Obama-Alice Waters vision of school gardens and local foods as a way to address children’s health and education issues.
Jeff is working on a strategic plan to transform school meals in the District into a model of healthfulness and sustainability. As best I can tell, he has a green light from Rhee’s office to map out a cost-effective means of getting there.
Posted in Access
