Philly's Universal Feeding Program: Saved!

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Jun 05, 2009 at 16:01:44 PM PDT

The USDA is cutting off Philadelphia's "Universal Feeding" school lunch program. The program waives the requirement of filling out paperwork and automatically guarantees free school breakfasts and lunches to children at schools in poor areas. Compared to schools that require paperwork to qualify children for meals, Philly's schools boast nearly twice the participation rate. Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Janey Thornton said it was unfair for kids in Philly to get free food without extending that to children nationwide. Well... why not extend this program to schools in poor areas nationwide then??

As this news broke, PA Representatives Fattah and Sestak and PA Senator Casey met with Tom Vilsack to oppose the USDA's decision. Sestak said at the time he was drafting legislation to continue Philly's Universal Feeding and to extend the program to other cities.

Today, we've got good news! Philly's Universal Feeding Program is saved! And not only that, but we can expect to see legislation from Fattah as well as Sestak to expand the program nationally. Fantastic!

UPDATE: Arlen Specter just introduced this bill that would continue the program through the 2012/2013 school year.

Memorial Day Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Mon May 25, 2009 at 04:02:29 AM PDT

• The USDA is cutting off Philadelphia's "Universal Feeding" school lunch program. The program waives the requirement of filling out paperwork and automatically guarantees free school breakfasts and lunches to children at schools in poor areas. Compared to schools that require paperwork to qualify children for meals, Philly's schools boast nearly twice the participation rate. Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Janey Thornton said it was unfair for kids in Philly to get free food without extending that to children nationwide. Well... why not extend this program to schools in poor areas nationwide then??

• Very interesting article: Is the environment making us fat and sick?

• Terrific post by Raj Patel about (in his words) calling Bill Gates on his shit. Hahahahahahahaha! It's about the recent Harpers article (which I haven't read bc it costs $$) about a question asked to Mr. Gates: "Despite all he was doing to end world hunger, might not programs like Purchase for Progress in the end perpetuate market conditions that actually promote world hunger?"

• Have you heard of yard shares?

  Yard sharing is an arrangement between people to share skills and gardening resources; space, time, strength, tools or skills, in order to grow food as locally as possible, to make neighborhoods resilient, kids healthy and food much cheaper! The group can be friends, family, neighbors, members of a faith community (or any combination!)

• Kim Severson hit one out of the park in the NYT: Old McDonald had an intern. E-I-E-I-O. It's all about students taking summer internships on organic farms. And - about the assessment that many of the students are idealistic and not cut out for the hard work? Yeah. That's what I found out about myself when I tried working for 2 days on an organic farm. Weeding onions in 100 degree heat really did not suit me. And I'm sure the farmer thought I was a pain in the ass, even if he was too nice to say so.

• Monsanto's cozying up to the Pope. You stay classy, Monsanto.

• Brilliant piece by Nicholas Kristof about world hunger. He says it's not so much lack of food as lack of nutrients. My question then is: how can we help?

• The White House Organic Farm Project is asking children all over America to thank Michelle Obama for planting her organic garden. The site includes materials that teachers can use with their classes to send letters as a class project.

• LVL friend Dave Murphy is famous! You might know him from his Food Democracy Now campaign (the one that listed the Sustainable Dozen and got 90,000 signatures on its petition). Well, most of the USDA's top jobs are staffed but Dave's not done with his work - he's creating a non-profit and continuing to fight for good, clean, fair food.

• Our food is suffering from nutritional deflation, says Mother Earth News. Industrial food has less nutrients than food from past eras.