13 House Republicans won't express support for school lunch program

by: desmoinesdem

Sat Mar 06, 2010 at 17:39:21 PM PST

H.Res.362 [...] expresses the House's support for the goals and ideals of the National School Lunch Program and "recognizes that our pupils deserve access to high-quality, safe, and nutritious meals in school." It passed 403-13, every Democrat and 155 Republicans, including the entire GOP congressional leadership voting in favor.

The roll call reveals the shameful list of 13 Republicans who voted against this resolution: Todd Akin (MO-02), Paul Broun (GA-10), Jason Chaffetz (UT-03), Jeff Flake (AZ-06), Virginia Foxx (NC-05), Scott Garrett (NJ-05), Doug Lamborn (CO-05), Cynthia Lummis (WY-AL), Tom McClintock (CA-04), Ron Paul (TX-14), Ted Poe (TX-02), James Sensenbrenner (WI-05), and John Shadegg (AZ-03).

Usually when a House vote is that lopsided, I can count on Representative Steve King (R, IA-05) to be on the embarrassing end of the roll call. However, I'm happy to report that even the occasionally mean-spirited, uncompassionate, clueless, dare I say cartoon-villain-like King recognizes that "our pupils deserve access to high-quality, safe, and nutritious meals in school."

Today's House Child Nutrition Hearing

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Mar 02, 2010 at 20:44:24 PM PST

I've written up a summary of the hearing's content below.

My Article on School Lunch

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Feb 25, 2010 at 21:33:15 PM PST

The commodities the USDA provides to schools make up about 20 percent of food served in lunches. A review of commodities provided to California schools found that a few items comprise the majority of commodities provided: coarse and fine ground raw beef (26 percent), low moisture part skim & light mozzarella (13 percent), small and large chilled chickens (11 percent), and barrels, blocks and slices of yellow or white cheddar cheese (10 percent). In fact, USDA commodities provided for school lunches turn the USDA's own food pyramid on its head. Whereas the food pyramid recommends a diet rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables, the USDA usually provides schools with meat and dairy products often high in saturated fat. Only 13 percent of commodities provided are fruits and vegetables (including fruit juice and legumes) -- and about half of the vegetables provided are potatoes.

An Ann Cooper School Lunch Makeover

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Feb 18, 2010 at 23:33:59 PM PST

Part of today's activities focused on bringing together local farmers with the San Diego school lunch staff and talking about how they could work together to bring local produce into the schools. Chef Ann kicked off the meeting with an absolutely brilliant set of props:

What you have here is a pretty standard American school lunch. Chicken nuggets (which serve as the grain and the meat), French fries (the vegetable), and some fruit cocktail (the fruit... and the high fructose corn syrup). Plus a carton of chocolate milk. Pathetic. We make fun of Reagan for making ketchup a vegetable, but calling French fries a vegetable ain't much better.

Now add a piece of whole fruit (maybe even fruit from a local farm):

Okay, the meal still pretty much sucks. It's junk food plus an apple. Yay. A little more fiber, a little less sugar. It's still not a healthy meal. Ann said that step one is replacing the chicken nuggets and the fries:

Ta-da... healthy lunch! Chicken breast, broccoli, brown rice and beans, with an apple. With white milk, not chocolate milk. Now that's a healthy lunch. And if the apple and broccoli are local, that's even better.

Ann deals with seasonality and local food by writing all of her menus with a specific entree plus generic "fresh fruit" and "salad bar." Then she works with local farmers and her distributors to figure out what's local, what's seasonal, what's affordable, etc. And, because supplying large quantities of a single item is often difficult for small or even mid-size local farms, she offers a variety of seasonal veggies in a salad bar. That way she only needs to get a little bit of 24 different items instead of a whole lot of one item.

Chef Ann explained what she did in her current school district in Boulder, CO and it's really quite amazing. When she showed up they had tons of freezer space but not enough refrigerator space. That means they could easily store and serve frozen meals, but not fresh fruits or vegetables. Switching over to healthier, less processed foods required getting not just refrigerator space but also knives and cutting boards. And the staff training so everyone knows what to do with the knives and cutting boards. She gave her staff 12 full days of training this year. As you can see, schools don't just need more money so they can buy better foods. They need the labor, training, and equipment to go with it.

More about the day's other events below...

Obama Proposes Budget, Pushes GMOs, and Falls Short on School Lunch Reform

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Feb 03, 2010 at 06:00:00 AM PST

Unlike other nutrition programs (such as food stamps) that are entitlements, WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) must have funds appropriated by Congress. For entitlement programs, the government spends as much money as it takes to pay for everyone who is eligible for the program. That's not the case for WIC. And when the economy is down (as it is now), the number of people eligible for WIC goes up. (To be eligible for WIC, you must be a pregnant or breastfeeding mom or a child under age 5 with a household income of less than 185% of the federal poverty level.)

After splitting out part of the extra $1 billion for WIC, according to Kim Severson of the New York Times, the remaining money for school lunch amounts to less than 20 cents per meal. Quite frankly, this is pathetic. The School Nutrition Association asked Congress for an extra 35 cents per meal, and I thought THAT was pathetic. This is far worse. Tom Philpott agrees (and cleverly references the Depression-era hit song "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"... or two dimes in this case).

In other parts of his proposed budget, Obama gives a record amount to ag & food research (much of which will go to biotech), money to promote agricultural exports, and (the one bright spot) conservation money for Chesapeake Bay.

Among the USDA's goals, he ironically lists "Ensure that all of America's children have access to safe, nutritious and balanced meals." (A great idea, if only he would fund it!) And, sadly, he says "Help America to promote agricultural production and biotechnology exports as America works to increase food security." Dumping cheap commodities on other countries to undermine their food sovereignty is bad in itself, but a specific emphasis on biotechnology by the Obama administration is especially upsetting.

See Obama's budget fact sheet below...

Massachusetts House Passes School Junk Food Ban Bill

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 12:54:16 PM PST

Under the bill, schools would be encouraged to sell nonfried fruit and vegetables, whole grain products, nonfat or low-fat dairy products, noncarbonated water and juice with no additives. There would be no more sugary soda, cookies or candy bars, and fewer chips and sports drinks.

The man behind the bill was Rep. Peter Koutoujian. I've been following his work for a while, as this is NOT the first time he's proposed a totally amazing bill targeted at schools. In the past, he's tried (unsuccessfully so far as I could tell) to ban all forms of commercial marketing in schools. From the article:

But versions of the bill have stalled for years, encountering resistance from the grocery lobby and those who have argued nutritional values should be instilled at home, not by government.

However, Koutoujian noted, "Children are in our schools for six or eight hours a day, sometimes eating one or two meals. As good parents we should not allow them unfettered access to foods that are terrible for them. If kids are eating healthy at home, kids shouldn't be eating junk food at school. And if they're not eating healthy at home, they shouldn't compound that at school."

Also important to note is that this bill ONLY applies to "competitive foods" (foods outside the National School Lunch Program) and it exempts bake sale fundraisers. And... to top off this already great bill... it includes a Farm to School program!

Cross your fingers that this passes in the Senate!

State of the Union's School Lunch: Nutrition as National Defense and Fiscal Health

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jan 28, 2010 at 16:36:11 PM PST

State of the Union's School Lunch: Nutrition as National Defense and Fiscal Health

by Debra Eschmeyer

Don't make us tighten our belts on child nutrition programs while the girth of the nation grows. The government spends $1 million per soldier in Afghanistan, yet barely spends $1 on the food in a school lunch.

More below...

USDA Announces $25 Million in School Lunch Equipment Grants

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jan 14, 2010 at 13:10:58 PM PST

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2010 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the availability of $25 million in grants to help schools operating a National School Lunch Program (NSLP) replace outdated equipment with new, energy efficient, appliances such as refrigerators, ovens, and other food service related equipment.

Often, poorly equipped kitchens are a major roadblock to schools serving healthy lunches. Schools where more than 50 percent of the kids are eligible for free or reduced price meals will receive priority when these grants are awarded.

If I understand right, this is money that was authorized by Congress previously and it is being made available by the USDA now. In other words, it's great news but it's not unexpected. However, since Rep. Miller, chair of the House Education and Labor Committee (the committee that will pass the Child Nutrition Reauthorization this year), has put out a statement applauding these grants, perhaps we WILL see new money for future, similar grants authorized soon.  

School Lunch Success in My Own Backyard!

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jan 12, 2010 at 22:34:37 PM PST

Here are some of the great things going on in San Diego's schools...

A Comparison of School Lunch Menus

by: Jill Richardson

Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 20:00:00 PM PST

Chocolate Milk in Schools

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Jan 01, 2010 at 14:57:09 PM PST

Instead of offering chocolate milk, she tries to make regular milk more palatable to kids. She ensures that it's served cold and not in those paper cartons that can sometimes smell bad.

As you can imagine, the dairy industry is going berserk. Over half of all flavored milk is sold in schools. When the dairy industry went before Congress last year, they asked Congress not to limit the amount of sugar they could put in milk. They said they wanted to sell flavored milk in schools and it doesn't taste good without lots of sugar.

My thought is: If milk requires chocolate to get kids to eat it, then should we give them carrot cake so they will eat carrots or apple pie so they will eat apples? Healthy food + sugar does not equal healthy food. Or how about skipping chocolate milk altogether and just giving the kids ice cream so they will get calcium that way?

In another article Chef Ann says even more. I think I'm going to hug her when she visits San Diego this winter. She totally rocks!

"For the National Dairy Council to be marketing to children and their parents by telling them that they have drink chocolate milk in school every day, thats the wrong message. And, in fact children don't need more milk they need more calcium," said Cooper.

Lunches in Cooper's cafeterias now have choices like brown rice, apples and a fresh salad bar along with regular milk.

Cooper says students can get additional calcium from foods like yogurt, cheese, white milk, leafy greens and garbanzo beans without drinking chocolate milk.

"No cow's udder when you squeezed it came out with high fructose corn syrup. So we need to get a grip here," said Cooper.

Avoiding the added sugar, often high fructose corn syrup, in chocolate milk is her main concern.

"Bodies actually don't metabolize high fructose corn syrup very well at all which is why its part of the cause of the obesity crisis and why we're seeing so many kids get diabetes because it messes with your insulin levels," said Cooper. [Emphasis mine]

She goes further in an article in Time, saying:

I'm all for parents having chocolate milk with their kids at home once in a while, or on Sunday morning with waffles, but it doesn't have any place in schools on a daily basis

Time, for their part, screwed up bigtime in their article by comparing banning chocolate milk to canceling Christmas in the first paragraph of the article. It's a nice attention getter for the article, but I think that goes under the category of "journalistic bias." Maybe the writer's parents didn't let him drink chocolate milk as a kid.

More Great News for Local Food in Schools

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 14:00:00 PM PST

Geographic Preference Definition for School Meals Expanded
An exciting update from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA),! Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has expanded the definition of "unprocessed" food that is purchased locally. Previously, even simply slicing a locally bought apple was not allowed under the rules. In a recent memorandum, USDA announced that "cooling, refrigerating, freezing; size adjustment through size reduction made by peeling, slicing, dicing, cutting, chopping, shucking, and grinding; drying/dehydration; washing; the application of high water pressure or "cold pasteurization"; packaging (such as placing eggs in cartons) and vacuum packing and bagging (such as placing vegetables in bags); butchering livestock, fish and poultry; and the pasteurization of milk." are all allowed for locally purchased products in school meals. This is a huge step forward in helping to provide local, fresh, and nutritious meals to students while helping to rebuild local farm economies.

In other words, prior to the 2008 farm bill, schools couldn't try to get local food because they weren't allowed a geographic preference over food providers. The 2008 farm bill changed this, but then the definition of "unprocessed" was taken so literally that the schools still couldn't get local food in many cases. So, at long last, now one more stupid, useless roadblock that shouldn't have been there in the first place has been cleared away. Phew!

Two New Farm to School Bills!

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 08:00:00 AM PST

And - as it turns out - that's just one bill of two that provides $50 million in mandatory funding to Farm to School. The other is a soon-to-be-introduced bill by Rep. Rush Holt. Stay tuned and I will post details about these bills here as they become available.

ACTION: School Lunch, the EPA, and Climate Change

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Dec 14, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PST

First, from CREDO, school lunch should be better than fast food. Kind of a no-brainer, except for the fact that a recent USA Today article revealed that fast food joints often have higher standards than the USDA's school lunch program. Ouch!

Second and third are alerts by the Organic Consumers Association. There's one about the EPA and one about the role organics can play in fighting climate change.

Vilsack Lays Out Priorities for Child Nutrition But Says Very Little

by: Jill Richardson

Sat Oct 31, 2009 at 14:49:54 PM PDT

In general, he wants three things. First, better access to school nutrition programs for children. Second, healthier school lunches. Third, less errors made by the federal government in managing the school lunch program.