Michelle Obama Hopes to “Move the Ball” on Childhood Obesity
Michelle Obama strikes again on the school lunch front. In a roundtable interview with a number of news organizations yesterday, the first lady pinpointed childhood obesity as the area in which she wants to leave a lasting policy legacy. “I want to leave something behind that we can say, ‘Because of ...
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January 14, 2010
Failure to Cultivate: A Response to Caitlin Flanagan on School Gardens
[Kurt Michael Friese, the chef and owner of the Iowa City restaurant Devotay, is the founder of Slow Food Iowa City and serves on the Slow Food USA National Board of Directors. He joins us here for a guest post] In the latest edition of The Atlantic magazine, Caitlin Flanagan has written a ...
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January 12, 2010
Hold the Salt, Please
New York City is developing quite a reputation for fighting the dietary vices of America. In 2006, New York became the first city to ban artificial trans fats in restaurant food. Two years later, the city started requiring chain restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus. This year, public ...
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January 11, 2010
‘Egregious’ Findings in the San Francisco School District
The San Francisco Chronicle reported last week that San Francisco schools have had to pick up the entire bill for the school lunch program. Inspectors found "critical" program violations in the district and have cut off federal and state funding until the district shapes up. Phyllis Bramson-Paul, the director of the ...
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October 28, 2009
IOM Releases Nutrition Recommendations for School Meals
The current nutrition standards for school meals are in sore need of an overhaul. They haven't been updated since 1995, and they're not in line with the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The USDA tried for several years to bring the regulations up to date, but after running into problems ...
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October 20, 2009
Pitting Safe Food Against Healthy Food
I've been feeling relatively optimistic about the USDA commodity program lately. Offerings are heavy on the meat and the cheese, but they have gotten much healthier over the years. When it comes to providing nutritious food, it seems like cafeterias face larger obstacles, such as maintaining student participation and keeping ...
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October 6, 2009
Legislation Update: Food Safety and Food Marketing in Schools
Two new school food bills hit the table this week: the Safe Food for Schools Act, and the Food Marketing in Schools Assessment Act. The School Food For Schools Act comes in response to a dismal GAO report that found that federal notification to schools about contaminated food was spotty at ...
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September 24, 2009
This Week in School Lunch
More of the same this week: corn dogs, chicken nuggets and nachos. Monday, in Pocatello, ID: - Corn Dog or Chicken Nuggets - Macaroni and Cheese - Baby Carrots - Sliced Pears - Applesauce Tuesday, in Lawton, TX: - Chicken Taco OR Cheeseburger OR Nachos OR Ham and Cheese Sub OR Noodle Oodle Salad - Corn - Lettuce with Dressing - ...
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September 18, 2009
USDA to Help Schools Buy Local!
Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan wasn't joking when she said a few weeks ago that she wanted to “play the role of matchmaker during this administration” and link existing USDA programs with local and regional food initiatives. Today, in an exciting moment for school lunch, she announced that the USDA will ...
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September 15, 2009
This Week in School Lunch
The latest edition of our weekly lunch roundup, featuring starchy corn as schools' vegetable of choice: Tuesday, in McPherson, KS: - Tony's Cheese Pizza - Corn - Canned Peaches - Lemon Cake Wednesday, in Harrodsburg, KY: - Pizza or Corndog - Corn - Banana Thursday, in Williston, ND: - Pepperoni Hotdish - Breadstick - Corn - Applesauce Friday, in Provo, UT: - Tortilla Soup with Baked ...
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September 11, 2009
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