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Mark Your Calendars for Slow Food’s School Lunch Action Day
What do you get when you combine potluck dishes, the child nutrition reauthorization and thousands of advocates for healthy school food? Slow Food USA calls the result an “eat-in,” and hundreds are about to take place across the United States.
On Labor Day, this coming Monday, advocates in 290 cities across all 50 states will gather together over potluck fare and ask Congress to get real food into schools. The national day of action — which Slow Food President Josh Viertel calls “a picnic, a potluck and a virtual march on Washington” — will kick-off organization’s Time for Lunch campaign.
Slow Food has three major priorities for this year’s child nutrition reauthorization, all of which are extremely important. The organization is asking Congress to
- Raise the reimbursement rate for school meals from $2.57 to $3.57, giving cafeterias one additional dollar to spend on meals
- Approve the Harkin and Woolsey bills, which would enact national nutrition standards for foods sold throughout the school environment
- And allocate $50 million to fund farm-to-school programs
Slow Food is also urging the Obama administration to provide incentives for local procurement and to create a school lunch corp, which would build school kitchens and work in cafeterias nationwide.
The scope of the national day of action is truly a testament to the growing movement for healthy school food. Though the campaign is a project of Slow Food, over 40 percent of the eat-ins have been spearheaded by outside organizations or individuals. Some of the local organizers have been especially creative. One eat-in in North Carolina built up to the event by holding cooking classes for low-income youth over the summer. In Louisiana and New Hampshire, eat-in attendees will plant new school gardens and repair greenhouses.
Thanks to Slow Food for mobilizing so many advocates to push for real food in schools. Now it’s time to go out there and push. To find an eat-in near you, check out the map on the campaign website.
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