Food Revolution

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, February 25th, 2010

In their song Revolution, The Beatles sang, “You say you got a real solution. Well, you know  We’d all love to see the plan.” Well, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a plan to start a food revolution.

On Tuesday, February 23^rd Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, announced the Obama Administration’s priorities for the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act and improvement of the National School Lunch (and Breakfast) Programs.  The full speech can be found here.

Secretary Tom Vilsack stated, “The health of our nation, of our economy, our national security, and our communities depends on the health of our children.”

The Child Nutrition Act has nine focus areas which include access, education, physical activity, nutrition standards, and food safety.  It currently pays $12 billion to feed school children each year.

Chef Ann Cooper, aka the “Renegade Lunch Lady,” is encouraging citizens to write Congress and demand $1 more per school lunch.  Cooper (along with Whole Foods Market Inc., Slow Food USA, Roots of Change, Healthy Schools Campaign and AllergyKids Foundation) is part of The LunchBox Project which seeks to provide the elements needed to transition a processed food based K-12 school meal program to a whole environment food based program.  The LunchBox Project believes the amount needed to accomplish the Act’s goals is much more than the amount proposed by USDA.

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP), run by USDA, provides meals to public schools and non-profit private schools across the country.  School divisions that participate in NSLP get cash subsidies and donated commodities from USDA for each meal they serve as long as they serve meals that meet Federal requirements and provide nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches.  In 2006 the program provided low-cost or free lunches to more than 30 million children each day with 17.7 million receiving free or reduced price lunches.

All of Virginia public elementary and middle schools participate in the NSLP.  On a typical day, 681,505 lunches, 196,987 breakfasts and 7,240 afterschool snacks are served through NLSP in Virginia public schools alone.  49% of school children in Virginia qualify for free or reduced-price lunches (this figure is based on the parent’s income).

Jamie Oliver’s new show, Food Revolution, also aims to advocate for healthier foods for children, reduce obesity, and to teach every child about food.  Food Revolution starts Friday, March 26^th at 9pm on ABC.

(Source: youtube)

Think nutrition is the only concern for school lunches?

When 26,500 school cafeterias lacked required food safety inspections, you may want to think again. Or how about the fact that beef bought by fast food chains is tested more rigorously than beef purchased by USDA for school lunches? Gross.

It’s a good thing USDA announced its plans to assure the safety of food provided in the National School Lunch Program earlier this month.

You might ask yourself ‘why not buy local foods rather than industrial foods?’  I’m not so sure about that option when it comes to food safety.  Local foods can be just as unsafe as industrial foods. As Doug Powell of Kansas State University stated, “It isn’t about local, small or big. It’s about what will make folks barf. And that requires control of dangerous microorganisms, regardless of politics.”  

A food revolution may just be what this country needs.

For information on Food Service Programs nationwide and within Virginia, visit the following:

-Global Child Nutrition Foundation

-Americans and Food Katie Couric’s interview with former FDA Commissioner, Dr. David Kessler, and Fast Food Nation author, Eric Schlosser, which discusses children school lunches and obesity concerns.

-USA Today’s coverage on school lunch safety (food safety)

-Let’s Move: First Lady, Michelle Obama’s initiative to improve information, improve quality of school foods, improve access and affordability of foods, and increase physical education.

-School Nutrition Association, which will be hosting a conference this coming weekend.

-Food Environment Atlas

-HealthierUS School Challenge

-Virginia School Nutrition Program

-Virginia School Nutrition Program Contacts

-Healthy Virginians: Healthy Students

-A list of Virginia Schools that have won the Governor’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Award.

–Aisha Salazar

Tags: Aisha Salazar, Ann Cooper, Child Nutrition Act, children, food, Food Revolution, food safety, Gut Check, Jamie Oliver, National School Lunch Program, Northern Virginia Magazine, nutrition, obesity, The LunchBox Project, Tom Vilsack, USDA, Virginia