Sunday, April 18, 2010

Potpourri: School Food News Roundup

Ann Cooper, the "renegade lunch lady," publishes a rousing endorsement of Jamie Olivers "Food Revolution," as well as some of her own prescriptions for overhauling school meal programs.

School food consultant Kate Adamick also weighs in with kudos for Oliver at the Atlantic. Adamick says school gardens and farm to school programs are fine, but "the only effort that has substantially changed the food on students' lunch trays has been the act of teaching school food service workers that cooking is indeed fun."

In a separate piece, Cooper says the 6 cents in additional funding for school meals offered in the Senate version of the Child Nutrition Act re-authorization borders on the criminal.

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Here's an interview with Janet Poppendieck, author of Free for All: Fixing School Food in America. They've titled the interview, How fast food became the school lunch.

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Chicago schools have been chosen as the third School Food FOCUS site, meaning the city will get extra help from the FOCUS group finding ways to incorporate locally grown, sustainble foods into school meals.

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Look! A contest to see who can make the best school lunch. It may be too late to enter, but the photographs are fun to look at.

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Here are some tips on what moms (and dads) can do to combat childhood obesity.

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Finally, TIME magazine's list of nine kid foods to avoid.

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