'Time for Lunch' Campaign Strives to Change the Way Students Eat Lunch

By Sarah F. Sullivan

There are many issues in this country that need to be addressed. Health care and jobs are justifiably at the forefront, but another significant issue is being brought to our attention by the grass roots organization, Slow Food USA. Their national “Time For Lunch” Campaign, focuses on changing the way children in schools eat lunch.  The campaign aims to send a message to Congress to help them understand that our underfunded school lunch programs are unacceptable. At present, schools have only one dollar per child with which to buy ingredients.

The Child Nutrition Act will be up for reauthorization in Congress in early 2010, and the “Time for Lunch” Campaign is hoping that America will help them send a message to Congress that aims to achieve the following goals:

• That Congress will grant funding to give school lunch programs one dollar more per child per day.
• That they will see to it that junk food made available by vending machines, cafeterias and school stores will be done away with.
• That they will grant funding for the Farms to Schools program, which will teach students about healthy eating habits.
• That they will guarantee $50 million to achieve these goals.

One of the campaign's policy goals is to pass the School Lunch Protection Act, which, according to Slow Food USA Advocacy Coordinator Gordon Jenkins, will be quite a significant change for students.
 
“[The Act would] set nutrition standards for the food served in vending machines, so junk food's no longer allowed. The amendment is already cosponsored by one-third of the Senate, which is very promising.”

With the reauthorization of the Act comes the hope that Congress will support the Farm to School programs with mandatory funding. According to the Farm to School website, the program would provide salad bars, nutrition activities featuring the harvest of the month, and education about foods through gardening -- all done with the help of local farmers. These programs would provide a unique opportunity for farmers, as well as monetary rewards. According to the program's website, the farmer's return may be 60 to 75 cents of each procurement dollar, as opposed to the usual 20 cents.

This program would help fight against childhood obesity by increasing children’s consumption of healthy foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains. But while the program boasts that children will “eat more healthy foods because local farm fresh foods taste better than highly processed foods,” Gordon Jenkins is all too aware that it’s not that simple.

“It's much harder to get kids to try healthy food if they don't even know what it is,” Jenkins said. “Kids won't eat healthy food until they're familiar with it and know it tastes good -- which is why you need Farm to School programs and other ways to get kids in gardens, on farms and in kitchens, because that's where they have the chance to plant and cook real food for themselves.”

When confronted with the question of what’s to stop children from bringing their own lunch full of junk food instead of eating the healthier lunches provided, Jenkins responded,

“We educate our children at school, and healthy eating should be a part of what we teach. School gardens and kitchen classrooms are great ways to get kids excited about healthy food. Another is to bring in local chefs or celebrities, who can lead cooking demonstrations or other fun events in the cafeteria. The other part that's crucial is getting parents involved -- when parents see their kids enjoying healthy food, they'll want to do more to satisfy that urge.”

Whether or not you have children currently in school, anyone can see that the “Time for Lunch” Campaign is a worthy cause, and anyone can help out. If you wish to help this cause, it is important to contact your legislators to inform them of your opinions. You can contact them in a couple different ways:

1)  By Writing a Letter.

Write to let your legislator know about your beliefs concerning real food in schools. Send your letter to the legislator’s district office in your area, by finding your office’s address here and by typing in your zip code. According to the Slow Food USA website, you should keep your letter short, but specific, telling your legislator your reasons for writing and asking them what they can do (i.e., “Increase the reimbursement rate by $1.00 so that my daughter's school can start serving real food for lunch.”).  Let them know that you believe that child nutrition is not only important to your family, but to your local community. Be sure to read Slow Food’s talking points before you write your letters.

2)  By Making a Phone Call.

Probably the quickest way to contact your legislators would be to call their staff in Washington, D.C. You can find their phone number on http://www.house.gov or http://www.senate.gov. Make sure you have some talking points in front of you as you won’t have a lot of time to make your case. Be sure to read through these helpful hints from the Slow Food USA website before you make your phone call.

In the future, you may feel up to the task of meeting with your legislator face-to-face, in which case you would call the legislator’s district office and ask to speak with the scheduler. That person will be able to give you any information needed to set up such an appointment.

According to Jenkins, Congress may be addressing the school lunch issue in March, therefore, the deadline for letters written to legislators is currently February 1st. Check back with the Slow Foods website for any future updates.

When asked what changes he foresaw for schools and the children in them in the coming years should the Child Nutrition Act be passed, Jenkins said,

“If it passes with our policy recommendations, that'll be a down payment on giving schools the resources to cook healthy food from scratch -- which means training workers, rebuilding kitchens, leading nutrition education and sourcing good ingredients from local farmers. I say "down payment" because it's going to take more than just one bill to equip all schools with the ability to serve healthy food. But if we can get started with this Child Nutrition Act, we'll see more kids learning the eating habits that help them grow into healthy, productive adults. We'll reign in the childhood obesity and diabetes epidemics, and then we'll start seeing kids leading the way for their parents.”

Comments

[Crystal]

Join Slow Food Nebraska to get involved with this and other food issues and just to have fun with good food in the Lincoln area!

www.slowfoodnebraska.org

[medizinische Produkte]

Now a days people are not being aware about their health and food. it is good to hear government and some organizations are doing something for the healthy living.