Click the links below to view.
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America’s Best School Lunches
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Law Aids Farms and Schools
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School Lunch Gets Federal Assistance as Kids Learn Where Cranberries Come From
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Child Nutrition Reauthorization Legislation Passes!
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NJ Representative Rush Holt’s Resolution 1655 Designates October as National Farm to School Month!!
- United Fresh and Let’s Move Announce Campaign to Put Salad Bars in 6000 Schools Across America
- US Representative Rush Holt visits Princeton school to tout nutritious, local food
- Turning Asphalt into Edible Education
- Community Food Security Coalition Meets In New Orleans
- Secretary of Agriculture Fisher Visits Mercer County Special Services High School Farm to School Program
- Child Nutrition Food Fight Bumps Up Against Political Reality
- Lois Heyman’s Blog about “Growing Gardens, Feeding Minds”
- Doctors Orders: Eat Well to Be Well
- Newark School Justifies NJ’s Title as “The Garden State”.
- The ABCs of lunch: Schools are more important than ever in the fight against fat.
- USDA Awards Grant to Promote Nutrition in NJ Schools
- USDA: Advisory Committee Submits Food Safety, Other Recommendations
- Lunch Ladies Going Gourmet As Food Gets New Look
- Rutgers Program Aims to Incorporate NJ Grown Produce into School Food Programs
- Michelle Obama on Child Nutrition Reauthorization
- Illinois Governor Signs Laws Promoting Local Food
- Trenton Schools Take a Pass on Renewing Contract with Aramark
- Healthy School Meals Fuel Kids, Farm Industry
- Q&A: The Challenge of Making Chicago’s School Lunches Greener
- Cooking as a Way of Life: The White House Blog
- Small Changes Steer Kids Toward Smarter School Lunch Choices
- Michelle Obama Calls on Top Chefs to Inspire Kids
- School lunches that are good for kids — and that kids will actually eat? That’s a job for America’s top chefs. First lady Michelle Obama recruited hundreds of chefs gathered on the South Lawn of the White House Friday to join her anti-obesity campaign and help schools serve healthier, tastier meals.
- Food Companies Join White House Campaign
- We’re happy to see this sentence and hope that it transcends into the discussion around school feeding programs. It IS all about the type of food served and if the processed food companies finally take heed to what has been said for years and start creating more nutritious, wholesome food, then we’ll all be better for it.
- USDA Proposed Rule on Geographic Preference: Deadline for submitting comments is June 18, 2010.
- Steve Ritz is a teacher in the Bronx, NY who is changing the way we look at food in our urban centers. We heard him speak at the NYC Green Schools Forum in April. Read about Steve here. Check out this YouTube video to learn more.
Steve Ritz’s Edible Wall Garden (Click to view the video)
- Better DC School Food Blog
- A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain.
- A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.
- Corn Refiners Association refutes Princeton research. Their argument would carry some weight if it didn’t rely on the theory that most adults eat a 2000 calorie a day diet. With some fast foods and processed items, the calorie count for one meal can top that, not to mention how many items are eaten that contain high fructose corn syrup. The comparisons aren’t only about soda intake, it is about the entire food supply that is bloated by unneccesary corn products and their derivatives.
- High Fructose Corn Syrup Linked to Liver Scarring, Research Suggests
- How Did the American Dietetic Association Get Taken Over by “Big Food”?
- Is it any wonder why Americans are confused about how to eat when the nation’s top nutrition-advice professional group has been co-opted by the very corporations making people sick?
Inside The White House: The Kitchen Garden (Click to view the video)
April 20, 2010, Huffington Post
School Gardens: Teaching the Next Generation Where Real Food Comes From
It was back in September, when I received an email from Nicole Calmels, a sixth grade science teacher at Hill Middle School in Northern California, asking for parent volunteers. The school’s garden had been neglected for the last 3 years and she wanted to resurrect it with her class. I told her I’d come by once or twice to lend some of my master-gardening advice, but I wasn’t going to be conned into a long-term parent-volunteer commitment
April 19, 2010, Washington Post
Agriculture Department Seeds the Way for “People’s Gardens”
Most days, Ed Murtagh spends hours behind his desk in Suite 1028 of the south building at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, trying to figure out how to conserve energy, reduce waste and make other envirnonmental improvements.
Will Work for Food. Try Food Corps.
The problems with school food are well-established. There’s not enough money, not enough manpower and often not enough know-how to produce fresher, more healthful food. Now, a group of good-food advocates has a plan: Establish a national Food Corps to help to do the heavy lifting.
April 13, 2010, The Atlantic
Food Revolution: A Case of the Jamies
This week’s episode of “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” had nothing to do with school food … and everything to do with school food. Proclaiming that “the heart of the project is the kitchen,” Oliver devotes this entire episode to convincing a thousand Huntington, West Virginia community members to learn to cook one dish: stir-fry. The stunt begins with Oliver making an on-air bet with local radio disc jockey Rod “The Dawg” Willis, who, having apparently appointed himself the official spokesperson for all of Huntington, sneers, “We’ve got other things to do besides learn a few recipes.”
March 26, 2010, The New York TImes
High School Gardening-For Credit
Starting this week at Princeton Public High School, students can take gym class in the garden. “I think it’s strangely enjoyable,” said Tim Vasseur, a Princeton sophomore, shovel in hand. “It’s definitely not easy to do or anything like that.”
March 16, 2010, Gazettenet.com
Massachussetts: Legislators Aim to Boost Local Food in Schools
More locally grown food may soon be available in Massachusetts schools, as state legislators work to increase the amount of local produce schools can buy outside of their standard food service contracts.
March 5, 2010, NewsroomNewJersey.com
NJ Win-Win Solution: Fighting Childhood Obesity and Supporting Local Farmers
NJ Congressman Rush Holt Introduces Legislation to Promote Farm to School Programs.
Holt Highlights Importance of His Farm to School Improvements Act (HR 4710) (Click to view the video)
February 23, 2010, USDA
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today spoke at a National Press Club luncheon to highlight the Obama Administration’s priorities for the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act and to advocate for the rapid passage of a strong reauthorization bill to improve the health and nutrition of our nation’s children.
February 2010
Jamie Oliver’s Talk on TED:Teach Every Child About Food
Sharing powerful stories from his anti-obesity project in Huntington, W. Va., TED Prize winner Jamie Oliver makes the case for an all-out assault on our ignorance of food.
January 6, 2010, Slow Food USA Blog
Are Schools Flunking Lunch, Slow Food USA
January 2010, Atlantic Monthly
How School Gardens Are Cheating Our Most Vulnerable Students
This article will draw a lot of controversy between those who support school garden programs and those who see this “movement” to be illegitimately intentioned.
Countering this article, a chef speaks.
December 16, 2009, City Farmer News
White House Plants Winter Garden Under Row Covers
December 16, 2009, Reuters
Bill Seeks More Fresh Produce in School Meals
The government would spend $150 million to put more fresh fruits and vegetables into school meals under a bill filed by 16 lawmakers on Wednesday with an eye to next year’s overhaul of school food programs. Congress delayed work on child nutrition until 2010, partly to round up more funding. The administration backs a $1 billion a year increase but there is no agreement on how to pay for it.
December 4, 2009: The Packer
Salad Bar Advocates Head to Capitol Hill
Beyond all the statistics and logic why salad bars make sense for schools, Wendy Slusser remembers a Los Angeles boy kissing an orange. The day a salad bar opened in one south central Los Angeles school, she saw a boy kissing an orange, saying it was the best day of his life, said Slusser, medical director of UCLA FIT for Healthy Weight Program at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles.
December 2, 2009: USA Today
Healthy, Organic and Cheap School Lunches? Order Up
On the combination plate of problems plaguing the USA’s public schools, few are as intractable as this: Can you serve fresh, healthful meals each day to millions of kids without breaking the bank, or must you resort to serving up deep-fried, processed, less expensive junk?
December 1, 2009: USA Today
Why a Recall of Tainted Beef Didn’t Include School Lunches
Darned if this story isn’t proof that our school lunch programs need better quality food.
November 29, 2009: New York Times
Do Health Care Savings Start in the Cafeteria?
This article may not be about school lunch cafeterias but the point being made here that food is the central issue in regard to health and the eventual costs to our economy because of the rise in obesity cannot be underestimated. True nutrition education comes from reforming the food supply and speaking truth to what ails us.
November 19, 2009: CentralJersey.com
Princeton High School Makes Garden a Phys Ed Choice
Next spring, gym class for some Princeton High School students will mean getting down and dirty. The school will add gardening as a physical education elective. But first, some volunteers will be getting their hands dirty this weekend.
November 13, 2009: Courier Post Online
Interest in S.J. Agriculture Grows in Cherry Hill School
Students at James Johnson
Elementary School got a special treat at lunchtime Thursday. It was way too cool and rainy for a field trip, but there was no need to go out. Instead, Jersey farms came to them.