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Let’s Move Child Nutrition
Can you show the Mom-in-Chief how motivated we are to pass the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act?
Back in April I attended the White House Childhood Obesity Summit on behalf of the National Farm to School Network as reported here. The purpose of the summit was to gather input from experts to create a roadmap leading to children reaching adulthood at a healthy weight.
On Tuesday, the White House Childhood Obesity Report [PDF] was released. One particular challenge of the taskforce was to create benchmarks of success, leading to the focused goal of returning to a childhood obesity rate of 5% by 2030.
For more detailed summaries of the report, check out Jane Black's Washington Post piece or Obamafoodorama's post. For those specifically interested in linking local food and agriculture to federal nutrition programs, you will be as pleased as I am to see Farm to School is included as recommendation 3.6: "USDA should work to connect school meals programs to local growers, and use farm-to-school programs, where possible, to incorporate more fresh, appealing food in school meals." Schools gardens are also recommended: "Where possible, use school gardens to educate students about healthy eating."
It is great to see the Administration embracing proven strategies for healthy children and communities. However, as Michelle Obama said, "Our work has only just begun."
Now we need to crank up the heat. Now we turn prose and a host of good ideas into actual policy. Critical questions remain: Is there legislative muscle behind this report? Will the East and West wings put their weight behind passing a strong Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) this year? CNR is the bill that decides what's served in your child's lunch room and much more.
Michelle Obama could test drive the new action plan now and encourage the Senate to pass the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act as soon as possible.
The Senate child nutrition bill has stalled and delay could mean death to our efforts thus far. Time is short; the Senate must act soon or there won't be a child nutrition bill this year at all, and that means we lose the possibility of a small increase in reimbursement rates. It would also leave us with junk food in the school halls, scrap new funding for expanding farm to school programs, and eliminate changes enabling schools to serve free meals to all students in low income schools.
The Community Food Security Coalition has an action alert that spells out what you can do to help move this bill along.
Do we want more funding than the proposed $4.5 billion over ten years? Absolutely, but the only way we're going to get the bill through Congress this year and have the chance of more dollars for child nutrition is by keeping the wheels rolling.
Your voice is critical to turning school food reform dreams into reality. And, it turns out, taking action is one of the taskforce's key recommendations. As Michelle Obama said, "We are calling upon mayors and governors; and parents and educators; business owners and health care providers. Anyone who has a stake in giving our children the healthy, happy future that we all know they deserve. All we need is the motivation, the opportunity and the willpower to do what needs to be done."
There are opportunities lurking around every corner, but the opportunity to make significant, national policy changes that will touch the daily lives of children don't come knocking every day. Child Nutrition Reauthorization is the opportunity to focus and unleash the motivation and willpower we've demonstrated through millions of signatures added to petitions, thousands of letters written by children and parents to Congress, hundreds of action alerts sent out, and even very fun spoofs such as Lunch Encounters of a Third Kind...all for the purpose of creating a healthier generation through school meals.
So Michelle Obama and Taskforce, Let's Move! and let's do whatever it takes to get the Child Nutrition bill moving through the Senate, through the House, and into the lunch room!
Help children like this 7th Grader from Georgia tell Senators to improve school lunch!
Dear Senator Saxby Chambliss:
I wish to commend you on your job of representing our state at the caliber that you do. Not many people are capable, or willing, to put themselves into your position. However, I feel that something is amiss at our public schools. Almost every day, I walk through the lunch line, eyeing up the different choices for my meal. Looking down at my tray, I see that each part of my meal (an entrée and two sides, accompanied by a half-pint of milk) is roughly the same shade of unappetizing brown. The average daily lunch consists of pizza, fries, and chips, all of which are filled with carbohydrates and salt. This produces both an un-healthy lunch, as well as an unappetizing one.
37% of children in Georgia are obese, one of the highest percentages in the nation. This high percentage of overweight children eventually leads to overweight adults, on which the future of our country rests. This obesity is a national crisis, as almost 27% of all military age men are too overweight to keep up with the strict regime of the army. I urge you to help those of us in public school obtain a healthier, not to mention better tasting, lunch. If you could help support the development of more Farm to School programs in the area, as well as advocate a change toward better food through the Child Nutrition Act, the public schools and the children within them would be better off for it. Please make your best attempt to pass this act to and to forward the progress of the Farm to School programs.
Gowan M, 7th Grader, Georgia
Kids get it, will Congress?
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25 Comments so far
Show AllDear Gowan,
One reason for childhood obesity is that companies like Coca Cola, General Foods, Kraft and many others make lots of money by encouraging bad eating habits. Coke is nothing more than flavored sugar water. In part, it is responsible for childhood obesity as are the products of most of the other large food manufacturers. Those companies advertise unhealthful food choices on TV and just about everywhere. I bet you have even seen them sold at school events.
Another reason is that the United States government pays farmers money to raise crops like soybeans and corn which are then made into livestock food or unhealthful products like high fructose corn syrup. Growers of apples, cherries, broccoli, or spinach do not receive this payment (called a subsidy). This means that some foods are much cheaper than they would normally be--foods such as meat, sugary treats, and cereals containing corn and soybean products. Fast food places like McDonald's can sell big, fancy sandwiches with lots of calories very cheaply because of government subsidies. A single orange costs a lot by comparison.
So, thanks for writing a letter encouraging lawmakers to pass the Child Nutrition bill. It is a good start. But we have a long way to go before good locally grown food is available to us all at reasonable prices.
Sincerely,
Those of us at Common Dreams who care about the health of the American people
School lunch has to change from the bottom up, not the top down. Has no one learned anything from one federal program after another being co-opted to serve the corporate interest? If families continue to eat slop, schools have to address that first.
By the way, good food is not always expensive. Cabbage, carrots, greens, bulk legumes, bulk whole grains, eggs cost relatively little. Many people don't want to change.
My advice to those beating the bushes at the federal level--Get Local.
Cassandra: I agree -- top down is NOT the way to go. You are correct, federal programs are more often than not "co-opted to serve the corporations."
Isn't the Kellogg Foundation the same Kellogg that makes Frosted Flakes, etc.?
Just curious!? Did anyone else make this connection? Or, am I wrong?
"Having to choose between that which is basic, whole and unprocessed and the fast, highly processed, franken-food on a cost basis drives the poor to make the unfortunate yet poor choices."
This is not really true. As cassandra pointed out, whole, unprocessed food is not really more expensive. It's just that rich, poor and middle-class alike have fallen into the trap of "convenience" food that is robbing them of quality of life and will certainly do the same to their children. The food we put in our mouths is one thing we have some measure of control over. We all need to take more responsibility regarding what we eat, because the government damn well isn't looking out for us, regardless of the illusion Michelle Obama is trying to create.
Way off topic, but:
Who is watching palin's retard kid as she's dancing around the country talking crap?
Just kinna wondering...
The child has Down Syndrome, he is not "retarded"
I have a better idea. Include the basics of gardening in school curriculms and teach these kids on some recess days. While at it, get the kids to learn to garden together. We can be self-confident and work together on growing our own food. The last thing we need is another disastrous bureaucratic sequel to Obamacare !! Bring up more gardens and small localized farms. That will be real change I can believe in !
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
A better idea? Convert the upper-class to soylent green and feed it to the upper-middle-class while diverting their traditional upscale food sources elsewhere in the national and regional economy.
What does this author know about farming anyway given that she is basing her judgments in DC? Did she ever bother traveling to the heartlands or does she want to conveniently ignore the damaging effects of "free" trade, land grab, deregulation for Big Agri, persecution of small farmers, oversubsidization of Big Agri, etc... ? And for crying out loud, please stop telling us to voice our concerns to Congress. Most of us have done that and they are "boldly" shilling for the corporate elite. I am with Cassandra and Stanley on what needs to be done.
P.S.: Kay, that used to be a non-profit foundation but it has degenerated over the decades. I would much rather figure out ways to make and bake my own cereal than buy their overstuffed high fructose corn syrup ones. If you can, buy local and the best sweetner for any cereal or coffee is stevia, all natural sweetner and 100% safe for diabetics.
Debra Eschmeyer is a Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow and the Marketing and Media Director of the National Farm to School Network and the Center for Food and Justice. She works from her fifth-generation family farm in Ohio, where she continues her passion for organic farming raising fruits, vegetables, chickens, and pigs. Debra's previous non-profit work spans the globe in the humanitarian, conservation, sustainable agriculture, and food justice realms.
Well she sounds more political than agricultural about the issue and her recent project was based in DC. That is fine that she can grow her own organic farm and all but what is the point when such farming is rare compared to the current factory farming that is unsustainable? She must be very lucky not to have suffered the persecution that small farmers have been suffering for 50 years.
"That is fine that she can grow her own organic farm and all but what is the point when such farming is rare compared to the current factory farming that is unsustainable?"
Do you realise how illogical this sounds?
Jennifer: I remember when it was a non-profit! And, through the years, I have read about the degeneration. Reading the author's qualifications set off my alarm system!
Thanks, Jennifer!
Thanks for a really good conversation.
Michelle Obama is not the issue... she is just trying to raise some awareness, and she probably knows that her efforts reach only the tip of the iceberg in the issue of child nutrition. Bless her for trying, and for bringing the discussion into the public discourse.
People always ask me how my kids are always so healthy, alert, bright, energetic. Well, I don't think it's their genes - LOL ... But maybe this contributes to their well-being: Neither has ever had school food. In our case, it is due to food allergies that we cannot trust a school kitchen to provide for. Wholesome, home-made, home-baked and fresh food all their lives, and they are healthy as can be. Imagine that! And they do indeed have microwaves in the school lunchrooms where we live. (I just wish we had better things than plastic containers to transport their meals in. Ah well... we keep trying and we do the best we can.)
My boys are both teenagers.. and their favorite meal is fresh salad with a bowl of hot homemade soup and a piece of whole grain bread. I used to take some of the credit when they were young, but they get most of the credit now that they are old enough to walk, bike or drive to the crap-food places their school-mates frequent. They just don't care to do it!
I am always impressed that their friends enjoy eating here in the household of real food. Makes me think there's hope if we can just get youngsters to taste real food early enough!
BUT... guess where they got their first introduction to candy? School! In the younger grades, teachers gave it out for correct answers, good grades, etc. I asked them to stop, but they still did it. So I went to the superintendent. He acted horrified. But they still do it. Smarties, lollipops, chocolates, chemical laden sweets galore! My kids were left out of the sugar-addicting, tooth destroying goodies because of their allergies.
So one year, we did an experiment. They accepted the goodies instead of refusing them.. And we put it all into a box every week. All year. Didn't take long for the box to fill. I brought it to the school superintendent. He was speechless. And they still do it. LOL
I don't eat anything that comes in a box anymore.
I eat oatmeal, fruit, brown rice, beans and vegetables. All unprocessed by man or animal. Ever since my divorce of 1988 and it now costs me $4 a day plus $0.00 medical expenses.
Is the $4/day for one adult?
Almost from birth, we raised our three boys on a diet that was free of food processed by man or animal. It was a 10% fat diet, none of us ever got sick and not one penny did we spend on medical bills.
Comes now the average American child to have a 50% fat diet and yearly medical expenses of $9,000.
Most whole unrefined foods are less then 10% fat, this is why I put such a high priority on reducing the fat in your diet. For the average American diet is 50% fat, which means that most Americans live on high fat processed foods.
DIETS
Whole grains and beans: 80% complex carbohydrates, 10% protean and 10% fat.
Fruits and vegetables: 95% complex carbohydrates, 3% protean and 2% fat.
Processed foods: 10% complex carbohydrates, 30% protean and 60% fat.
Meat and milk: 0% complex carbohydrates, 40% protean and 60% fat.
SECRET: put nothing in the shopping cart that is more then 15% fat.