I’ll be on the Kojo Nnamdi show at noon today with Chef Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve talking about the food in D.C. schools, something we’ve been writing about quite a lot in recent months.
We’ve got an entire hour for the discussion, so don’t be afraid to call in or e-mail your questions about how we [...]
Entries Tagged as 'food news'
We’re on Kojo Today
September 1st, 2010 · No Comments · food news, school food
Tags: Kojo Nnamdi·radio·school food
The Slow Cook at Rodale
August 24th, 2010 · No Comments · food news
Maria Rodale, inheritor of that name’s long-time connection with organic farming, recently asked me to share my thoughts about school meals with readers of her blog–Maria’s Country Kitchen–and at Huffington Post.
In a recent installment, I discuss how the school lunch program is maintained in a perpetual state of poverty, expecting “lunch ladies” to turn a [...]
Tags: Rodale
D.C. School Food in ‘Flavor’ Magazine
August 14th, 2010 · 2 Comments · food news
Flavor magazine, covering food news in the Washington, D.C., area, asked me to recap what I’ve learned about the food D.C. serves in its public schools since I first spent a week some months ago as an observer in the kitchen of my daughter’s elementary school. Of course, if you ‘ve been reading this blog, or [...]
Tags: magazines
School Nutrition Association Dances to Milk Industry Tune
August 12th, 2010 · 7 Comments · food news
The School Nutrition Association, representing thousands of school food service workers across the country, has embraced a “study” promoting chocolate and other sugar-enhanced milk that was paid for by the dairy industry, conducted by a firm that specializes in devising corporate marketing schemes, and which the dairy group refuses to release for close inspection.
The SNA has announced [...]
Something New in School Food: D.C. Central Kitchen’s Local Food Connection
August 11th, 2010 · 1 Comment · food news, kids
The District of Columbia is about to embark on what may be the nation’s most unorthodox public school feeding program: meals from scratch using locally farmed ingredients and made by a charitable social service agency whose primary mission is feeding the homeless and teaching ex-offenders how to cook.
Beginning next week, the agency in question–D.C. Central Kitchen–will set up [...]
Tags: school food
Cheh Asks D.C. Attorney General for Help on School Food Rebates
August 9th, 2010 · No Comments · food news
D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), author of recently passed “Healthy Schools” legislation, has asked the city’s attorney general, Peter Nickles, to assist D.C. Public Schools to make sure they are receiving all of the rebates to which they are entitled from their hired food services provider, Chartwells.
Cheh’s request follows revelations that prosecutors in New [...]
Tags: rebates
Meet Me at the Fair
August 8th, 2010 · No Comments · food news
D.C. isn’t a state, but now it’s going to have its own state fair.
A group of local food bloggers, including our friend Amelia Showalter, have organized the event to take place on the same day as Columbia Heights Day, with all kinds of contests to judge baked goods, pickles, jams, tastiest tomatoes, “most funky looking vegetable”–the [...]
Tags: contests·state fair·tomatoes
The Trouble with Local Produce in Schools
August 7th, 2010 · 6 Comments · food news
I wonder if anyone else attending the “food services round-table” this week at D.C. Public Schools headquarters was struck by food services director Jeffrey Mills’ comment that he and his crew have recently taste-tested some 300 different “food products” for the upcoming school year.
Mills said he personally had tasted “30 different chicken products,” in the [...]
Tags: school food
There is No Plan
August 4th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Blog, food news
Those who went to a “food services round-table” with D.C. school officials expecting to hear a long-term strategic plan for improving school food came away disappointed last night. Despite good buzz around the announcement of vendors for two new pilot meal programs offering more fresh and less processed food, it’s clear that schools Chief Operating Officer Anthony Tata [...]
Tags: school food
Breaking News: Sodexo to Pay New York $20 Million for School Rebate Fraud
July 21st, 2010 · 7 Comments · food news, school food
New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that Sodexo, one of the world’s largest food service company’s, has agreed to pay the state $20 million to settle complaints that it fraudulently pocketed rebates from food manufacturers that it was supposed to turn over to some 21 public school districts and the State University of New [...]
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We are engaging the concerns of a hungry planet--slowly--right here in our kitchen garden in the District of Columbia, about a mile from the White House.

