On Tuesday I contacted D.C. schools wondering why the “local peach” that was supposed to be on my daughter’s breakfast tray looked so much like canned peaches instead. I also inquired where parents needed to look to find the ingredients for school menu items, as required by the new “Healthy Schools Act” that went into [...]
Entries Tagged as 'kids'
Mystery of Missing Local Peaches Solved
August 27th, 2010 · 5 Comments · kids
Tags: local food·parents·school food
My Daughter, Grassfed Steak Fanatic
August 25th, 2010 · 10 Comments · dinner, kids
Like every family, we’ve had our food battles with our 10-year-old daughter. With great dismay, we watched a pre-schooler who amazed us with the range of her palate (she couldn’t get enough Altoids or wasabe peas) morph into a bratty pre-teen who turned dinner into a slugfest with a littany of foods she refused to eat.
“What’s [...]
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
Restaurant Chefs Propose Taking Over D.C. School Cafeteria
July 21st, 2010 · 8 Comments · kids, school food
A group of prominent D.C.-area restaurant chefs has volunteered to introduce a novel concept in school food service to one Capitol Hill elementary school: collaborating with parents to take over kitchen operations on a non-profit basis, replacing prepackaged and reheated factory meals kids currently eat with food cooked from scratch and served with real plates and cutlery.
Led by Cathal Armstrong, chef and owner [...]
Tags: chefs
D.C. Schools Wait Nine Months for Rebate Accounting from Chartwells
July 13th, 2010 · 1 Comment · kids, school food
D.C. Schools Chief Operating Officer Anthony Tata told The Washington Post yesterday that he has been waiting some nine months for Chartwells, the school system’s hired food service provider, to furnish an itemized accounting of the rebates it receives from food manufacturers in connection with its purchases for school meals.
Tata made the disclosure to Post [...]
Tags: rebates
Corporate Rebates: The Million-Dollar Elephant in the Cafeteria
July 12th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Tales, kids, school food
D.C. Public Schools in the last two years have taken in more than $1 million in corporate rebates–referred to by some as “kickbacks”–paid by giant food manufacturers as an inducement to place their brands on kids’ cafeteria trays at school.
Documents obtained by The Slow Cook through the Freedom of Information Act show that Chartwells, the company hired [...]
Tags: rebates
A Great Clamor for Sugar-Free Schools
June 30th, 2010 · 2 Comments · kids, school food
Jamie Oliver at his widely followed website this week linked to our sister blog, Better D.C. School Food, and news that D.C. Public Schools will no longer serve flavored milk and sugary cereals. The result was more than 100 times the usual number of visitors at the blog yesterday and more than 100 comments, almost unanimously [...]
Tags: flavored milk·sugar
Strawberries & Salad Day
June 26th, 2010 · 2 Comments · kids, school food
Guest Post
By Andrea Northup
If you walked into a D.C. school cafeteria on June 3rd2010, you may have been surprised at what you saw on students’ trays. More than 150 schools in DC featured fresh, locally-grown strawberries and salad greens as a part of their school lunches. This was part of an event called Strawberries & [...]
Tags: farm to school·salad·strawberries
Garden Fiesta Tonight
June 24th, 2010 · No Comments · food news, kids
Be prepared to enjoy a whimsical evening with light fare by Chef James
Forsythe of B Bistro, including his delicious homemade ice cream and some
refreshing wine and herbal ice teas. Also included…toe-tapping music and
of course a gorgeous garden backdrop.
Also, a sweet little auction with chances to get your hands on some Jack Johnson concert tickets, a [...]
Tags: City Blossoms
Breaking News: D.C. Schools Ditch Flavored Milk and Sugary Cereal
June 17th, 2010 · 4 Comments · kids, school food
Jeffrey Mills, director of food services for D.C. Public Schools, told parents at H.D. Cooke Elementary school yesterday that the city’s schools beginning in the fall would no longer serve flavored milk or sugary cereals.
Mills made the remarks at a meeting to discuss staffing changes in the H.D. Cook cafeteria and further details could not be [...]
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.
