As a preamble to the upcoming D.C. Environmental Film festival, the Warner Theater on Tuesday, March 9, will be screening What’s on Your Plate?, a documentary that follows two 11-year-olds in New York City over the course of a year as they talk to farmers, storekeepers, food activists and friends to discover where their food comes from.
Sadie [...]
Entries Tagged as 'school food'
School Food in the D.C. Enviro Film Festival
March 7th, 2010 · No Comments · food news
Tags: D.C. Environmental Film Festival·food films·school food
How Do We Fix School Food?
March 6th, 2010 · No Comments · kids
President Barack Obama has proposed splitting $1 billion annually between school meals and other federally-funded food programs, an amount school food advocates calculate as something less than 20 cents per meal, or not even enough to add an apple to kids’ cafeteria trays.
Last week in hearings on re-authorization of the Child Nutrition Act, the head [...]
Win-Win School Lunch
February 26th, 2010 · 10 Comments · kids
After I spent a week in the kitchen at my daughter’s elementary school and discovered just how bad the food was, daughter started taking her own lunch. It wasn’t just what I wrote about the food that convinced her. Around that same time, she reported to her pediatrician for an annual physical. The doctor told daughter, who has grown [...]
Tags: school food
More Gardens, Less Sugar, Says D.C. Schools Chief
February 22nd, 2010 · 4 Comments · Tales, food news
D.C. Schools COO, Anthony Tata
Anthony Tata, a former brigadier general and career Army officer in charge of procurement in Afghanistan, is the chief operating officer for D.C. Public Schools, second in rank to chancellor Michelle Rhee. Tata was a close reader of our recent series of articles on the food served in D.C. schools–Tales from a [...]
Can Michelle Obama Make the Math Work for Better School Food?
February 17th, 2010 · 5 Comments · kids
Launching her anti-obesity campaign–Let’s Move–last week, first lady Michelle Obama vowed to add 1 million kids to the 31 million already being served daily by federal reimbersible meal programs while cutting back on the foods kids like most–refined grains, potatoes, sugar, salt–and adding things kids like least–vegetables and whole grains. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama offered to split $1 billion per year [...]
Tags: Michelle Obama·obesity·school food
We’re in WashPost “Outlook” Today
February 14th, 2010 · 9 Comments · Tales, kids
There’s been an impressive convergence of attention on school food recently, with “Healthy Schools” legislation introduced in the D.C. Council, then my series of blog posts, “Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen,” detailing the woeful food being served at my daughter’s elementary school, followed by the launch this week of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign against childhood [...]
Tags: obesity·press·school food·white house
Breaking News: D.C. Schools Looking for New Food Provider?
February 12th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Tales, food news
Bill Turque, education reporter for The Washington Post, reports in his online column, “D.C. Schools Insider” that schools Chief Operating Officer Anthony Tata is exploring a possible switch from current food provider Chartwells.
Chartwells is the company behind the six-part series I reported here after spending a week in the kitchen of my daughter’s elementary school [...]
Tags: Chartwells·kids·school food
“Healthy Schools” Hearing Moved to March
February 9th, 2010 · No Comments · Wellness, kids
Because of the interminable snow falling here in the District of Columbia (apparently, we are now second-snowiest city in the country) the public hearing on “Healthy Schools” legislation in the D.C. Council previoulsy scheduled for tomorrow has been moved to the next earliest available hearing date, March 26. That’s 11 a.m. in room 500 of [...]
Tags: "Healthy Schools"·school food
What’s for Breakfast at School Today: 13 Teaspoons of Sugar
February 4th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Tales, kids
Yesterday I stopped by the cafeteria at my daughter’s school here in the District of Columbia–H.D. Cooke Elementary–and this is what many of the kids were having for breakfast: A package of sugar-glazed cookies called Kellogg’s Crunchmania Cinnamon buns; chocolate- or strawberry-flavored milk; grape juice.
A 1.76-ounce packet of Crunchmania contains 13 grams of sugar, or [...]
Tags: "Healthy Schools"·District of Columbia·school food·sugar
Just Say No: D.C. Needs to Man Up to Sugar and Flavored Milk in Schools
February 2nd, 2010 · 8 Comments · Tales, kids
One of the most disturbing things I saw during the week I spent in the kitchen at my daughter’s elementary school recently was all the sugar being served to children. From the Pop Tarts and Apple Jacks on the breakfast line, to the fruit juice, the chocolate- and strawberry-flavored milk on constant display, to the [...]
Tags: "Healthy Schools"·milk·school food·sugar·Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen
We are engaging the concerns of a hungry planet--slowly--right here in our kitchen garden in the District of Columbia, one mile from the White House.
