RE: Support Healthy School Lunches!

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

 

Please forward information about the healthy school lunch program to

friends, family and other lists!

 

People care about these issues, but don't have the time to do the leg work.

As Tammy says, letters and calls do make a difference!

 

I posted to a few lists (see below) and have already received a handful of

responses like these:

 

 

 

 

 

>Thanks for bringing this up. SOTA is wrestling with this. Somehow, at the

>beginning of the year they managed to offer roast chicken, salads, and the

>like. Since just before Winter break, cafeteria lunches have reverted to

>the crap described below. So my son takes a lunch.

 

Hi Rose,

I just called this woman and left a message. i have a 9 year old in 4th

Grade at New Traditions and he is fully covered for the school lunch

program, but i send lunch anyway because the food is so dismal. Perhaps

there is some tie-in reporting for TV? or something that can be done

regarding the information in Fast Food Nation and this issue. the food at

school is very outdated and truly horrifying. Thanks for circulating this.

I will send it to my school's list.

Caryn

 

 

 

>At 01:39 PM 2/28/2003 -0800, you wrote:

> >Hi all,

> >

> >The California Assembly Education Committee next Wednesday is holding a

> >hearing on a resolution to offer healthy lunches to school children. At the

> >moment, most lunches are full of grease and fat.

> >

> >This issue isn't receiving front page news and needs all the support it can

> >get.

> >

> >Please call Jackie Bowland - (916) 319-2006 - to express your support.

> >She's the education

> >contact person for ACR 16's author, Assemblyman Joe Nation.

> >

> >Here's some background info.

> >

> >SCHOOL LUNCHES MAKE KIDS SICK

> >Picture this menu: Bacon cheeseburgers, chicken-fried steak, beef ravioli

> >with cheesy broccoli, egg rolls with tater tots and sloppy joes with onion

> >rings. Those fatty foods are being served to more than 27 million US school

> >children every weekday. Why are schools serving meals that lead to child

> >obesity, diabetes and heart disease? Because the National School Lunch

> >Program, which gives schools more than $6 billion each year to offer

> >low-cost meals to students, has conflicting missions, according to Mother

> >Jones contributor Barry Yeoman. The program, which was enacted in 1946, was

> >designed to provide healthy meals to children, regardless of income. It's

> >also designed to subsidize agribusiness, shoring up demand for beef and

> >milk even as the public's taste for these foods declines, reports Yeoman.

> >Under the program, the federal government buys up more than $800 million

> >worth of farm products each year and turns them over to schools to serve

> >their students. In 2001, the USDA spent a total of $350 million on surplus

> >beef and cheese for schools -- more than double the $161 million spent on

> >all fruits and vegetables, most of which were canned or frozen. On top of

> >its regular purchases, the USDA makes special purchases in direct response

> >to industry lobbying. Yeoman reports that in November 2001, the beef

> >industry wrote to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, complaining that a

> >decline in travel after September 11, along with a lowered demand for beef

> >in Japan, was suppressing sales of their product. The department responded

> >two months later with a $30 million " bonus buy " of frozen beef roasts and

> >ground beef for schools. Jennifer Raymond, a retired nutritionist in

> >Northern California who has worked with schools to develop healthier menus,

> >tells Yeoman it's basically a welfare program for suppliers of commodities.

> > " It's a price support program for agricultural producers, and the schools

> >are simply a way to get rid of the items that have been purchased, " she

> said.

> >

> >

> >KIDS DESERVE HEALTHY LUNCHES

> >OAKLAND, California - A nationwide effort to offer school kids a healthy

> >lunch option is gaining momentum. On January 27th, California Assemblyman

> >Joe Nation introduced Assembly Concurrent Resolution 16 requesting that

> >optional vegetarian lunches be available on the daily menu in California's

> >schools. Hawaii set a precedent by unanimously voting for a similar

> >resolution last year. " We have confidence that committed school food

> >experts are capable of creating innovative healthy selections and marketing

> >strategies that will encourage consumption, " says Barbara Gates, director

> >of Project Healthy Beginnings, a coalition of parents, health advocates and

> >other concerned citizens who want to see healthy, plant-based choices

> >available in the school lunch program.

> >

> >Project Healthy Beginnings: veggieschoollunches.com

> >Soy Happy: soyhappy.org/schoolrez.htm

> >Assemblyman Joe Nation: democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a06/

> >