Miami girl a poster child for healthier lunches

[Guest guest]

By LESLEY CLARK

lclark

At age 8, Jasmine Messiah is an enthusiastic vegetarian, toting salads and fruit

to school every day because she finds the alternative in the school cafeteria

``not healthy.''

 

The Miami girl has tried to introduce her friends to the benefits of eating a

healthful diet -- and now she's the real-life poster child of a campaign aimed

at persuading Congress to require schools across the country to offer students

more fruits and vegetables.

 

Posters bearing the girl's beaming face go up this week at the Union Station

Amtrak and commuter rail station near the Capitol in Washington, D.C., as part

of the campaign by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

 

The group spent $20,000 on the 15 posters. They'll stay up for a month as part

of an effort to influence Congress as it reauthorizes the Child Nutrition Act.

 

``President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches,'' the poster states,

referring to Sasha and Malia, who attend the Washington-area, private Sidwell

Friends School, which offers vegetarian alternatives. ``Why don't I?''

 

Jasmine also has written letters to the first daughters, Florida's two senators

and Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Miami Democrat.

 

``A lot of schools, including mine, don't offer enough healthy fruits,

vegetables and vegetarian meals,'' she wrote to the Obama girls.

 

Penny Parham, administrative director of food and nutrition for Miami-Dade

schools, said the school system has sought to boost nutrition and offers fruits

and vegetables -- including green beans and corn from a nearby farm. But she

acknowledged that federal guidelines can make it tough to provide nondairy,

vegan meals like those promoted by the committee.

 

``We know we can't be all things to all people but we certainly do try,'' Parham

said. ``We try to present the best choices for kids, but there's always room for

improvement.''

 

The pro-vegan, anti-animal testing group is hoping lawmakers will put more

emphasis on fruits and vegetables when it begins re-authorizing the nutrition

act and the National School Lunch Program.

 

The group argues that school lunches are weighted too heavily toward beef and

cheese, resulting in record childhood obesity rates.

 

The $8 billion school lunch program is likely to be heavily lobbied by the food

industry, including the dairy and meat industry, which has accused the

physicians' group of looking to ``create a vegan society.''

 

Fruits and vegetables, though, have a friend in first lady Michelle Obama, who,

when harvesting the White House garden, noted the reauthorization of the act

presents an opportunity to ``improve the quality and nutrition of the food

served in schools.''

 

Jasmine, who will start third grade later this month at Ada Merritt K-8 Center,

660 SW Third St. in Miami, came to the attention of the group when she

accompanied her mother, Sarah Messiah, to Washington earlier this year. Sarah

Messiah, a perinatal and pediatric epidemiologist at the University of Miami,

had been asked to shareher research on the healthconsequences of childhood

obesity.

 

She brought Jasmine, an aspiring marine biologist, who at one point during the

briefing was asked if she had anything to add.

 

``She took the mike and just went with it,'' said her mom, who has raised her

three children as vegetarians. ``They wanted a candid response from a child

about what it's like living with a school lunch program, and she gave them her

story. She gets why eating healthy is important.''

 

For her part, Jasmine -- who counts as her favorite foods grapes, apples,

oranges and Caesar salad -- said she hopes the experience will lead more

children to eat their vegetables.

 

``Sometimes I bring in broccoli and carrots and my friends are like, `Ewww, this

is disgusting,' '' she said. ``But I think if they tried it more, they'd like

it.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1170093.html