In national politics, we have a two-party system. In food politics, we have a multi-party system...First Lady Michelle Obama has brought new attention to the importance of national school lunch programs. In two different speeches, she's recently pointed out how critical it is to ensure that federally funded feeding programs have nutritious foods on the menu, rather than low-nutrition and processed foods, particularly because school meals may be the only time many children eat during the day. And President Obama, too, has a strong interest in better school lunch programs for the same reasons as Mrs. Obama. As a Senator, he voted for the Farm Bill, which has $10.3 billion earmarked for nutrition assistance, and many of his policy goals cannot be accomplished without creating a generation of healthier children. Happily, there are food activists all over America who agree with the President and Mrs. Obama, and who have started a series of campaigns and petitions to advocate for rapid lunch changes. Below, a guest post from school lunch expert Debra Eschmeyer, who works with the National Farm to School Network. Ms. Eschmeyer casts a critical eye on the state of school lunches, and does a jumbo recap of the campaigns:
School’s out for the summer, but there’s a food fight going on in the cafeteria. In Washington, Congress is turning up the heat on the policies that determine what 30 million children will eat once the lunch bell rings, when school starts in the Fall..and for the next five years.Want hormones out of kid’s milk? Pesticides off the tomatoes? Local lettuce in the salad bar? Candy bars and snack cakes to be considered junk food? If you answered yes to any of those questions, then I urge you to step into the lunch room and learn what this food fight is all about.
What our kids see on their lunch trays is a snapshot of our national food system: Fresh, baked, breaded, or fried. What we feed them affects how they learn, how they grow, and what kind of future citizens we’re nurturing. A formidable new combatant has just joined the kid-food fray: our country’s Mom-in-Chief. Last Tuesday, First Lady Michelle Obama stepped up her support of local, fresh foods, invoking community gardens and the Child Nutrition Act, while enjoying a harvest picnic with the Bancroft fifth-graders.
The current Child Nutrition Act expires September 30, 2009, meaning it’s up for reauthorization, and in that process we have a chance to really improve on how food for our smallest citizens is funded, sourced, defined, and prioritized. Remember in 1981, how under Reaganomics ketchup was classified as a vegetable and 2 million children were dropped from the National School Lunch Program? The Act has far-reaching impact, beyond school lunch, to the WIC, Child and Adult Care Food, and Summer Food Service programs, and others.
During the last reauthorization cycle five years ago, there was a scarcity of grassroots pressure and media around this policy. Thankfully, times have changed. There is a bountiful buffet of campaigns you can participate in: you can take five seconds and sign your name to a petition to demonstrate support, or you can dedicate your life to the cause like the indefatigable Ann Cooper (aka the Renegade Lunch Lady). Or you can grab a tray and get in line on one of the following efforts.
On Tuesday, the Healthy School Food Brigade (PDF), comprised mostly of moms, marched the halls of Congress to, you guessed it, voice their support of healthy food choices in schools, from hot lunches to less junk-filled vending machines. Basically they want to get junk food out of schools. Sounds simple, but au contraire. Think water is better than high-fructose-corn-syrup-laced fruit juice? Take this quiz to see what the standards for “healthy” currently are.
This group is specifically advocating for HR 1324 and S.934: “Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act of 2009,” which amends the Child Nutrition Act to require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish science-based nutrition standards for foods served in schools other than foods served under the school lunch or breakfast programs. Today’s day of lobbying is the culmination of the new film Food Inc.’s social-action campaign, organized by Participant Media for the Child Nutrition Reauthorization. They joined forces with the Center for Science in the Public Interest in advocating for the proposed bill. Among the other campaigns: Food & Water Watch is working to get rBGH out of school milk and stopping the practice of irradiation to kill bacteria. Pesticide Action Network is pushing for decreasing pesticide use on the food, particularly endosulfan. Center for Science in the Public Interest is standing up for nutrition standards.*Continue reading by clicking here.
