BU Professor and Dean Discuss School Lunch

While checking Facebook tonight I came upon a link provided by the Boston University School of Education, where I am a part-time graduate student. The link contained a video of Joan Salge Blake, a registered dietitian and professor at BU, and Hardin Coleman, the Dean of the School of Education, engaging in a dialogue about healthy school lunches.

The commentary covers a lot of angles relating to the loaded topic of school lunches. We need colleges and universities to help tackle this issue, because their graduates can hit this from so many directions: from within schools as educators, in the government as policy makers, in labs conducting research, or through helping people in any field such as personal training, etc. Many points mentioned are right on, especially the factors of not eating breakfast (and its effects on how students behave and learn...I'm amazed at how many kids complain about being hungry during the day) and the rushing of the school lunch block. I was impressed with Dean Coleman's knowledge of the shift in physical education curricula, too!

Check it out below!

Jamie Oliver TED Speech & School Lunch Links

I have heard snippets from Jamie Oliver's TED speech, but had never watched the whole thing. Jamie has his critics, but he is tackling a huge issue that has long term implications. Check out his speech below and you will NOT be disappointed.

Also, two blogs to point out, which I may have mentioned earlier. I follow both blogs through my Blogger account and my RSS feed.

Mrs. Q blogs over at http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/, and has built up an extensive following of readers. She has appeared (anonymously) on Good Morning America, and her blog chronicles her mission to eat school lunch every school day for a year. She is bringing a lot of attention to the need for change, and her pictures are always a treat! Featuring guest bloggers from a diversity of interests, this blog is a must see!

Ali, over at http://bravenewlunch.blogspot.com/, is a food service director in Massachusetts who calls herself "the next generation lunch lady." She brings her college education and chef experience to the lunch room in an attempt to improve the quality of school lunch. Read it and hear from someone on the front lines! Seeing as she is also from MA, maybe the future will see us collaborate with other teachers, school food service workers, and districts to help create change within our lunchrooms.

Here is Jamie Oliver's speech:

A Better Action Plan

As part of my brief commentary on school lunches, I came up with a quick, four step game plan for people who wish to begin creating change within their school districts. I didn't think too much about it (although you could argue a lot has to do with common sense) and I'm not an expert...yet. I knew someone out there with a few letters after their name (M.D., R.D., PhD, etc) would have something, I just needed to find it.

So, in reading the comments on Mrs. Q's blog I came across a comment by the founder of Better School Food, Susan Rubin (she's an expert). Her organization has an action plan with many of the similar concepts as the one I created. I read it, liked it, and now I want you to read it too!

Check out the action plan here, and put it to work!!

On a side note, I'm not really digging the color scheme of this blog anymore. I'm going to try to spice it up soon. I've been receiving a lot of hits from Google searches (30+ a week), and I'm also going to try to get back to why I started this in the first place: spreading teaching ideas to other health teachers. My formative assessment post, HIV simulation post, and ATOD activities are my most frequently viewed pages. If you see something and you like it, please post a comment!! I know there's almost 300 of you who have been reading! :)

School Lunches: The Saga Continues...

Ah, school lunches. All of a sudden, everyone is talking about them. I'm starting nutrition with my sixth graders this week, so I'll post how I'm incorporating this into our curriculum at a later date. For now, I'm pretty positive that school lunch is the teenage pregnancy of 2010, as far as hot health topics go. And while there was a lot of hype in in 08-09 about teenage pregnancy (specifically after what happened in Gloucester) it seems like the dialogue on that issue has faded. It did resurface a little bit during the health care debate, but the media let that fade too. Now, something new has surfaced.

School nutrition is even appearing in commercials! The American Beverage Association recently aired a commercial patting themselves on the back for eliminating full calorie soft drinks from schools across the country. Full calorie soft drinks? Are people still really concerned only with calories? What about sugar? What about high fructose corn syrup? Why should we be satisfied with less-calorie drinks in our schools when they are still serving drinks loaded with other junk?!? I laughed at this commercial. Way to go, corporate America.

And now, the media blitz of our new hot topic. I've posted on this before, and I'm not the only one. Mrs. Q is chronicling her experience eating only school lunches on her blog, Fed Up With Lunch: The School Lunch Project. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do! Then there are the countless news articles that have appeared recently. USA Today has an ongoing section on school lunch safety, which is eye opening in itself: many cafeterias are not passing health and safety inspections, food of a poor quality is making its way onto the trays of students, etc. This week an article appeared in the Boston Globe about struggling families and their reliance on school lunches. This effect is two fold: one being on the students eating the lunches, and two being on the districts who have to serve them without a reimbursement rate that is inadequate. For a comprehensive round up of what's going on in the news relating to school lunches, check out the school lunch roundup posted on Mrs. Q's blog by Brandon Smith.

Because my blog is rather young, there have only been a few posts about school lunches. This will definitely be an ongoing discussion (I have more posts in draft mode) and I hope this conversation continues. It's being hit from many angles: the First Lady, Jamie Oliver, national newspapers, and young, blogging teachers, to name a few.

There seems to be a general outrage about nutrition, but not much is being done. We can watch Jamie Oliver (I have to catch up on Hulu) all we want, but will we join him? While getting a conversation started is the first step (and a critical one!), action is what is needed. What can concerned parents do in their own communities? Here's my own list that I created, as someone with no expert experience in this type of situations. This is only from my head, and I thought about it over the last day or so. Let me know what you think! Here it is:

1. Organize. A group of fired up parents can do a lot to get something within school districts changed! If you do not like what your child is being served, find others who feel the same way you do. Talk with the administrators and teachers in your district. Most principals I know will at least hear you out, even if they can't (for whatever reason: money, etc) change anything immediately. Plan some meetings, get together, and make a game plan. It's better to have too many ideas than none at all!

2. Connect. Connect with local school officials. Tell them you want to work with them, not against them, in helping create more healthy meals for the student body, aka your kids. Reach out to local community organizations: garden clubs, health departments, community coalitions, etc. Nothing around like that? Start one! Social media has made it very simple to connect with others through e-mail, Twitter, Facebook group/fan pages, etc. There's no need to reinvent the wheel; many people have made changes to school lunches in their districts. Connect with these people and see what worked for them! Contact local representatives or other government officials and see if they can help you, too.

3. Research. Read, read, read about food and academic performance! Read articles like this one describing how one district makes fresh breakfasts, from scratch, for their students everyday. Make sure you research data on topics such as the impact of breakfast on academics (warning: company sponsored website), how food service professionals expand their breakfast offerings and be sure to find up to date information from reliable research publications.

4. Model. Want your kids to eat healthy? Eat healthy too! Many people complain about not having enough family time together, but cooking a homemade meal is one of the easiest ways to accomplish two things at once: family social time and healthy eating. My friend Matt has said this for a long time, and I'm in agreement. Realistically, most people can't eat only fresh, unprocessed foods. However, you can be aware of every food item you put into your body, and YOU can make healthy choices.

Also, please realize that schools are held to budgetary constrictions, and a lot of schools simply don't have the facilities to handle a lot of freshly prepared meals. Both are discussed in my post about what Anthony Geraci has done with the food being served in the Baltimore public schools.

Personally, one of my physical education colleagues and me and teaming up to revamp the bulletin boards in our school cafeteria to highlight different information about nutrition. We're still in the process of figuring out logistics, but once we get rolling I'll be sure to post about it, with pictures too.

Will school lunches change? I hope something about them changes. Our children are our future and if we want to have a healthy population in the future, we cannot continue on the road we are on.

As always, please e-mail me with questions, comments, or concerns.

NOTE: Michelle Obama has launched a contest called Apps for Healthy Kids. The goal is to create "innovative, fun and engaging software tools and games that encourage children directly or through their parents to make more nutritious food choices or be more physically active." Check it out, and if you're knowledgeable about that sort of thing, enter the contest!

Food Revolution!

I just watched the first episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on Hulu. I'm hooked!

I had no idea this show was going to happen, and I'm glad that school lunches are receiving some media attention. It's very hard to change how school lunches are served, but Jamie seems like the man for the job, filled with passion and a firm resolve to help people change. But, as we know from what's happening in Baltimore, change IS possible if you have the tools, desire, and manpower to accomplish it. On a side note, this is the second time I've seen the word "revolution" associated with school lunches; the first was a company mentioned in an earlier blog post of mine.

I just sent this link to my friend Matt Germain. If Jamie Oliver, Jack Lalanne, and Matt all teamed up, this problem would be solved!

NY Times Article: Making Healthy Lunch, and Making It a Cause

Short post today.

A few days ago an article appeared in The New York Times highlighting a company in California called Revolution Foods.

Revolution Foods seek to switch the paradigm of school lunches into healthy, bountiful servings of quality food (and fuel) for students. The company entered the market at the right time around 2005; in recent years, attempts to revamp school lunch have gained support from Arnold Schwarzenegger (locally in California, where Revolution Foods is based) and Michelle Obama.

Revolution Foods has partnered with the chain Whole Foods, and their lunches contain no high fructose corn syrup. They also make foods available for those who brown bag their lunches. I'd continue on, but the article has all the information you'll need. For more information on Revolution Foods, check out the article here.

Now that companies are entering this market, will the government step up its support of changing school lunches for the better? Time will tell.

"Good Food in the City"--Baltimore Public Schools

After opening the most recent issue of Educational Leadership, I took a look at the article, "Good Food in the City" by Anthony Geraci, Director of Food and Nutrition Services for Baltimore City Schools, Baltimore, Maryland. Instead of reviewing the entire article with citations and all that "official" stuff, here are some thoughts as I read through the article.

The best part about this program? They get the most out of it. A farm provides fresh fruit and vegetables and so much more, as I mention in more detail below. I think that this program in Baltimore should be a model used in other cities across the country. The other big plus from my end is that this program is aiming to change the perception of students in their school district while providing them with the tools, skills, and information needed to make healthy decisions. They don't just serve fresh food. At the risk of sounding cheesy, this isn't simply a food program: it's a movement!

• This program guarantees that every school lunch served in Baltimore city schools will come with at least one piece of fresh fruit. This is only the beginning.

• "Today, 'peach' more often refers to a flavor for candies and frozen desserts than to the actual food. That's what we need to change for kids in Baltimore and all over the United States." Don't get me started on high-fructose corn syrup. Yes, I do consume foods with HFCS, but not intentionally. My consumption is far lower than most people my age.

• Geraci explains that in the 1970s, many school districts felt the need to operate in a similar fashion to the McDonald's corporation; not in the food they provide but in the way they operate their business and individual franchises. Scares about contaminated food led to frozen, ready-to-eat meals that also reduced labor costs. However, as he explains, "But with every level of convenience comes a level of the process that dilutes food to something unrecognizable." I'm sure we can all remember our first mystery meat experience. What exactly was that anyway?!

• A major problem today has to do with the kitchen facilities in schools. The school I work in was renovated about five years ago. It's a stunning building, serving as the unofficial flagship school for our district. When the kitchens were designed, they set them for small prep work (for sandwiches, etc) and mainly for reheating and serving food from the freezer. So, how is a school without the facilities supposed to create fresh meals? Baltimore's schools faced this problem, with only 20 out of 200 schools with fully operational kitchens. Due to budget issues and the size of a lot of schools, simply renovating was out of the question. Their eventual goal for Baltimore is to create a central kitchen and many subkitchens that can create fresh made meals that can be delivered to schools without facilities. The example Geraci gives is the central kitchen making chicken the sub-kitchens can put into burritos or the beef for a stew, etc. More school districts should consider kitchen space when they design plans for a new school. Adequate meal preparation space and a wellness center for student/staff use would be great additions to any school!

• As I mentioned in my last post, companies and organizations that decide to help public schools promote health and wellness are extremely important for districts without a lot of money. Baltimore was lucky enough to receive gifts worth a staggering $1.3 million from the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association: nine refrigerated trucks, milk coolers for all 200 schools, and a technology grant to help keep track of everything. Further proof that companies or organizations can, and will, help out their communities.

• The Baltimore City Schools now contracts to obtain all of its fruits and vegetables locally.

• A local supply program has numerous benefits! Less fuel for delivery and fewer man hours for manning those deliveries create cost savings. Because less fuel is used, fewer greenhouse emissions are created. Supporting local farmers contributes to the local economy. In Baltimore, a contract to supply only locally grown fruits and vegetables means over half a million dollars stays in state. I could go on and on!

• Geraci and his colleagues knew that changing the perception of fruits and vegetables among students was not going to be easy, especially in urban areas filled with easily accessible fast food restaurants and convenience stores. So, he set out to see what the kids liked with a "No Thank You Bite" program in the elementary schools. This is based on an old mom's trick! Students were given a small cup (about a bite and a half of food) of different ingredients to try out. If they liked it, they could have more. If they didn't like it, they tried something else. Kids tracked what they liked and the more they tried, the better chances they had at winning prizes. A reward system works well for younger kids, especially when they are stepping out of their comfort zone in trying something new.

• Geraci even combined forces with the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles for a separate breakfast program. A reward for participation was a breakfast with stars of either team; this also created a perfect opportunity for role-models to speak about the importance of good nutrition. Purchases of breakfast boxes ("containing 100% fruit juice; a carton of milk; and a whole-grain, high protein snack with no artificial colors or preservatives") increased from 8,500 to 35,000 in less than two months!

• Baltimore also created the Great Kids Farm. This farm is 33 acres of organic farmland that is owned and operated entirely by the Baltimore Public Schools! This farm provides HUGE benefits for the community: selling produce to the community (restaurants, farmers' markets, etc), thereby serving as another source of income for the district; providing vocational training for students; service-learning opportunities, etc. It was also the site of an eight week summer internship program!

• At one point, Geraci explains the well-known phenomenon that people living in urban areas are disproportionally affected by diseases that are diet related. Baltimore itself finds approximately 37% of their high school students are obese; higher than the state and national average. Because these rates also fall in line with the city's poverty rates, he writes, "It only makes sense that doing right by children's health can help them perform better in the classroom."

I clearly have difficulty being terse, but there's so much going on here! The Baltimore City Schools has a great thing going with this program. If you teach health or anything related to nutrition, I urge you to check out this article!