Mark Bittman tweeted this great link this morning regarding school lunches. I completely agree with Gehry Oatey’s post, especially this line:
Tellingly, I rarely see any teachers eating the school lunch. Seems strange that this needs to be said, but if it’s not good enough for us, why do we give it to our students? This isn’t just about a stale peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it’s about social justice.
As I mentioned before, the school lunch issue is a big one. I suspect that no educator reading the “Teacher, Revised” blog post would be surprised by its content (at least, I’m not), but it’s refreshing to see someone outside of education who has lots of “foodie” connections making themselves aware of the issue and sharing it on Twitter. The accompanying class blog, 510 Eats Well, features student comments and insight–why are we feeding our students so poorly? What sort of message and model does it give students when we feed them junk? I think Oatey is genius–way to involve students in the process of creating change to benefit them!
The blog mentions legislation proposed late last year, but I used THOMAS to see what else what happening on the school lunch front. The most exciting result was the Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act of 2009. We need to “amend the Child Nutrition Act of 1966”? You think?! 1966?! The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
Add to my to do list: Compose a letter to the Committee members, further educate myself on this issue
Thanks for your follow up info. In addition, there are a number of steps that we need to take locally including local taxes on junk food that will in turn help support local farmers. The changing of the federal policy is great but doesn’t get at the issue of local dependence on the national system. Would be great to get students to come to your site-I am going to have to think something up-they are cooking twice a week and it is the most popular class in the school!!
Thanks for forwarding that post!
gehry
Completely agree! That is why I’m pushing people to sign the Child Nutrition Act reauthorizaation petition which asks Congress to remove junk food from schools. If you haven’t already, please sign! I’ve also created a Facebook group for it.
Petition:
http://www.foodincmovie.com/sign-the-petition.php
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=757915220&ref=name#/pages/Child-Nutrition-Act-reauthorization-petition/93888175682?ref=ts