National School Lunch Week 2011 is happening from October 10-14th! Help your school get involved to make better decisions in the lunch room and teach youth about the importance of knowing how their food gets from the farm to their plate.
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School lunch reform is taking over the nation one step at a time. With President Obama’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act signed into law in December, people are starting to realize that even Washington is beginning to understand the epidemic sweeping the nation. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act is a $4.5 billion plan that expands free lunches and makes school lunches more nutritious.
Although the plan sounds great many of us have been wondering if it really is being put into action. In January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released recommended nutrition guidelines. If school cafeterias don’t meet USDA-established guidelines they can’t receive federal reimbursements for school meals. The new guidelines call for more fruit and vegetables along with less sodium. Although these changes may seem small, they are absolutely imperative. Almost one in three kids and teens, which adds up to about 23 million youngsters, weigh in as obese or overweight.
If you are in support of these new USDA guidelines, PlantingProgress encourages you to sign the petition to support USDA efforts to ensure healthy school meals. We have until April 13th to make a difference.
With the Let’s Move! Initiative sweeping the nation people are becoming more aware of the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables. Just recently the Obama Administration released details of an over $400 million Healthy Food Financing Initiative, which will bring grocery stores and other healthy food retailers to underserved urban and rural communities across America. This is incredibly important because children who come from impoverished areas may be taught to eat healthy in school, but when they return to their homes they have no options.
These underserved urban and rural areas are called ‘food deserts’. USDA recently launched a Food Environment Atlas (www.ers.usda.gov/FoodAtlas/) where food deserts can be identified.
“Encouraging people to choose fresh, nutritious food is important,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “But to achieve that goal that kind of food must be available, and in far too many parts of our country — both urban and rural communities — that’s not the case.
Throughout Washington, D.C., people of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities are gardening side by side, growing vegetables, fruits and flowers in community gardens. Some are looking for basic sustenance, others for a way to remember their homelands, still others for a place to find a respite from their troubles. Through the voices of young people, senior citizens, immigrants, garden volunteers and educators, “A Community of Gardeners” explores the vital role of seven urban community gardens as sources of fresh, nutritious food, outdoor classrooms, places of healing, links to immigrants’ native countries, centers of social interaction, and oases of beauty and calm in inner-city neighborhoods. The film also looks back on the history of community gardens in the United States, from the potato patch farms of the late 19th century, to the victory gardens of World War II, to community gardening’s current renaissance.
It seems that throughout the country many schools recognized the federally declared National School Lunch Week of October 11th to the 15th, 2010.
Efforts stemmed from grassroots organizations to The U.S. Department of Agriculture and of course The First Lady. It’s beginning to feel like fundamentally things are starting to change and not just by radical healthcare reform. People, especially children, are beginning to realize the change starts with education.
This week a U.S. Department of Agriculture official visited an elementary school in southwestern Minnesota on Friday to present a healthy schools challenge award. Children are being recognized for their involvement in physical and nutritional challenges as well as encouraged by leaders. Many grassroots organizations hosted challenges of their own and encouraged the change to happen from home too. Parents were taught creative ways to pack healthier school lunches for their children and to get involved with their local school. In Oakland, the OUSD’s Nutrition Services team served sustainably raised grass-fed beef for the entire week.
Many of you may know, as declared by congress on October 9, 1962 (Public Law 87-780), has designated the week beginning on the second Sunday in October each year as “National School Lunch Week.”
Barack Obama officially endorsed this week on Friday, October 8th and has called upon Americans to support administers of the National School Lunch Program in ways to encourage healthy life style choices of children of the United States of America
This is all proposed with much support from The First Lady Michelle Obama and her Let’s Move Initiative. In the Let’s Move Initiative, Chefs are pairing with schools to teach healthy and creative lunch preparation, schools are partnering up with local farms to provide locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables for school meals, and children are taking part in the HealthierUS School Challenge to encourage physical activity and well balanced diets.
